Turkey

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last activity.  One week was due to DragonCon and one to UGA football but I’ll have the blog back on track for a while now.

While in Atlanta for DragonCon hanging out with 70K other folks indulging their geeky fandoms I was looking for a place that wasn’t packed to the rafters with con goers and remembered Truva, a Turkish restaurant I’d visited during a previous con and Turkey was a country I hadn’t done yet.  It’s easy to walk past the place as the signage is fairly muted compared to say the Hard Rock & Hooters just a block away.  When you go in you are directed by sign to ascend the stairs.  The stairwell is dimly lit but they’ve conquered this challenge by placing two battery powered candles on the left and right edges of every other stair.  These aren’t those little tea light flickering candles but those that look like about 4 inch candles with a flickering light.  It’s not an inspiring first impression but once you get in to the restaurant proper it is a nice looking place if also very dimly lit.  Every table has one of those battery powered candles, I assume in this case for ambience rather than safety.  (I hope they’re using rechargeable batteries)

Truva turned out to be just what I was looking for, a brief respite from the crowds and not a line in sight.  It took just a minute looking at the menu and a short conversation with the ethnically appropriate waiter, Ekmel I believe his name was, and I went with the Kuku Sis Kebap.  That’s lamb shish kebabs for those without the benefit of the menu translation.  I ordered a local IPA to go with it that was pretty good but I can’t remember the brand.

Ekmel brought warm bread and dipping oil and vinegar along with the beer. That was a great start to the meal.

The lamb came with rice, grilled tomato & pepper and a green salad.

The lamb was marinated in olive oil, yogurt, garlic and other spices and was very tender and flavorful.  The vegetables were ok but the real meal was the lamb and rice plus the yogurt mint sauce which went down quite well and was just about the right portion for someone who was going to be doing a lot of walking after lunch.  I couldn’t resist finishing off the meal with a nice cup of Turkish coffee.

Nice strong coffee in a fancy little cup or as one friend correctly pointed out a demitasse.  Overall this was a great place to get away from the general nerdery and enjoy a few quiet minutes to plan whether to go see Mideval Mythbusting, visit the Art show, learn how writers figure out how to write alternate history, or just go hang out somewhere and watch all the interesting costumes.