The Cosmopolitan Club held the Turkish Dinner this semester on Sunday, September 12th. The atmosphere was quite cozy, and the people who came said they enjoyed the food, music, and Turkish culture. More than 70 people showed up to taste food and learn more about Turkey, a country located between the African, Asian, and European continents, and the cradle of many civilizations. Samples of typical dishes were offered, like lentil soup, mixed vegetable stew, rice pilaf, and shekerpare, a Turkish dessert.
Throughout the dinner a slideshow about Turkey was shown. We listened to samples from Turkish musical landscape, which is as diverse as its cuisine. After the dinner, one of us, Dervis, played his arrangements of Turkish folk songs on the piano; it was a very nice little concert. We inhaled, smelled, and tasted Turkey with his music. Below are what two of those organizing had to say:
Nejan: We got together at Cigdem's apartment the night before the dinner for preparing the main dish: beef stew with mixed vegetables and vegetarian main dish. We had to prepare this for 100 people, so there were a lot of vegetables to cut. But the good part was we had many talented choppers like Suleyman, Dervis, and Baris helping us. It was a lot of fun to do this together.
Pınar: Lale, Meltem, and I prepared shekerpare, a Turkish dessert, for the Turkish Dinner Night, and my husband helped cook some of them. We were eager to get a good result and sometimes worried, but it was also fun. Although all pieces looked good, we kept eating even the slightly broken pieces; then all of us admitted that we wouldn’t eat dessert the next night. We served the food together to the guests. The best thing was the collective effort.
We will be happy to continue to introduce our historically and culturally rich country to you. We look forward to seeing you at the Turkish coffee hour (on February 17, 2005), which traditionally takes place in the spring semester.
Guests enjoying the delicious cuisine at the Turkish dinner