Baklava

On our last night in Istanbul, we decided that Baklava was a must.  Hubby is a fan of this Middle Eastern desert.  Wifey even made it this past year for his Birthday! 

On our first full day in Istanbul, we had walked by a store that made Baklava, and wifey snapped a quick picture of the storefront and made a mental note of the location.  

seriously a bad pic, IKR! :) 

This storefront is just off a side street from the central Sultanahmet area.  We actually found it due to a lack of fluency with the public transportation system on day one which resulted in extra walking, an eventual need for band-aids, and some fun discoveries. 

Our second trip involved much less walking as by this point we'd learned the transit system and higher quality photography! Wifey was honestly not that interested in the Baklava adventure (but she'll take an Ayran anyday or night) but wanted to be sure Hubby was able to try it.  

While walking around the shop, wifey became distracted by a display of soap.  Hubby proceeded to the Baklava, and the next thing we knew, one of the workers had our DSLR and snapped the following pics of the available Baklava options:

Here's one of Hubby from behind the counter trying to decide which options to try:  

After a while, Wifey finished exploring the soap counter, retrieved her DSLR and took a few shots herself.  The sale's guys were delightful.  It probably helped that we were basically the only people in the shop and it had to be near closing time.  

Wifey chatted with one man whose family had immigrated from Afganistan to Turkey.  We google-translated "Lye" several times on the app and google through a web browser until we were 'speaking the same language'.  His mom and grandmother had told stories of making their own soap out of wood ash and animal fat.  We had a grand time!

We met another man who had immigrated from Syria who helped us choose the exact right flavors of Baklava to sample, and convinced us the Turkish Coffee was worth sitting down to enjoy.  He was right!  Overall it was one of our more memorable experiences of the trip.  

While hubby chose and eventually enjoyed his baklava and turkish coffee, wifey ordered an Ayran.  YUM! 

Turkish Coffee:  What it lacks in volume, it makes up for in strength.  

Or so Wifey hears.  She doesn't drink that stuff.