Are you sure you want to eat that?

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This morning we got up and had a bit of a lazy morning after breakfast. Dad really wanted a straight razor shave so we walked around downtown Sultanhament until we found a guy, but he was busy with another guy so we kept on going. We then soon found another shop run by 2 guys, and Dad sat down to get a straight razor shave. While they were talking the guy doing the shave tugged on Dad’s ear hairs and asked if Dad would like him to clean those up to, and yes Dad wanted the whole treatment! It was total payback for Dad with what happens soon after (we tease each other non-stop). Dad tells them that in the old days they used to take a cotton ball soaked in alcohol and they used to burn off the hairs. These guys said no! That is the old way, now they use WAX. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to get the inside of your ears waxed, but I could only imagine that it would not be pleasant. I look at Dad’s expression and he seems unshaken by the fact that they are going to wax his ears. Oh boy! He doesn’t know what’s coming! This should be fun to watch, and it was. At the beginning of the shave they put this green wax all inside and around his ears, it really looked like he had some sort of ear problem. Then they commenced with the shave (which looked very nice) followed by hot steam on his face and a little trim. Then came the fun part, taking out the wax  Dad started howling as the guy tried to pull the wax from his ears, the first guy couldn’t really do it so the other guy got in there and had a go. Dad was sweating as they are not just pulling the wax in one fowl swoop, but they kept tugging and tugging because it wouldn’t come loose. They finally got one ear done, then it was time for the other! The faces Dad was making while this was going on was priceless! They finally got him all cleaned out and his ears looked amazing! I joke that he can finally hear again!
I ended up getting a haircut as well just to shorten it up since it was so unbearably long. They guy was smoking and listening to Rihanna on his cell phone and dancing so it was quite an experience to have my hair cut by this guy, in the end it’s a terrible haircut, but its shorter which is what I wanted, I wear it up so it isn’t a big deal, and I will get it fixed when I get back. Dad tried to make fun of me, but it paled in comparison to what happened to him!
We then had a few hours to kill since we were taking a cooking class that afternoon, so we went over and saw Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque (we had tried to enter the Blue Mosque before but it was during prayer time and they don’t let anyone in there anymore). Both are just magnificent on the grandest of scales, it still amazes me that these structures were built so long ago by sheer man power and are still in near perfect condition today.
We then made our way over to the Turkish cooking class. We met our fellow classmates (a Dutch couple, and an American girl) and discuss the menu for the evening. We ended up making a yogurt soup, green bean salad, split belly eggplant, and a fig and walnut dessert. It was a lovely experience since we were guided on how to make everything by the head chef, Evelyn, who speaks 5 languages and is a wonderful cook, but what really made the experience unforgettable was her right hand man Fez. Fez did most of the cooking and preparation and helped us out with the techniques we needed for the prep. He had a total dead pan sense of humor and you really had to watch out for him. He didn’t speak much English but his actions were hilarious! While helping Dad crush some peppercorns, he set a bunch of peppercorns on the table, then sectioned out a few and then he made hand motions to Dad telling him how to crush them - he could crush them with his knuckles, or he could crush them with his elbow (Dad was like holy crap, really?!), or that he could take off his glasses and bang his head on the table and crush them that way. Dad started laughing because now he knew that Fez was joking, then Fez brought out a large flat mallet and showed Dad really how to crush the pepper. Another one of Dad’s jobs was to cut the onions with the biggest knife you have ever seen, Dad had total knife envy. It took him a bit to get the hang of it but he did a good job of getting all the onions chopped!
Evelyn was the woman running the class and she did a great job of always having a job for one of us, whether it was peeling tomatoes, cutting beans, stirring the meat mixture, grating zucchini (one of the few things that Dad was really good at, I sucked at it and Fez made fun of me for it) we were always busy but having fun. At one point we had to turn over these figs we had stuffed with walnuts in a syrup that was on the stove, the syrup had cloves and half a lemon in it as well and after one of the guys had turned all of the figs over he motioned to Fez to put the lid back on, Fez then shook his head and pointed at the lemon, so the guy turned the lemon over, and then Fez was happy. After cooking for what seemed like 30 min we sat down to be served the dinner we just made! It turned out we had been cooking for 2 ½ hours, the time just flew by! The cooking school also does a dinner each night, and it is by reservation only and they were full for the night! It turns out that the people who had reservations were going to eat what we had made! (I don’t know if they knew this, are you sure you want to eat that?) And they filled up for the next night while we were eating our dinner that we had made. Business was really good for Cooking Alaturka as they were turning people away all night. We had a blast throughout the entire process, from cooking to eating. We even got to take all of the recipes we had made home with us (and it’s a good thing we did the cooking class before going to the spice Bazaar since now we know what we need to buy!)
Another fun filled day and night was had by all, although it’s sad to think its halfway over.
B

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Photos

Crushing Pepper
Not with his head!