Two to Travel's Blasts from the Past: BBQ a la Turkey

August 7, 1982

I remember we reserved the club house at the apartment complex to get together with a few friends.

I remember that Mui made ızgara köfte (grilled ground beef patties often referred to as Turkish meatballs). The menu also included pilav (rice) and cacık (cold yogurt soup with cucumbers).

I can see from the pictures that I set the table(s) with mismatched tablecloths — a yellow one that had a border that I had painstakingly cross-stitched; a blue and white plaid one that had been given to Mui by his maternal grandmother; a gold one that I had bought in a Turkish market. I can also see from the pictures that we used plates and bowls that were part of my trousseau and which we had brought with us from Turkey.

Here’s the sad part! I vaguely remember Bill, who was a neighbor of ours. Mui tells me that he was a butcher and worked in a meat processing plant. Grant was introduced to us by Randy, a USAF sergeant with whom I had worked in Turkey. And that’s it; that’s all I remember of our guests … the rest is all a blur.