Monday 12 January 2015

Black Sea Sunday in Bodrum

I was away from Bodrum for 10 days and so managed to miss the coldest snap for several decades.  Photographs of icicles on bicycles have been doing the rounds and many a bougainvillaea  has bitten the dust.  Sunday however dawned bright, sunny and warm enough for brunch to be eaten in the garden. We weren't the only ones outside.  Nearly the whole population of Bodrum rushed out into the fresh air to warm bones that had been uncomfortably chilled for the past week.  There was plenty to occupy the senses. The Black Sea Association was celebrating all that is great about their part of the world with a Hamsi Festival.   Hamsi are small oily anchovies that  most of us rave about, (with good reason as they are a delightfully oily, savoury, crispy, fishy bite that is perfect eaten alone or sandwiched in the centre of half a Turkish loaf) and put a date in their calendar to start eating as the cold weather approaches. As the end of the year draws near, lorry loads of hamsi are exported from the North all around the country.

Ladies proving they can multi-task: frying and dancing. 

Black Sea businesses must be doing well in Bodrum as they financed a feast of biblical proportions,  feeding  hamsi sandwiches (remember each one is half a loaf) to everyone who wanted one.  This was accompanied by the staccato strains of the fiddle urging the dancing crowd to go faster and faster.  Just hearing the first notes of this music makes even those of us with two left feet start to wiggle our shoulders in true Black Sea style.  Click on the video below to get an idea.






21 comments:

  1. mmmm hamsi - our favourite! On one of our trips around Turkey in the 80's we did a trip in a ferry across the Black Sea and sampled hamsi in Samsun. Bodrum's Hamsi Festival will have to go in our diary!

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    1. I'll get you to move back one day.

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    2. Have you got a project lined up for Dave this year - I've been looking at flights!! :) xx

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    3. How much time have you got. I think a solar warmer for the pool would be first on the list and I'm thinking of landscaping the garden, not to mention a master class on choux pastry. I think you need to stay for 6 months.

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    4. I'm available for hire to teach various choux pastry desserts! ;-)

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  2. Our Friday 'marketeering' has been starting later since the hamsi season began - hamsi tava with fresh-baked bread and a super salad is our just desserts after the shopping is done and dusted.

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  3. What fun, B to B. We recently had 'Sinop Days' up here in Istanbul and it was a similar blast. Hamsi is one of the most wonderful fishes. Our personal favorite dish - hamsi pilav. Yum. Maybe tonight . . . .

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  4. We heard about the weird weather and with, the power cuts on top, someone called it candle, wine and duvet days. Shame about the bougainvillea.

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  5. Hello,

    We love anchovies and these look so incredibly fresh and, we are certain, were delicious. What fun!

    As you say, business must be booming.

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    1. Welcome back Jane and Lance. Hope you both have recovered and are in good health. I see that you are somewhere warmer than Bodrum.

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  6. Fantastic sight - and how i love hamsi - enjoy : )

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    1. I love them more when they come pre gutted.

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  7. How fun! I really do miss Turkey and Turkish things like the hamsi. Over the weekend, we went to my fav Turkish restaurant for dinner where I had their version of Karnıyarık. Not bad! :-)

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    1. You seem to be finding plenty of great places to visit to replace Istanbul.

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  8. Oh my life - hamsi heaven! :) We've had it on the fish market here for the last couple of months or so but no one has thought to let a Black Seas Association serve it free to us! :) Yeah, Fethiye was out in full force on Sunday, too. The harbour was packed. A rare bit of sunshine. :)

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    1. I'm sure your Black Sea folk will hear about this and follow suit.

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    2. And so here we are a year later...and still no mini festival for us!! ;) We shouldn't complain as we do get other foodies festivals around here...but we do love our hamsi. This year's fashion is for all the local restaurants to have their 'hamsi tava' boards out, offering their various rakı inclusive deals. Surprised it's taken so long to get to this stage but at least we're celebrating hamsi. :)

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  9. Hamsi sounds like something I'd love to try and the music certainly set my feet tapping. :-)

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