the joys of yogurt...

This past Friday I tagged along with the Byzantine class on their field trip to Thrace, the European part of Turkey which borders Bulgaria, Greece, etc. The object of the journey was to visit an old Byzantine church in Vize, now a mosque, along with the ruins of towers, city walls, a rock-cut monastery, remains of the Byzantine aqueduct and the Anastasian walls of Constantinople (being the defensive walls placed in the rural countryside, meant to protect the water supply and the greater region of the byzantine empire from the northern enemies.) There is much I could say on the trip and pictures which I could share, however, for the moment I just wanted to share one interesting stop and purchase we made in a small turkish village.... buffalo yogurt (manda yoğurdu in turkish).  The shop also sold buffalo cheese, which I sampled, a bit like mozzarella except extremely salty. It was tasty but I decided to go for the yogurt instead. It tastes fairly similar to the yogurt I normally buy though maybe a bit sweeter? It is hard for me to put my finger on the difference exactly...but as I continue consuming I will try to be more specific. But otherwise, I would definitely recommend it if you ever have the chance to purchase some! And of course it came in great ceramic bowls which sealed the deal for me...and it was only 8.50 for the small bowl, about 5-6 USD.  Alas, no buffaloes were spotted along the road, supposedly they live in the forests, hmm...

my classmate in front of the yogurt shop

mmm, tasty yogurt in the ceramic bowl

my homemade nohutlu pilav (rice and chickpeas) with buffalo yogurt
(not as good as at school but still tasty)