turkish snacks pt. 1

if you've ever met and spent some quality time with the Kwok, then you'll know how much i LOVE me my snackies. for a rundown of my daily diet for the last 10 years:

Breakfast: bodega purchased coffee (milk and sugar) + plastic pre-packaged Bear Claw, Cinnamon Bun, Dippin' Sticks, Glazed Donuts or Honey Bun
Lunch: Coke or Ginger Ale (if i'm feeling healthy) + Cool Ranch Doritos or Cheeze-Its
Dinner: take out Chinese, Thai or Indian food w/ Coke. (can be substituted with chips if feeling lazy).

that's pretty how much i eat and if I can't have something like it, my whole system is just out of wack. i feel lazy, lethargic and nothing gets me out of bed. sooooo...you can imagine that in Turkey I haven't seen a bag of Cheeze-Its or a Bear Claw the whole time I've been here (or any of the other times). Turkey is famous for it's sweet tooth and desserts, but they are either waaayy too sweet and dripping in honey for me (like baklava) or they taste like they could pass for glorified bread.

there's boedga-like shops (sadly no coffee) here and there's one conveniently downstairs and across the street from us. they offer a wide selection of snackies and i've taken it to be my foreigner duty to try every one at least once. some are not so good, and others i've adopted as my dietary supplements. chips (or cips as they call them here) are pretty standard, they have Ruffles, Doritos, Chee-tos here, though in different flavors....and candy bars taste like candy bars everywhere, so i'm going to focus on the snackie connoisseur's biggest challenge, baked goods. here's a rundown of the best of the best (by Snackie Kwok):


(clockwise from top left) Halley: I'm not a big fan of marshmellow, but this marshmellow filled chocolate covered cookie is a tasty light snack. and the packaging is ace! gold! they make a generic brand of this that i've tried because it had equally good packaging, but this is the best.

Pop Kek: By far my FAVORITE!!! The frosting really makes it and i can eat like 5 of these at once. my favorite is the lemon (limon) but they also make a chocolate and coconut (2nd fave), orange and chocolate (ok, but the striped icing is great), and banana (didn't try it, don't think i will). i like to lick the frosting on the wrapper as extra bonus.

Negro: Because you wouldn't believe me if I didn't show you. Chocolate cookie with cream filling, this is Turkey's answer to the Oreo.

Tutku: I eat these like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. this is just a marvel of a treat. how do they get the stripes? and then the chocolate cream is so perfectly smooth inside. the cookie is soft and this is a great companion to dunking in milk. like a cookie and a candy bar

Cikolatali: I added this candy bar because i love the packaging. it's like a Watchamacallit without the peanut butter.

Browni: I was skeptical at first about this "Browni"...i thought the cake part was pretty dry, but then in the middle its super moist so its better just to stick the whole thing in your mouth at once. they have a cherry flavored one too. BUT, i would recommend that you buy the LARGE BROWNI because it comes with its own tray AND CHOCOLATE SAUCE in a separate (ketchup like) package. it's so DAMN GOOD and sweet and chocolate-y...and i've always shared the big browni with one other person but have never been able to finish it.

to be continued...