Epals Essay

A.J. Tallo
International Cross Cultural Education
EPals Essay

My Culture Quest was on the country of Turkey; more specifically it was on the nation’s food. I did a presentation on the everyday popular foods that the Turkish people are accustomed to. I did a lot of research on the Internet to retrieve information for my project, but we also had an opportunity to link up with a university in Turkey. We could put up posts on the site and wait for them to reply. I asked the students from Turkey what meals or traditional plates I should include in the presentation. It took a while before I got a response but one student finally gave me some insight to what they think should be included in the project. I was informed that I included some foods that weren’t really that popular, they were meals that have faded out over time in Turkey. I also received information of what foods are actually popular in Turkey today. Some of these foods included meals such as “Borek”, “Meze”, “Kofte”, and alcoholic drink the Turkish call “Razi”. Razi is a drink referred to as “The Lion’s Drink” because it is said you have to be strong to drink due to how strong it is. I had never heard about this beverage before in my life until this student had told me about it. I also learned about typical foods derived from the Turkish people such as Pilav which I have actually eaten before but never knew it was Turkish. It is basically just a rice dish made of cracked wheat and it also may include chickpeas, aubergines, beans, or peas. I also learned about Turkish bread called “Manti”. The Turkish eat a lot of unleavened bread usually baked in clay ovens, on a griddle, or buried in embers. This particular bread is filled with a Turkish yogurt. A Turkish dessert I have tried before is Baklava. This is a milk-based pastry. Some other Turkish pastries I learned about include “Kazandibi”, “Helva”, “Asure”, and “Kandayif”. Turkish people also eat a lot more lamb than I expected. It is usually on a kebab like we have in the U.S. The famous “Sis Kebab” is actually derived from this Turkish dish. This really surprised me. I learned a lot from this project even though I only did research on the food of Turkey. Although the food of a country doesn’t go that in depth about a culture, I still was able to learn a lot about Turkey in my research. The students from Turkey also helped me to an extent. I found that Americans perceive other nations a lot different from how they actually are. I have learned a lot about other culture but I have realized that you can’t believe everything you have been taught about a nation until you talk to someone of that culture. This was somewhat of an eye-opening experience for me. E-pals can be a big help to find out truth about a person’s culture. It was a great help to me and in my studies about the nation and culture of Turkey.