Just got back from a short sejourn to Antalya, Turkey.

Pretty quiet as we spent most of our time eating, swimming and napping!

We did however narrowly escape being blown-up! Kurdish separatists set off a bomb a block away from the cafe where we were drinking coffee and eating Baklava at the time - more than close enough for us to hear the bang…

The explosion killed 3 people and wounded many more. The international media covered the story including the Times.

The incident had no negative impact on our trip however - in fact we were largely ignorant of what had actually happened until we got back to a country where the news is in English!

The full set of photos from the trip are online in the Photo Gallery, here are a few highlights:

Just found this recipe at gourmet.gr. It’s for Kushari which is a dish very popular all over Egypt. We ate it continuously when we were there - very tasty and cheap! Monday is a Bank Holiday here, so we’re going to have a go cooking it for lunch! I’ll let you know how it comes out.

Kushari (Lentils, rice, and macaroni mixture)

1 cup brown lentils
1 cup rice
1 cup uncooked macaroni
2 large onions, chopped
2 Tbs oil
2 cups tomato sauce
hot chili (optional)
salt

Cook lentils in salted water until tender. Strain. Cook rice in salted water until tender. Strain. Cook macaroni, preferably the small, round variety, strain, rinse, and strain again.

Place lentils, rice, and macaroni in a cooking pot. Fry onion in the oil until rich brown, then remove the onions onto absorbent paper and strain the oil into lentil mixture. Return the pot to the flame and cook for 7-10 minutes, tossing often to prevent sticking.

Serve by topping each individual plate with tomato sauce and fried onions. Sprinkle with hot chili.

Spring is in the air, and I finally got my last film back from the lab!

Some new stuff online therefore:

Pictures of our Easter trip to Paris.
Pictures of a recent weekend in Dover.