IN SEARCH OF MISTLETOE

It all began at the Indian Food Festival hosted by Mövenpick Hotel İzmir, where we met other İzmir travel and food bloggers. The group quickly planned another outing, and suddenly we were part of this wonderful day. People speak of luck, but I am more inclined to believe that we create it. What does that have to do with a day trip? When your region has hosted civilisations for almost ten thousand years, I cannot understand choosing hours in traffic around another new shopping centre over exploration. So, on Sunday, 6 December 2015, we boarded a bus and set off. Gurmecanlar, Gezgin Kereviz, Sosyal Yiyiciler, Yiyom, Kaybolan Lezzetler and Sevda Yollarda were all there, joined by Serdar Çelenk, then vice-president of the İzmir Chamber of Tourist Guides. Here is our Sunday in search of mistletoe :)

‘Breakfast must have something to do with happiness,’ as the saying goes...

ALSANCAK DOSTLAR FIRINI

Our day began around 9:30 at the café-bakery opened by Alsancak Dostlar Fırını on Kıbrıs Şehitleri Street. Drawing on decades of baking, it served boyoz filled or flavoured with everything from artichoke and spinach to tahini and chocolate, alongside eggs, cheese and tea. Despite social-media accusations that we eat constantly, we tried to save room for local dishes at Dandalos Hotel in Karacasu and pide with buffalo cream in Bozdoğan. This describes our 2015 visit; check the bakery’s current branches and menu. 

Uncle Erdoğan, aged 82, still smiling, excited and working as on his first day.

Keep an eye on Tuğçe in the photograph =)

DANDALOS HOTEL, KARACASU

After this ‘light’ breakfast, we travelled through green countryside—gossiping, dozing and listening to Serdar Bey explain the ancient sites along the route—until we reached Karacasu. Professor Ali Küpelioğlu, owner of Dandalos Hotel, also known as Küpelioğlu Mansion, welcomed us. The protected historic house had been restored and converted into accommodation. It filled a useful local need for visitors to nearby Aphrodisias. An important update: Aphrodisias was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017, two years after our trip. The hotel’s present operation and the restoration status of other historic houses should be confirmed locally.

Now for the food. Since we were still saving ourselves for the finale in Bozdoğan, we supposedly ate lightly here too. The table held many delicious dishes, including two we tasted for the first time. One was a sharp, garlicky mushroom pickle; the other, perhaps my favourite, was smoked yoghurt. We were told its flavour came from scorching the milk slightly before fermentation. Hot dishes included peppery lentil soup and stuffed aubergines made with a local Karacasu variety. Everything tasted as though it had been cooked with care. Karacasu also benefits from Madran water, which locals say gives tea a distinctive flavour. With baklava from Koçak Baklava, supplied by Mehmet Bey of Gurmecan, we reached our unofficial midway finale :)

It was a little cold, so we had to warm the baklava

Clockwise: Gökay, mushroom pickle, lentil soup and stuffed aubergine :)

YAYKIN OLIVE GROVES

We had not realised that olive growing around Karacasu and Yaykın had expanded so dramatically. Local producers were proud of their oil and spoke of it as a rival to better-known Aegean regions. Calling any village’s oil ‘Türkiye’s best’ would be subjective, but the groves and harvest were impressive. After restrictions affected tobacco cultivation, some farmers turned to olives, joined by outside investors who planted large numbers of trees. We wandered through the groves, watched the harvest and admired the care with which workers handled the fruit. December may sound late, yet it was harvest season for the varieties we saw.

A woman never loses her eye for beauty and adornment :)

The thousand-year-old sage: the olive tree

NOW FOR THE MISTLETOE

Fed and fortified with tea and baklava, we reached the theme of the day: mistletoe. Celal Bey, owner of Alaçatı Kuytu Hotel, had introduced us to a belief that it should be gathered on the sixth day of the month when that date fell on the final day of the week—Sunday, 6 December 2015. Mistletoe is not the world’s only plant that lives in neither soil nor water. It is an evergreen hemiparasitic plant that grows on branches and draws water and minerals from a host tree while still photosynthesising. Birds help spread its sticky seeds. Because host trees shed their leaves while mistletoe stays green, winter makes it easier for inexperienced eyes like ours to spot. 

Celal Bey at work

They say happiness waits beneath the mistletoe :)

Mistletoe carries symbolic associations across European traditions, including later popular retellings of Norse stories. One familiar version links Balder’s death to mistletoe and turns his mother Frigg’s grief into a symbol of reconciliation and kissing beneath the plant. Mythologists record several versions, so this should not be treated as a single definitive ancient account. Today mistletoe is widely hung at Christmas and associated with luck and affection. Important safety note: mistletoe berries and other parts can be toxic if swallowed. Do not eat it, keep it away from children and pets, and obtain the landowner’s permission before cutting it from a tree. We placed the branches Celal Bey collected in the luggage compartment and continued.

On the way to Mikado Pide in Bozdoğan, we passed Kemer Dam Lake and decided our storybook day deserved a sunset. We left the bus and watched the light disappear while taking photographs.

MİKADO PİDE

At last came the moment everyone had been waiting for: Mikado Pide in Bozdoğan. We were so hungry that we telephoned the order from the road. Our table, salty ayran and salads were ready when we arrived, while owner Ahmet Bey—working there since 1986, we were told—welcomed the group. Half of us photographed the oven and bakers while the rest photographed the drinks and salad. We tried Nazilli gülü, diced-meat-and-cheese pide, pastrami and egg, cheese with buffalo cream, and tahini pide. Our favourite was the diced meat with cheese. This is a 2015 account; confirm the restaurant’s current operation, address and menu before making a special journey.

A happy ending!

The masters demonstrate why fine work cannot be rushed

A group of almost twenty bloggers must look extraordinary from the outside: dozens of photographs before anyone eats, and people lying on the ground for the perfect angle. Now you know what it takes to bring these beautiful images to you. Such difficult working conditions :)

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