Tales of Touring Turkey by Fred Moore:

IFTAR DINNER

© 2009 by Author

Here’s the scene – we’re at a restaurant on a bluff over looking the Adana Lake. This is one of the premier restaurants in our city. We’re here at a charity event sponsored by the Turkish/American Women’s Association. Glenda pulls into the driveway and the car is taken by the valet parking attendant. We ascend a couple wooden steps to the deck off to one side of the building’s main entrance. We walk across the deck and begin our descent down another set of wooden stairs, we must drop twenty feet or more to the patio below.

The floor beneath our feet is now marble, as we step onto the patio; there’s a large swimming pool in the center that has been partially covered with a stage. The patio is a large semi-circle fanning out in front of the restaurant building. There are a number of palm trees spaced out along the patio’s outer edge. There are a multitude of tables set awaiting the evening onslaught of diners. I would estimate there are probably fifty tables in a number of group configurations. Some are set for four, others for six or eight; then there is the massive groupings one long one in front of us for maybe twenty people.

To our right at the foot of the stairs there are several buffet tables blanketed with food. All the wait staff is in traditional Ottoman costume; the main waiters are wearing what strikes me to be a matador’s vest, very ornate. One gentleman standing behind the nearest buffet table is filling plates with cig kurfta – this is a raw ground meat that is kneaded for hours with spices – it tends toward spicy hot and it’s quite good. Beyond this guy is another table, much larger and covered in numerous plates of appetizers. Next is a large round buffet table adorned with fresh vegetable salads. Down farther on the patio are the main course items – meats of every kind; ok, except pork of course. To the side of the appetizer buffet and the meats is the dessert buffet just at the edge of the pool.

We divert our attention from the food tables and look around the entire setting before us. Once we complete our survey of the patio, we head toward the central tables. We take our place front and center of the stage, this table seats eleven. Seems odd it would have eleven chairs but then the Turks do things differently; trying to crowd as many as possible at one table. Three other couples accompany Carol and me from our neighborhood plus two other ladies. Few of the tables are left unoccupied.

As I take my seat, I have my back to the stage; I’m looking out over the bluff and across the lake. It isn’t totally dark yet but the moon is full and in my direct line of sight. There’s also a fabric screen stretched between two upright frames directly in front of me at the far edge of the patio; it’s translucent and I can see the birds flying behind it every once in a while.

Everyone appears to be talking at the same time and we have this very trying recorded Turkish Folk music playing behind me. No matter how long I live in this wonderful country I can never get used to or enjoy this melancholy music. It always seems so depressing and ear splitting at the same time; adding to the annoying noise, it was far too loud for even outdoors!

It isn’t long and we get the piped-in call-to-prayer from the mosque signaling the day has passed and the hour has come to eat – you see Iftar is the meal that breaks the day long fast. Moslems do not eat from sun-up to sun-down during the holy month of Ramadan. Every evening a call-to-prayer signals the fast for the day has ended and one can eat. Very early in the morning in darkness a man (actually several men) strolls through the neighborhoods beating a drum to get people up so they can eat before sunrise and sustain themselves for the entire day.

Darkness has fallen around us now and the lights across the lake are popping out across the horizon. Everyone is now eating the soup that was served to us minutes ago; generally, the fast is broken initially with bread and soup. Once that’s finished, everyone moves to the buffet table of his choice. My first stop is for the cig kurfta; I collect it and return it to my table. I then go to the appetizer buffet table and fill a plate. This is quite a challenge because there are literally dozens of these. Everyone else has gone in their own directions; some for salads, some for meats and others follow me around the appetizer table. There is plenty of food for every one and then far more.

Shortly after our return to our table, the floor show begins; there are three whirling dervishes on stage. Initially they appear to be meditating; then they rise and remove their capes. My back is to the stage but the screen before me has come alive with the performers. I notice the projector for the show is in the isle just to the left of my table. Whirling Dervishes trace their origin to the 13th century within the Ottoman Empire. Dervishes, known as the Mevlevi Order, are Sufis, a spiritual offshoot of Islam.

THE MEVLEVI Path has for seven centuries offered spiritual training based on the principles of Sufism. It is a rigorous path of initiation and service continually adapting itself to changing circumstances and times. The Mevlevi Tradition traces back to Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi (d. 1273) one of the greatest mystics and poets the world has ever known. Historically it has been Rumi, more than any other Sufi, who has issued the invitation to people of all backgrounds to the mystical garden that is Sufism:

"Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire,
come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair."

Another famous quote from their founder goes like this, “Remember, the deep root of your being, is the presence of the only Being - Give your life to the One who already owns your breath and your movements.”

The performance we witness is the Sema: “The Sema ceremony represents a spiritual journey; the seeker's turning toward God and truth, a maturing through love, the transformation of self as a way of union with God, and the return to life as the servant of all creation.” The belief is this; as they whirl, they transcend our presence and come into the presence of their maker. These gentlemen perform their whirl in three separate dances interrupted by short spiritual interludes. I continue to wonder how they spin, spin and spin without getting dizzy. Once they stop for reflection one would think they would simply fall over but they do not. Everyone is now moving toward the dessert buffet, I pass entirely. Again, there are a multitude of selections. The evening has fast slipping away but we’ve all had a great time with good friends and good food.