Meals on Wheels

I've discovered a great little service here in Izmir called Yemeksepti..my translation is "meals delivered to your front door by cute guys on motorcycles". Yemeksepti is like "Dominos Delivers in 30 minutes or Less," but even better. You get a whole choice of meals and cuisines from over 200 restaurants and most of those restaurants guarantee service in ...yep 30 dakika (30 minutes or less).  In addition, my computer translates most of the names for traditional Turkish menu items which gives me a pretty good idea what the meal might be. Things like "Adana kebob" translates to "meat on a stick", "Urfa kebob" translates to "meat on stick" and "patlican kebob" translates to "eggplant on a  stick. I'm still working on the differences of kebobs, but tonight I decided to try a "wrap" instead of a kebob. It tasted OK, but my own personal translation of tonight's meal is "meat that was on a stick but is now wrapped inside bread so we'll call it a wrap instead of a kebob."

OK, I know I'm joking a bit, but the beauty of home delivery is that a) I don't have to sit alone in a restaurant and pretend that I'm reading my book or enjoying the sunset. I can sip my beer at home alone, watch CNBC sitcoms in English with Turkish subtitles, and laugh at Turkish commercials like Michael Phelps advertising dandruff shampoo (Head and Shoulders) and b) I don't have to cook, which involves a trip to the store, trying order less than a kilo of any kind of meat, and doing the dishes afterwards.

Even though it is takeout food, I have my standards. Rather than accepting plastic utensils, (I guess some people do care about the amount of plastic trash lining the sides of the road. Or they've figured out a way to cut costs...) I did choose the "go green" option when ordering by computer which means I didn't need the plastic silverware. Upon receipt of my food packet, I just dump the whole meal onto a nice place, pull out the "silverware" and sit comfortably in front of the TV.  I mean, I have my standards.

And, just to clarify that I'm not a recluse, hermit, finding fun in solitude, a beer and mindless TV, I was supposed to have guests throughout the weekend...But, a missed plane flight by one and a chance to visit Bodrum (jealous!) by the other two meant that  what was supposed to be a fun/tourist filled weekend has morphed into a whole lot of free time. Thanks to Yemeksepti for making my life grand.