The Food Chronicles

Introduction:

Spectre's of failed dreams lost on the highway of life

 Do you ever feel like you are on a road where you can’t see the end of it and trying to look back,you just see the glymps of the places you have passed but can’t remember all.

Eventhough you try to force your memory you still mix it up? 

was “this town before that town or was it the other way around”.

Then feel this sudden fear that you wont make it to where you were set to go in time,and you look back at your watch with anxiety,trying to plan a shorter route but  just freeze where you stand?

Now I am on that road and I am frozen where I stand but this time I am taking my time,I am looking back at all the other blank faces trying to figure out where they went wrong or trying to figure out a short cut.

Most of them doing jobs that they hate,to have some Money to go around doing more of the stuff that they hate,

You see not one of us is different.I always hear people complain about their jobs.Their marriages or their relationships.The reasons vary but everyone complains.Spectres of failed dreams lost on the highway of life.

It is the restrictions in our minds and all those taboos,that corner us to the spot where we stand and can’t move,you see,the restriction and the fear of loosing everything.Taking adventage of what you have and accepting where you are is the key to moving forward.

It is the leap of faith that you have to take,that in the end everything will be alright.Life is a journey,that non of us should feel trapped in.

Having said that,probably many of you are thinking “now what is going on here isn’t this a food and travel blog?”Indeed it is but it is not one of your classical ones.This is a food and travel blog where there is adventure,philosophy,history,and romance,driven by passion for simple and fine tastes.,I will take you to a story,not just an article about a fancy restaurant where I mention how expensive the cutlery was and how hot the food was served and which,but a sneak peak of an actual  events based on my life.

This leads you to who I am, I live in Turkey and for a time I was just another one of those blank faces trying to figure out what lead me to this moment where I froze and couldn't move.But I figured out a way.

I have been a cook/chef for 9 years now, most of the time in the heat of service I find myself asking this question, Why the hell did I choose this as a career out of all the other stuff I could have studied in the University.

May be it was because I was never really good at science and math and all the other near worthless junk that is thought at our educational system,or maybe it was because I liked to create stuff,but I was never good with a brush and canvas.

So there I was at the age of 19 failed to achieve a good score on my SAT’s working as a waiter in a shitty Cafe’,trying to earn some Money,so I could study for the next exam and study,cinema,radio Tv and Media.

The Assistant Cook quit in the middle of the service  and I was selected the lucky guy to help the rude fat head cook

I don’t know why but I liked it in the kitchen.There was no running up and down the stairs,and I didn’t have to look in to the faces of the costumers trying to fake a smile while swearing under my breath when they talked down to me.So there it was I was either going to become a film director or I was going to become a chef.

Results came in,I scored high,It was either studying Cuilnary Arts with a scholarship of accomplishment or Film and Media Studies with no scholarship.The school was expensive.And the Choice was made.Sometimes you guide life and sometimes life guides you I guess.

What does anyone want in life? A promise of heaven or a heaven on earht right?

Simple pleasures are what gives life a meaning in my book where in all the other books they are either damned or restricted to do.

The Book of Quran promises heaven to be a place with rivers of milk and honey and wine filled with angels called houri's filled with joy of god,promising whatever food that is desired would be served.A verse goes "Therein you shall have (all) that your inner‑selves desire, and therein you shall have all for which you ask. An entertainment from Allah, the Oft‑Forgiving, Most Merciful"

Why look for heaven in after life where I could live it in the real one right? So being a chef suited me just fine I searched for all the other one shot  angels(or Houri's) in dim lighted bars.

Two years before my grandmother passed away,there was one thing she said that made me question my motives in doing what I was doing,It was that one thing that made me question where I stood on the highroad of life.

 it was the year of 2008,And I was through with the University,I went to see her.

Grand Ma  was one of the first Woman University graduates of the newly Formed Turkish Republic.

She Graduated from Business Admnistration.She came from a whealhy familly  and she and my Grand Father had a whealthy familly, we lost Grand Pa to Cancer,and soon after that,the money that they had,started to diminish,nothing lasts forever,a fact that proves itself everytime.

At the end of it,in her final 3 years the house rent that she had was so high above her retirement Money,and we didn’t have enough to back her up,we  had to move her.She first lived with us but her showed symptoms of dimentia and then it got worse  and my mother started loosing it so we moved her to a nearby retirement home.

She was still struggling with dementia when she asked me” Mehmet now you have graduated from the University,what are you going to do?” It was a pretty damn question that I had a simple answer for.I said I was going to work in a restaurant or in a Hotel as a cook She yelled “a cook?,like down stairs cooking food for guests and costumers?” And I said “Yes but I will make my way up to become a headchef,or executif chef.,” She wasn’t pleased with the job I was going to do, 

She told me about this cruise ship she and my grand fatherwent.She told me about  all the riches that cruise ship  offered this ballroom where they ate and danced  had shiny crystal chandelliers hanging from the cealing and piano playing,People sitting at tables with White table clothes being served by waiters in tuxedos.Dancing in fine dresses.I tried to Picture it and the view from the film Titanic came into mind.She said “We were having a great time in that Cruise and we were staying on the upper compartments,where we had the sunlight, and a nice and spacious room” and “ all the other kitchen and service and technical  crew were staiying in the “lower compartments,with no sunlight  Eventhough you will reach to become a head chef of a restaurant,you will always be on the lower compartment,because you will be serving them,trying to keep them comfortable while giving up yours.Try to be someone on the upper levels,try to find a way to get there”

I thought it was the dementia talking,I didn’t give any thought to it untill she passed away at 2010,

She was right.The problem about the hospitality indusrty was it never got the respect it deserved,we were always the laborers even though hidden in fancy titles.No holidays, overtimed work without pay and pension rates were payed to the governement from the lowest by most of the employers the rest of the Money was given by hand.And that meant lousy retirement money. Most of the kitchen are indeed in lower levels of the establisments.No sunlight,Being a chef also takes a toll on your psychology, it is like being a sergeon and an artist at the same time,where the critic is your patient.So the stres is on most of the time.You turn into drinking and what not,just to deal with the stress then you start to put on weight.You learn it the hard way that the food you taste and booze you sip don’t mix well with no exercise.

That was the time when I turned into a Spectre of a failed dream lost on the highway of life.

That is not a nice state of mind to go through but,you have to face it head on.Accepting the difficulties ıf your situation while trying to see the perks and benefits it could bring you.

I still had one of the most rare jobs where I could sing and curse and be mad and throw things around then sing again without people looking at me like I am crazy,And I still had one of the most unique jobs where I could travel and live anywhere I wanted and still could find a job easyly where I could eat the most delicious foods and drink tastey wines with out paying a dime, not to mention when used right I could be a chick magnet with the title “chef” even and best of all by promoting to head chef I  could create my own time to do what I wanted to do.

So I used all of these qualities.to get me other qualities.I was asking my self" what if I studied Film and Media?"then I learned to take photos,shoot short films,make pre-production and post production work and tried to be in that business for 3 months it didn't work out as I planned it,but atleast I knew what I wanted to do better now..

While at it I decided to see the World,and have a better understanding of tastes.I took a job as a chef on a plane.

That was a ground breaking job for me,You see as I told you I am a simple man driven by passion, passion for food and alcohol and ofcourse other earthly need and also a  passion to create things

So here is how the story began,with each travel I  was going to have new adventures,and this was going to  start to become a lifestyle.
A Lifestyle mostly on the road,Filled with earthly pleasure most of them concidered sins.

All the stories here will give you information about the place  I went to,the food I ate and the wine or booze I tasted,while involving you to another adventure,my adventure..

It all starts with my first visit to Bangkok.The place where devil rules.