sultanahmet diaries

the big toe threader

well, yesterday i got my hair cut & colored by my fabulous
turkish kuafor-- not a word of english, but i love him! i knew
more turkish this time, so he was impressed and said i was
doing well. i'm feeling like i know nothing, so it was nice to
hear.

anyway, while i was sitting with aluminum foil wrapped
all over my head, a turkish girl came in for a manicure &
a pedicure. this in itself is not terribly exciting, as most
people know... but this pedicure was different! the woman
giving the pedicure whipped out some thread and my
jaw dropped...."oh my god!!!! she's going to thread the
girl's toes!!!! holy lord!!!"

now, americans, for the most part, don't yet know about
the middle eastern art of threading.

from the above site:

"The history of threading is not clear, with some claiming it
begain in Turkey. Threading hair is so basic to women in
the Middle East and India that it can be compared to girls
learning to braid each other's hair as children. Traditionally,
threading is used on the entire face, including upper lip,
chin, eyebrows, sideburns and cheeks. Most American
cosmetologists are not trained in the procedure."

ı've witnessed a woman getting her eyebrows threaded,
but seeing a girl get her toes threaded was a new one for
me! not only did she get her big toe threaded, the woman
threaded her entire foot! it was amazing. more thoughts
on threading from hairchick.com.

first stop: kumpir at charlie's in ortakoy.

what is kumpir? well, kumpir is basically a baked potato
filled with cheese and butter-- which is then whipped
together to create a lovely potato/cheese/butter mix.
toppings are then added.... everything from mushrooms,
cous cous, peas, olives, sour cream, peppers, and so on.
basically, you can pretty much put anything and
everything in a kumpir, and hey-- they're pretty damn
good!

the glory of the kumpir!


the gathering of ex-pats was interesting, but i was
feeling very shy and anti-social... not exactly the best
way to meet new people, but whatever. what can i do?
it was fun, but i was happy to leave when we did. there
were a lot of brits there and if i hear the phrase "well,
most americans-- and i don't mean you, of course...."
(whatever follows this phrase is generally not a
flattering observation of america or americans) heard
this a couple too many times last night for my liking,
because how can i defend everything american? i can't!
ugh.

anyway, left and got ice cream at mado's and
listened to the live jazz playing for some jazz festival
in ortakoy. the jazz was good, but the ice cream was
better....

posted by camille @ 8:13 PM