It was awesome. It was so good that I'm amazed I didn't do it earlier - summer is not really summer until one has barbecued.

The food was roundly described as excellent, and as my own worst critic, I concur. The potato and eggplant curry was not my best, but it passed muster. The barbecued skewered mishkaki (in Turkish, çöp şiş) was extremely good - tender, juicy, spicy. The lamb chops were fantastic, although I did not use Ace's excellent recipe. Instead I used my version of mama's old paste recipe (ground cumin, ground corriander, red chili, ginger powder, fresh garlic, lemon juice, brushed onto the chops).

Part of the success I attribute to the excellent ingredients you get here in Turkey. Going shopping is a bit frustrating because the variety in terms of products is far less than the US (no corriander leaves, for example), however whatever you do get is extremely fresh. I used beautiful, large lemons for the lemon juice (rather than bottled) and I believe this made a huge difference to the taste and moisture of the meat. As I intimated before, my butcher is a hall-of-famer who, at the end of his career, should have his cleaver bronzed and his number retired. Furthermore, I was cooking with real charcoal rather than convenient propane gas.

Oh, and my guests were drunk.