First of all, sorry for the infrequency of posts recently; I had been travelling in Cappadocia and Bodrum (of which I shall blog in detail at a later date). But now I'm back in Istanbul - J has arrived in town, I have various other friends in town, therefore over the last few days I made the following purchases:

• One Barbecue (made in China)
  
• 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) of cubed beef and 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs) of lamb chops. My butcher is a true artist. The man is a bloody genius with a knife. After expertly trimming and cubing my beef entrecot, he chopped the lamb, hacked off the end of the bones, and smashed the chops with a tenderizer.
• Skewers
  
• Potatoes and eggplants (for a curry)
  
• Large green chilis you only get in Turkey
  
• Salad ingredients
• Eggs, flour and strawberries in order to make a shortcake
  

I marinated the meat last night in indian spice while a friend did the baking for the shortcake. This evening, I'm going to fix the salad and cook up a nice curry, fire up the grill, pop a cold one and throw on some Tupac. Then a dozen of my friends are going to taste their first Mishkaki.

Cause that's how I roll.