The following are the photographs Mina took

Elif had made several kinds of breads, accompanied by cheese selections, other breakfast food like olives, olive oil for dipping, and such. Later she made sucuklu yumurta which was a hit, people went for seconds. And so went mos of the afternoon, kids running around, swinging, and parents tending to occasional snags. There seemed to be a common parenting principles based on children cooperating, sharing, listening to each other, and not complaining. Later on Elif did story time, the kids sat on the kilim on the deck, she on the chair started reading stories. There were several interruptions, the usual stuff like need more juice, or bathroom break (which had high priority of course.) All in all, everyone enjoyed the afternoon and parties left at different times based on kids nap times and other commitments. Later on Cynthia arrived with Allegra who goes to school with Mina, Zola who looked devilish with two small bunches of hair on her head. Her ex-husband Alex had arrived a little earlier and they joined in the conversation and play. Cynthia, a geriatric medicine doctor, will be visiting Turkey next month and asked for tips for travel in Turkey. We suggested Istanbul being the highlight, then traveling down to the Aegean coast to Ayvalik, Izmir, Ephesus, Aphrodisias, possibly visiting side attractions in Tire and Sirince, moving on to Cappadocia and back to Istanbul.

The weather was getting a bit too hot for me, so I excused myself and went downstairs where it was about 10 degrees cooler even with no AC. I stayed there until they put the AC on and upstairs was cooling off. When I came upstairs, Mina was playing with Allegra; Alex and Allegra stayed for another half hour or so and left. We had our supper and was Mina’s bed time soon. A little later Jan and Elif went to bed as well. I stayed up a while and organized the photographs to share here. Fair warning, there are over 30 photographs in the collection despite my best efforts to cull them out. This is the bare minimum that will convey a sense of the Turkish Brunch.

Next to our table was the owner Tony Caputo with his family. The jazz trio was very nice, they made very good music as we enjoyed our deli sandwiches. A little later, the young manager’s wife Myra arrived with their daughter Tulula as they had arranged earlier with Elif. Mina and Tulula played around and then went to next door where the bagel place was closed with their tables outside; more room to play for them. Myra was a lovely young woman who joined us at our table. Around 7:00 pm or so it started getting a bit too hot for me (dry or not, hot is hot) so Elif dropped us back at home and returned to spend more time with the kids and the friends.

Meet Caputos’s 2

Here are some photographs going up and coming down.