Anecdotes from Turkey - Yogurt, honey and poppy seeds

Turkey is breathtakingly beautiful. I wonder how the Turks can take it; to me it is almost intoxicating. The country is thronged by tourists round the year that led me to believe that tourism is the country's number one income generator. But no; it is agriculture. It was very evident throughout our travel; the land is always planted with one crop or another like wheat, cherries, grapes, hazel nuts or olives. Even the lands that are covered in stones will be made workable after the farmers clear them patiently by hand-picking the pebbles, sometimes over years. They produce so much food that they export to all over the world.

On our way to Konya from Pamukkale, our local tour guide stopped the bus in a village for us to sample yogurt with honey and poppy seed. See photo. It's delicious. The poppy seeds add crunchiness and a nutty taste to the yogurt. A serving costs 5 Turkish Lira. I was contemplating to buy the poppy seeds but was worried of the Malaysian Customs at KLIA. My guide told us that once, he took an extra helping of the poppy seeds which resulted in him not remembering what happened the rest of the day.

Poppy in that village is planted with the blessings of the government solely for the patronage of their Ministry of Health. One time, our tour guide stopped his tour bus near a field of poppy and some tour members went after the flowers. Soon after, a truck full of armed villagers swerved by. So he advised us not to pick the flowers should we stop afterwards. But we were not so lucky; the villagers have just harvested the crop; otherwise we would've seen carpet after carpet of red flowers. The photo I enclose here is a patch of wild poppy flowers we saw at Hierapolis.