Kiraz

What's that???
A little closer please...

much much closer please..

Hmm.....a plump juicy sweet...Kiraz

Halil eating it with relish while watching a sports' programme
and the world cup has not started yet!!

Yes..that is kiraz in turkish and cherry in english. They may not look much to you in the picture, but there are at least..and i repeat..at least 7 kilograms of kiraz there in that wooden box. The source? Halit's cherry orchard.

U see..halit...halil's cousin has this kiraz (cherry) orchard at an agricultural land area in Iznik..almost 2 hours journey from istanbul. He pays someone to nurture and look after it. And every year, the caretaker will call him to tell him to pick up the cherries before they are spoilt. The deal is like this... every year halit will pick up as much cherries as he possibly can..and the leftovers ..the ones halit does not pick ..will be sold..and trust me..every year there are lots of cherries at halit's orchard..And this is not just any ordinary kiraz..i thought napoleon is the best..but halit's one...i think (if i am not mistaken) is *irnik*..the taste is very sweet and delicous....very plummy..watery..and when u put one kiraz in ur mouth and the juice splash inside ur mouth...hmmmmmm..u can only imagine the heavenly feeling of eating the juicy n plum kiraz..

i have always loved kiraz..it is among the fruits i cannot live without when in season. Unfortunately, it is also a very expensive fruit.. Therefore,i can only buy a bit every pazar...restraining myself from eating it too much coz hatice is also a maniac of kiraz..and bless halit and his kiraz orchard..i get the chance to savour the taste of my beloved fruit without limitation..i mean this is fresh kiraz u r talking about..plucked from the tree....the taste is as fresh as one can imagine..totally delicious..last year when my sister was here while halil was doing his military service out of istanbul...yana too fell in love with kiraz..Next to köfte..she has been dreaming of it ever since too..she had the chance of tasting both the napoleon ones and halitz kiraz..even if she is able to find kiraz in malaysia..after eating the ones here the taste of kiraz somewhere else will be bland..that my dearests is a fact..not an opinion.

This talk of kiraz reminds me of a story.. it was i think a month or perhaps two after i first went to malaysia (alone)..we were invited to halit's kiraz orchard... so with the rest of his family n siblings..we all went there..i had never seen kiraz then (i saw some in pazar) but this is...kiraz hanging on the trees.. fresh..calling me with a smile...and to be plucked n eaten just like that..At that time the kids present were already busy eating the kiraz..i was a bit shy...but once i started..hehehehe..i couldnt stop..i think i was busy eating the kiraz for around 20 minutes before i joined the rest of the adults clan who were then plucking the cherries from the trees. U cannot imagine how happy i was then..one kiraz inside the plastic bag..one kiraz inside my mouth...one kiraz inside the plastic bag..one kiraz inside my mouth.. (ni kira orang kampung tak pernah tengok kebun cherry la ni heheheh) and the best part was..i get to do that while climbing trees!! i loveeeeeee climbing tree!! :0)..too much eating kiraz...now the end result.. the good thing about kiraz is that it somehow cleanses the inside part of ur digestive system..but too much eating kiraz???? YUp!! u've guessed it!! toilet upon toilet.. i kept going to the toilet after that...i mean...i must have eaten at least 3 kilograms of kiraz then!! My journey to the toilet even at the orchard was...non countable..!!! i dream of going to that kiraz orchard again.. that was the first n the last time we went..the years after that..we still get the invitation..however, fate was not in our hands..there was one year hatice was sick..then baddin got sick..etc..etc..

The kiraz halit brought us this year? halil, hatice n i (baddin does not like fruits) devoured a lot of the kiraz..i think only 2 kilograms are left...today we r both fasting (sunat)..so during the day i can only look..but after 8.30pm!! hehehehehe my evil hands will probably cannot stay away from that plum kiraz..

And in turkey as i have discovered..there are two types of cherries.. one is kiraz (sweet cherry) and one is visne (sour cherry).. kiraz is eaten as it is.. but visne is too sour that normally it is made into jams or fruit juice...if u have one day the chance to eat kiraz ..sweet..plumy kiraz..eat it..i think any Malaysians will like this one fruit..at least i do..