Host: Our guest for the week is Rebecca Pleger. She’s originally from Buffalo, New York and now lives in Manhattan. She used to live in Germany where she met a lot of Turkish people and she also got to travel to Turkey a few times. We had a chance to catch up with her and hear about these experiences. Let’s watch.
Rebecca Pleger: Hello, I’m Rebecca Pleger. I’m originally from Buffalo, New York. I lived in New York City for the last six to seven years and I’m currently working for a German investment bank Dresdner Kleinworts.
Well, I have a connection in Germany obviously and Turkish population represents the largest born population in Germany so therefore when I went to school in Germany, I actually had a lot of Turkish friends in the community and who were also students so I decided to hang out with them. We became friends. I’ve traveled to Turkey a few times so I actually have the connection with Turkey through Germany.
I’ve been to Turkey twice. The first time was in 1996 and I went to Istanbul with a group of friends from college and we had a great time. It was fabulous, culture mix of new and the old and I love Istanbul a lot. And the second time I went to the Turkish Riviera, I went to Antalya, Alanya, and along the coast and that was also beautiful. It was a totally different side of Turkey.
Well, when I came back to New York City, after a few years I decided that I wanted to re-instill the Turkish culture into my life. And I got to know a Turkish social club and we get together. We go out for dinner. We see concerts and it’s a great way to meet new people, Turkish people and also European people as well. I would definitely recommend going to Turkey. It has so many different aspects to cultural mix of people. It’s very international especially Istanbul. Istanbul, I really loved a lot. You have a lot of different museums, the mosques are beautiful. You have a lot of great shopping in the bazaar and other shops and the food is amazing.
Oh I love Turkish food and my father who went with me the second time to Turkey. He loves Turkish food also. He is in Buffalo and every time he comes to New York City, he insists on going to a Turkish restaurant. My favorite food is probably the Kebabs. Growing up in Germany as a young student, that was cheap alternative to going out to other restaurants. So, the dinner Kebabs was a favorite of mine at that time. But now that I live in New York City and can afford the nicer restaurants, I also like the mante which is a dumpling with meat and a yogurt sauce. And actually the Turkish cuisine has a lot of yogurt sauce with their meats. It’s cooked. They drink a yogurt drink also and also you can’t forget the desserts. The baklava is always a favorite.
Oh Turkish coffee, now that is something. I’m not a big coffee drinker but of course, going to Turkey, I had to try it so I found out that it was very string and I had to put a lot of sugar in there because I did not order it sweet. So, after I came back to New York and having gone to Turkish restaurants more frequently, eventually I got used to the Turkish coffee and now I love it. And in fact, I even have my own little Turkish cup.
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