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Gullett Blog: International Flavor
Silver Stars Media Services Manager Leigh Anne Gullett has jet set halfway across the globe to catch up with Silver Stars players Chantelle Anderson, Vickie Johnson and Sophia Young in Turkey. I've been in Turkey for one night and already I have stories to tell! Chan had warned me before I left that the weather in Istanbul was icy and there was a chance my flight would be delayed. I was supposed to text Chan from Frankfurt and let her know if we were on time. It would have been okay if my phone worked overseas. Turns out you have to call T-Mobile and ask for an international plan. Who knew? Anyway, optimistic till the end, I thought maybe my phone just couldn't get a signal in Frankfurt, but would work in Istanbul. Sadly, no. Unfortunately, the instructions on the airport pay phones were in Turkish. I kept scanning the crowd for Chan, thinking maybe I just missed seeing her (like someone 6'6" is tough to spot?). Finally, I walked over to the airport concierge desk and explained my problem. They called Chan for me on a personal cell phone. Minutes later, there she was.... grabbing one of my bags and telling me we had to hurry. So and VJ were already at the gym, and we headed straight there because Galatasaray had a EuroCup game against Kristen Mann's team from France. After the game, which we won by 20, the Galatasaray president took the whole team, along with the GM and a few others to dinner. Remember at this point that it is late Wednesday night and I left San Antonio Tuesday afternoon. Operating on no sleep, I'm not exactly smart. Which is why I asked So how to read the menu. She suggested I try the English translations beneath each item. In the end it didn't matter because waiters took the menus away, and the manager announced he was just bringing multiple courses out for us to try. They brought out appetizers of marinated sea bass, beef tartare, fried shrimp and something that tasted like gorgonzola wrapped in grilled eggplant. I asked So what the anchovy tasted like. She said, "Um, very fresh." That's probably the best thing I can say about anchovies, although I admit it wasn't bad. Just very fishy. The shrimp was whole. Not shrimp tails like in the states... it was a whole, in the shell, eyes and all, battered and fried shrimp. I broke the first one in half and took a big bite of what I thought was all meat, but turned out to be all shell. I tried to clear it from my throat and So goes, "Eat some bread." Next we had a nice mushroom risotto and a ground meat filled ravioli. Then, they asked each of us "meat or fish?" I was dying to ask, "What kind of meat?" But, I just went with the flow, especially since by that point I was totally stuffed. Chan goes, "Get the meat, in case I don't like my fish." Decision made and a good one as it turned out to be steak medallions with mashed potatoes and mushrooms. Completely random side note... at one point Chan was talking to me across the table and I gave her a thumbs up in response. Then I remembered in some countries that's a totally rude gesture and thought, please God, don't let it be Turkey because I just made a completely inappropriate hand gesture in front of their team president. My worries were dismissed by the arrival of shot glasses. The waiters filled them with a thick, dark liquid, which turned out to be chocolate liqueur... definitely something you need to sip. VJ just downed hers then wrinkled her face and announced, "There's alcohol in that!" Next they filled shot glasses with a thin, yellow liquid. I'm not sure what it's called, but they told us it was made by soaking lemon rind in sugar. That sounded good, so we all raised our shot glasses and knocked em back. Every one of us had the bitter, oh-my-God-what-did-I-just-drink face immediately, but it was So who expressed it best, yelling, "What the...?!!" The president called for more shots of the lemon stuff and poor VJ was trapped mostly by location (she was sitting on his right) and had to down another two. I was impressed she made it through. I was ready to fall over by then (from lack of sleep, not lemon shots). We got back to the apartment and after a shower where I almost accidentally washed my hair with dog shampoo, I crashed. So there you have it... my first night in Turkey. Shout outs...
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