Tuesday
Feb102009
A Healthy Appetite
February 10, 2009 "Some fresh black pepper, sir? We find it accentuates the taste of the carrots quite nicely."
"Uh, really? Well, in that case, let 'er rip!"
Jody celebrated his "biethday" in Turkey, which explains the adorable inscription. As for the rest - I have no idea. Maybe the locals were trying to make a point about American eating habits? Is this the Turkish equivalent of those V8 commercials? Or - OR - is it possible there's some sugary Turkish treat that looks exactly like carrot sticks? (I'm holding out hope for that one.)
Ok, Patreesha, your mission is to eat some carrots with chocolate icing and tell us what it tastes like. Quicky, now! The rest of us NEED this information.
Reader Comments (95)
Literally, a carrot cake, perhaps? Bierthday Happy. Cake not happy.
~Amy
That yellow rosette really classes up the joint.
"In Turkey (and most of the Middle East) carrots in rose water are a very common treat."
I'll have to try this! Carrots ARE very sweet. I use them in smoothies all the time instead of sugar.
The "cake" is a little sad looking, though.
Aren't cakes universal? Delicious in any language.
That cake is wrecktastic here, there and frankly everywhere.
What might the little red things be that are placed around the border? Grape tomatoes?
And the gritty-looking stuff sprinkled over the wording? Pepper?
I'm with Mrs. Flax. Carrots are sweet enough that carrots with chocolate could work. Can't say I've tried it though.
wait...do they not have birthday cake in Turkey?? that's it! i refuse to go there during my birthday! ridiculous!
Okay, having looked very carefully at the close-up, I am convinced that the "carrots" are something akin to chocolate shavings, the red things and the rose leaves are made of candy, and the greenish-tan stuff above and below the text field is, not mold, but a sprinkling of seeds-- not my first choice in cake topping, but possibly quite delicious.
The "pepper," on the other hand ...
wv: toyallit. "I had a bite of the pepper cake and ran for the toyallit."
Well, in the close-up I can see what appear to be pistachios, which is usually included in Baklava, and the black pepper may be some sort of ground spice.....but black pepper IS an ingredient in Masala Tea...which most people call "Chai Tea" and it's sweet. Hmmmm. I've had pickled carrots at Indian restaurants, and grated carrots with raisins do form the base of a sweet, cole-slaw type salad. Maybe the cake IS just what it appears to be. I wish we could see a photo of the inside...that might help shed some light on how it would taste.
.............maybe.
I ate carrots with chocolate frosting about a month ago and it was delicious. I like crunchy and chocolate together and there was nothing else to put the frosting on. Yum.
That said, the "pepper" on this cake doesn't look too appetizing.
did you mean to say "quicky, now" there at the end? are you encouraging Patreesha to try carrots with chocolate icing while that is going on? i thought the post before this was the one about freaky fetishes...
Looks like curls made with orange-colored white chocolate, doesn't it?
I would not say that was carrots...
Euww, yuck. I love carrot cake, but that's too much! Lol
Anna Marie
I lived in Turkey for 3 years, and I don't think I have *ever* seen anything like that.
While this cake does look very unappetizing, I actually do have a recipe for chocolate carrot cake that is AMAZING!!!!
It's not even "Happy Biethday" - it's "Biethday Happy"!
Sorry to burst the bubble of fun, but if you look closely at the picture you'll notice a bottle of beer in the left hand corner and the "medical instruments" are what we use here in Turkey for cookouts. I suspect it was a drunken joke. That said though, there are plenty of "wrecks" here particularly for New Years (which of course is when Santa comes and puts gifts under the tree).
I've lived in Turkey. With no disrespect meant for such a wonderful people and culture, this would not surprise me at all. I've got many stories that in which the results were "lost in translation!"
Maybe they requested "Carrot cake?"
OK, so I actually lived in Turkey for many years, and I must say I'm surprised! I have seen some of the loveliest (not to mention tastiest) cakes over there.
Still, this one *is* exceptionally ugly. I never saw carrots on a cake over there, though.
On further thought, I think it might be a burfi/halva-inspired cake. Burfi and halva are dessert bars that are popular in India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. Carrot and pistachio are both common ingredients. I've seen them in indian sweet stores in chicago.
Biethday Happy??? Geez Louise!
Oh my that is a horrid cake for us turks. Wait, are those pistacchios? I think it would've been much better if they grinded them first. And ditched the orange.
Maybe it not chocolate icing at all.....maybe its paté with olive tapenade? Certainly it would be tastier with carrot sticks!
oh pish posh
This delightful delectation is imbued with a certain rustic charm.
I want one.
I don't think enough people have touched on the "Birthday Happy" part of this cake.
Huh. After reading the comments and taking a long hard look at this cake I have to say I agree with others. I'm seeing the 'pepper' as green sugar (look closely around the candied cherries on the edges), the carrots as some sort of chocolate shaving (look at the bottom right where the "carrot slice" is completely round - that'd have to be an entire carrot half if this were in fact a pile of carrots), and while I initially thought the green seeds were pistachios as well, upon close inspection I'm seeing pine nuts. I think you've got yourself a Kwanzaa cake there that Sandra Lee would be proud of.
I teach ESL, and for my birthday last year, one of my Turkish students made me a SPINACH CAKE. I mean, the thing was green. I have to say, though, it wasn't bad. Hopefully Jody's was just as tasty.
I vote for the misunderstood "carrot cake" theory so many other comments have put forth.
As for pistachios, those are very common in Turkish/Mediterranean desserts - like baklava. So it's not really weird to see those.
The thing in the middle is a white candle seen from the burnt wick end, not a pearl onion, and the red things are definitely nice reasonable maraschino cherries.
The pepper, though, I'm as clueless as the rest of you. Unless they misinterpreted "carrot cake" even worse than we thought. Actually, though, black pepper with chocolate shouldn't taste too bad - much less dubious than the carrots!
If something is slightly sweet it is fair game for dessert somewhere. I was in Brunei a few years ago and was served a banana split with corn in it! And sweet potato ice cream is common in Japan. That icing may not even be chocolate. It could be like the "chocolate" cake I once bought in Singapore that turned out to iced with red bean paste.
ok, I lived in Turkey for seven months, and I never came across anything looking like that...
This reminds me of when I lived in the Philippines and ordered a pecan pie: I provided the pecans and the recipe. I got a beautifully cooked pie-- with a cup of pecans on the side. Apparently the recipe didn't actually say to put in the nuts. I agree with Katie, I'm sure she asked for carrot cake. When in Turkey, I've had chicken pudding.
Whatever it looks like, I'll bet it was delicious! I had the most incredible desserts in Turkey. Mmm...just thinking about it makes me want to go back! I will grant, of course, that it looks, well, not delicious :)
biethday might not be so happy if I tried to eat cake with carrots and pepper. Yargh! *runs away*
As for the previous cake feet: It made me paranoid. I ped-egged my feet thoroughly and painted my toenails. lol.
You haven't killed my fetish, though; you've just reminded me to be picky. :P
That looks like a cake I made for my DOG last year (used carrot slices to make flowers, since dogs really shouldn't eat icing).
Actually it looks more like the cake after my dog dug into it.
Ew!
I've never commented before, but this post will make me do it. I just found out I'm pregnant, and I wanted to let you know that that cake right there - actually made me physically gag! Thanks for that :)!
I can't vouch for carrot and chocolate icing, but carrot sticks in chocolate fondue are actually quite nice. The same cannot be said of raw mushrooms though!
Maybe they ordered a carrot cake, and the Turkish bakery didn't know what that was.
Maybe Jody was from Utah, and the cake makers, knowing nothing else about Utah except for their penchant to put carrots in green jello decided to put the carrots on the cake thinking maybe that carrots went into every desert in Utah. (And I live in UT, and the carrots/green jello thing...totally true)
I've lived in Turkey a long time and I've never seen a cake this bad. I think the orange things are probably carrots, the green things are pistacios, and the little red decorations on the sides are pomagranite kernels. I agree with some of the other comments that poor Jody must have requested a carrot cake and the Turks didn't know how to make one. How funny. I love this site. I can come here whenever I need a laugh.
I have been telling people for YEARS that carrots never belong in/on cakes. This is simply an extreme example of exactly why I hate carrot cake. Some things were just not made to go together.
Are those chopped olives?!
Isn't "Jody" the pig that haunted the little girl in that Margo Kidder movie (I didn't see the remake) The Amityville Horror?
I can honestly say that I've voluntarily eaten carrots dipped in chocolate frosting and they were quite tasty. A friend made some absolutely delicious frosting for some mini chocolate cupcakes. I had already had a few cupcakes, but still wanted more frosting (and felt it would be a major faux pas to stick my finger in the frosting bowl)...so I dipped in a baby carrot. And then a second...
Of course, I probably should mention that I'm pregnant :)
*eye twitch*