A November to Remember (Part 3 of 4)

Once a term Westfield House likes to get everyone to go out together for a house meal. So on the 26^th of November we all went out together to a place called Anatolia. It is a Turkish restaurant and so we would hence have a fairly authentic Turkish meal. It was also a good deal for the students because the house only charged ₤5 per person and picked up the tab for the rest of the meal. The first course was wine, which was fairly nice. Next there were plates with a bunch of different dips along with bread to dip it in. There was hummus, couscous, a fish tasting thing, a cucumber dip and a couple others. Very good stuff, and apparently Turkish. While we ate this we watched someone grill the meat on a grill near our tables. He wheeled his blue office chair (seen behind flames to the left) up to the grill and sat there turning the skewers of meat. The main dish then was…meat, on top of rice. Not sure what kind really, but there were three different types. Possibly chicken and lamb and maybe beef, but we weren’t really sure. Everything was going great and we were just waiting for the dessert course when the unexpected happened. The music got louder and the owner told us he had a special surprise for us. Then out came a belly dancer. Apparently this is normal for a Turkish meal, but it’s not normal for a British meal. It was slightly entertaining for about the first 5 seconds, and then it just got weird. We got pretty uncomfortable with this girl gyrating around us and either looked away or starred in disbelief. Then the owner picked out some of the guys from our group and had them stand up and dance too. Don’t worry, it got weirder. Then the owner cleared off a spot and had her dance on the table. We politely clapped along to the music in the background (as was prompted by the owner), until we couldn’t take it anymore. A group of us decided to draw attention away from the belly dancer and the strange situation and get up to dance ourselves. This at least eased the tension a little bit and we could laugh at each other instead of stare at the lone belly dancer. The owner then had me dance with him (check the weird pictures) to show me that I was doing it wrong. I never got it, oh well. Luckily he ended it after that song and told us, “You will all come back now.” Um…no, we won’t, but it was an experience we won’t forget. Then the baklava came out for the dessert course, and it was delicious. If you’ve never had it, try it. Good stuff. So Turkish pros are cucumber dip, hummus and baklava, and cons are unexpected belly dancers.

Link to Pictures (PG: Parental Guidance Suggested)