IZMIR

201 7FunkTravels Izmir Chocolate Festival

EVENTS: Izmir Chocolate Festival

2017, EVENTS, FOOD, IZMIR, LOCAL, PLACES, TURKEY Catie

In the past, Turkey hasn’t been known for having the most decadent desserts outside of their amazing baklava and ‘Sorbet/Syrup’ desserts(basically sweet treats soaked in a simple syrup). And to continue that, chocolate in any form isn’t high on anyone’s priority list. In fact, I read that the average Turk consumes less than a kilo of chocolate a year whereas the average German can consume up to 7 kilos per year.  But, similar to the rising popularity of specialized coffee, the chocolate scene is slowly starting to make waves. The times are changing folks.

So, needless to say, when Izmir held it’s first annual (and long anticipated) local Chocolate Festival at the La Vie Nouvelle venue on March 31 – April 2… I had to go! The same organizers, Next Organization and Ateş Prodüksiyon, of private festivals such as the Izmir Coffee Festival back in October 2016 also organized the Izmir Chocolate Festival.

 

The festival was well planned with many booths representing mostly chocolate or dessert companies, but there were several other small businesses stands as well to give the guests some diversity. We found coffee, chocolate crepes, truffles, ice cream, and a beautiful chocolate fountain that you could dip your fruit into. Along with purchasing items from the businesses (or free sampling at some of the more generous booths), the festival offered workshops for both adults and kids and held seminars on different topics related to chocolate like ‘Health and Chocolate’.

If you got tired from all the sugar you enjoyed, you could sit and enjoy the view of the bay since the venue was right on the water. And there was always a DJ providing music in the background. We happened to be there while they were teaching the crowd how to do some type of line dancing and then some salsa dancing.

If the adults weren’t enjoying the music, the kids would. The kids were allowed up on the stage to dance and play at different times. Even though the venue was too crowded, the event was super family friendly.

Overall, I think the festival was worth going to! I will leave you with 3 thoughts. Firstly, while it was a fun time, I am not sure it was worth 2 full price tickets.  Fortunately for us, the festival offered a buy one, get one free promotion back in February. Secondly, although the time we went was super lively and hopping, I wish we would have gone on the first day early in the morning because well… less crowded… more food to sample/try… and just easier to have a conversation with people. Lastly, I so wish I would have signed up for a workshop! I would have loved learning alongside others how to make truffles or a Nutella praline, just to name a couple!

Questions for the readers:

Would you go to a Chocolate Festival near you? Have you been to one before?

What is your favorite chocolate treat?

Resources:

Izmir Chocolate Festival  (Facebook and Instagram)

Chocolate-and-candy Atatürk statue: The hot item at İzmir Chocolate Festival

Other spring festivals

 

 

FOOD: Buenos Aires Cafe, Izmir – ★★★★☆

2017, FAMILY, FOOD, IZMIR, LOCAL, PLACES, RESTAURANTS, TURKEY jason

Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: Go!

Facebook Page link here.

Buenos Aires is a little cafe just down the street from our house in Izmir that opened shortly after we moved in. We met the owner one day as we were hauling an old toilet to trash… He kindly came out to help us. Since then we intended to go eat there but haven’t made it. This week we decided to finally try it and we were very glad that we did!

Catie and I were just coming off of the Whole 30 and were ready for some ‘real’ food! We asked the owner what was best to order and he suggested the Buenos Aires Burger and the Turkish Pizza. In my experience, it’s not wise to ignore order suggestions from the owner. We were hungry so I also ordered a side of onion rings.

The hamburger and the pizza were delicious! The hamburger, unlike a lot of other Turkish hamburgers, had a really good texture. This burger also had a piece of steak filet on it! The pizza had a thin, crispy crust that had a variety of toppings on it, including sucuk (a spicy turkish beef sausage), a type of pastrami (which may have actually been pork) and corn (which is not uncommon for Turkish pizzas). After not having pizza for a month, it was a great step back into the italian world.

The only negative thing about the dinner were the french fries. They were a soggy mess. While the flavors were fine, they had none of the ‘french fry’ texture that you want.  (*UPDATE: We have been there 2 more time since this review and the fries are our favourite thing to order! It seemed to be a one time mishap!) My hamburger came with some and our onion rings came with some too. (The onion rings were delicious but there were only 6 of time in a large basket of french fries — pro tip: more onion rings, less french fries!)

After dinner we ordered a Magnolia. Catie had seen it on the sign as we walked by day after day and wanted one. We didn’t actually know what it was though! As it turns out, it is banana pudding named after Magnolia Bakery in New York City.  We were served two kinds – banana/strawberry and oreo. Man… it was thick and delicious. I had not heard of it before but we may need to go the next time we are in New York or Chicago.

HOLIDAY: Swiss Hotel Lighting of the Tree

2016, EVENTS, HOLIDAY, IZMIR, LOCAL, TURKEY Catie

 

Since this is our first Christmas season in Izmir, I didn’t know what to expect. When I lived in Istanbul before, I never even checked to see if there were holiday events in the city, malls, or international groups. This time around, a little research on Instagram and Facebook events/groups showed many holiday events. We did make it to the IWAI Christmas Market before we left town early on our #funkchristmas2016 tour. Fortunately, we made it to one more event with some friends of ours for the Lighting of the Tree at the Swiss Hotel.

The evening was lovely. The hotel very thoughtfully decorated and an itinerary of Christmas music. While either the pianist and violinists played or the choir sang, guest enjoyed cookies, special tarts, and my favorite, mulled wine.

It was a perfect send off to our Christmas vacation the next day and for others a perfect start to their holiday season. If you are living in Izmir and are looking for Christmas events, this is one I would definitely recommend!

HOLIDAY: IWAI Christmas Bazaar

2016, EVENTS, FAMILY, HOLIDAY, IZMIR, LOCAL, TURKEY Catie
Picture from IWAI Website

One of the groups I found before moving was the IWAI – International Women’s Association of Izmir, a non-profit organization that blends international women from all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. This even includes Turkish women that have married foreigners, worked for international companies, lived abroad for a period of time, or want to help expats moving to Izmir. Throughout the year, the group holds regular coffee meetings, social events, and charity events. So when we moved, it was one of the first group events that I attended!

In December, IWAI hosted their Annual Christmas Market at the Swiss Hotel. Guests meandered through 60 tables arranged with goodies – from candies, scarves, jewelry, handmade Christmas items like ornaments and table clothes and even rugs.


Since Jason and I had already spent quite a bit on setting up our new home, I wasn’t really looking to buy anything special. So, instead, the food was the highlight. There were only a couple of food stands, but I managed to buy a jar of caramel, a cake pop(from the picture above), sweet potato chips, and banana chips (none of which are super christmasy, but a treat nonetheless!). I also loved meeting the small shop owners. I collected cards from a few of my favorite stands.

The market also served as a charity fundraiser. All guests paid an entrance fee and that money went towards a pre-selected group of single moms in Karşıyaka area of Izmir. Several ladies represented IWAI at the ceremony and presented the gift certificate from LC Waikiki to the ladies.

Picture from IWAI Facebook page

The group has been a great way to find new friends and provide support as we navigate expat living in Izmir. If you want to learn more about the IWAI, check out their website and Facebook page.

HOLIDAY: Celebrating Christmas in Izmir

2016, FAMILY, HOLIDAY, HOME, IZMIR, TURKEY Catie 4 Comments on HOLIDAY: Celebrating Christmas in Izmir
huge tree in one of the Istanbul malls

This wasn’t my first Christmas overseas, but it was OUR first Christmas overseas. Within 4 months, we moved to Turkey, rented an apartment, and furnished it(mostly). So this year, our Christmas decor was a little meek. Ikea pretty much has everything you could ever need, including some Christmas decor. SO, while I would have loved to keep with holiday tradition of buying a real tree, we settled for a cute little fake one!

 

In anticipation of our 2016 move, Christmas 2015 ended with one big packed Christmas box for storage and one small box labeled ‘Christmas stuff 4 Turkey move.’ Thankfully, we didn’t have to open it again until we had our Christmas in Turkey!  Below is one of my old turkish ornament I bought from my old single days in Turkey. It has made it many places with me!

And this is our new turkish ornament we bought during our sailing trip along the Aegean coastline.

Some traditions aren’t hard to keep, here is our annual Christmas tree decorating time lapse!

 

Right before we left town, we did see ‘New Year’ trees – REAL ones – at a local grocery store! Next year we may have a real tree!

 

We may not of had a real tree, but we did do our 2nd annual advent calendar! 2015 was long year for my job, and Jason was a champ through all of it. By December, I was finally was coming out of the work fog, and I wanted to do something special for him to look forward to Christmas. Jason loved it. Every morning he woke up, check the back of the card and had something to look forward to for the day. This year was no different. And – since we had planned our #funkchristmas2016 tour, it made some of our advent activities really interesting!

Our advent calendar is nothing fancy, I printed a card template and wrote the dates on the front with activities on the back. Ikea once again came to the rescue with Christmas theme washi tape!

 

 

Along with our advent calendar, we had a few other decorations around our living/dining area. Ikea also had some fake garlands, and I grabbed one knowing it would look fabulous over our fireplace. Every year, I usually find a few free Christmas prints online. A couple I put in frames, others I just taped up with washi tape. Those few new items, plus our small box of treasures we brought from the states, made up our decor this year. And you know what? It was perfect! Simple and perfect.

 

One of our advent calendar events was baking Christmas cookies. This was three-fold.

1. Decorating (my favorite)

2. Eating of course (Jason’s favorite)

3. Gifts for our neighbor goodie bag!

 

By December, we had met most of our apartment building neighbors. Since Turkey is a majority muslim country, Christmas is not a celebrated holiday, but it is somewhat present. You can see Christmas trees, decor, lights and sometimes snowmen. ‘Christmas’ is more of a new year celebration and sometimes Santa even makes it by. 😉

For us, Christmas is our whole reason for life, and we are so happy to celebrate it. Part of our Christmas traditions is giving gifts to one another – family and friends alike. As a little gift for our Christmas celebrations, we shared little goodie bags with them! Along with the homemade Christmas cookies, we filled the bag with all the Christmasy foods – gingerbread cookies, chocolates, and a homemade hot chocolate mixture with a bag of marshmallows.

 

The goodie bags were a huge hit! (Plus, they were super fun to make.) Christmas touring in Europe was a blast. And I spent most of our December, and January mornings enjoying this view….