This is John Kennedy with another Postcard from Abroad from the University of Kansas.
If you like ice cream, you should definitely visit Turkey. The ice cream there is called dondurma— and it’s thick, sticky and slow to melt… and vendors love to tease customers when serving it up. One of the most common pranks is to offer the customer a cone and then to snatch it away just as the customer reaches for it. Thanks to its thick, sticky texture, vendors can tip cones upside down and twirl them around without the dondurma falling off—always keeping the cone just out of the customer’s reach. Another favorite vendor trick is to ask a customer to hold the cone while they add another scoop using a long-handled spoon. But as soon as the extra scoop gets added, it sticks hard and the vendor pulls the spoon back, yanking the entire cone out of the person’s hand yet again! That’s an unexpected Turkish delight!
With thanks to Jennifer Duhamel of the KU Center for Global and International Studies for this text, this is John Kennedy. Wish you were here!
