So Mark and I are two of THE MOST boring people ever. Really. Our home is our happy place, and we honestly don't like to leave it.
Every once in a while, because I need reassurance, I ask Mark if he is truly happy with our boring lifestyle, and he always assures me that he is.
Every now and again he asks me the same thing. Not as often, because he doesn't need the reassurance, and he tends to ask differently. Do you want to go out tonight? I don't.
So we live our happy, quiet, boring lives in bliss.
Even when we "go out", it's to grab a burger or pizza. And more times than not, I just want to hit the drive thru and bring the food home.
But for some reason, today was different.
Between Sunday School and church, Mark asked if I wanted to go out. I told him, "No. Not really.", but then I got to thinking. I asked if he had anything in mind. No. Not really.
So after church, we kind of talked about it.
Now I spend five days a week at work. I spend one morning a week at Bible Study. I spend one evening a week at a different Bible Study. I spend one evening a week babysitting an adorable four-year-old. And I spend one morning a week at church. The only "free" time I have is Sunday afternoons, and this is before laundry and house cleaning. I do not give up my Sunday afternoons easily. (Except once a month for book club....)
But we got to talking about actually going out.
Because Mark cannot do anything without researching it first, we ended up at "Ephesus", a Turkish restaurant.
And, oh my!, did we enjoy it.
A small restaurant in a small strip center on Mason Road in Katy.
The kind of restaurant where the staff sit at a table near the kitchen eating their own lunches.
The kind of restaurant that, while it has a few patrons, also has many empty tables.
This is no big chain everyone flocks to after church on Sunday.
Sign on the door let us know they had Halal food. I kind of took this as a sign that there would also be no alcohol. There was not.
Now seriously what Mark and I know about Turkish food is this: nothing. OK, that's not entirely true, we know baklava and turkish coffee. That's what we know.
So looking at the menu did not do us a whole lot of good. But look we did.
The appetizers were a bit easy.
After spending 50+ years thinking I did not like eggplant, I recently discovered I do! I do like eggplant! I saw an appetizer with sauteed eggplant amongst other vegetables and decided I had to try it.
Mark became tickled when he saw "baba ganoush". Not because he had any idea what baba ganoush was or how it tasted, but because we have watched "Most Extreme Elimination"; the Japanese game show dubbed for American audiences where on almost every show there is a contestant named "Baba Ganoush". How could he not order it??
The appetizers came out with a plate of pita bread. We had no idea how we were supposed to eat them, but we pretended we did. (Smeared a bit onto a piece of pita and popped it into our mouths. Is that right? We don't know!)
They have lunch specials every day, even on weekends, but Mark wanted something where we could try more than just one dish each. We noticed a combination main course for two. Bingo. I have absolutely NO IDEA what we ordered, but we ordered. I know there was lamb, and I know there was chicken. On a bed of rice with cabbage and onions. Even after eating it, that is the extent of my knowledge. Oh, and it was all delicious.
Onto dessert, because, as I said earlier, I know baklava! So I ordered the baklava and a turkish coffee. I don't even drink coffee, but when in Rome....or something like that.
They did not skimp on the pistachios!!
Mark, who tried baklava before and decided it was much too honey drenched (I know, I don't get it either) decided he wanted to try something else.
They had three other desserts, and they all sounded disgusting by the descriptions printed on the menu. I handed Mark the menu and added, "Good luck." He ordered something we couldn't quite pronounce along with a turkish tea. His "dessert" was shredded wheat soaked in some kind of milk and honey and then baked. Umm. OK. Good luck.
It came out and I was intrigued.
Y'all...it was good. And I still have no idea how to describe it. I mean it WAS shredded wheat soaked in some kind of milk and honey and then baked, which I admit does NOT sound appetizing, but it was. It was sweet and crunchy and had, apparently, the right amount of honey.
Here is a link to Mark's dessert I looked up for y'all's benefit: https://youtu.be/3EF_R7__xu4
Another fun aspect to this restaurant was the TV. Apparently someone is driving, walking, cycling around Turkey with a helmet cam, because that is the only thing on the TV. You can just sit there and watch the streets of Turkey pass by as you enjoy your meal.
And I gotta say, I enjoyed watching the streets of Turkey. I caught myself looking up at the screen periodically even though my back was to the TV. I was entranced.
We absolutely thoroughly enjoyed all the food we ate and the ambiance of this little restaurant.
Maybe.... just maybe... there is something to this "going out".
