Regulars

Every week, for most of the year, Jenna and I go out to eat during the week. Almost always we go out on Tuesday night. Originally the plan was to rotate between our two favorite local restaurants, like we do every Sunday, but 75% of the time we came to the same restaurant, the Mantı house. Every week we sit at the same table and we order the same thing. As you can see here, they bring out bread to dip in ezme, this amazing tomato dip kind of like salsa. I get a berry tea to drink, Jenna has water. I order a half portion of mantı without yogurt and a half portion sarma (grape leaves stuffed with rice). Jenna gets mantı and has two of my sarma. Then we always have tea and desert. [They have my favorite Turkish desert, burma tatlısı.]

We've been going long enough that when the waiter comes over he usually starts telling us what we want and we just say yes. But last night, we finally arrived. We came in and sat down. As we were sitting down we heard him placing an order we figured had to be ours, because very few people eat mantı without yogurt. We didn't have to say a word. They brought our drinks and then our meal without us placing an order. Jenna and I were tickled pink. I was a little sad I have to admit, I'm finally a regular and I only get to eat there for three more weeks!