getting to pammukale did not quite pan out. i was going to catch a ride to izmir with mo, spend the day there, and head on from there -- izmir is halfway. however, on the way to izmir out plans fell through and we ended up turning back to find a strawberry stand, which was not open yet, and from there we headed back to bergama to look for mustafa, dealer of pine nuts.
we set out in search of mustafa's shop from the town square overlooked by the white marble ruins of the temple of athena, high at the top of the hill behind the town. mo had looked for the store many times and failed every time but once. we did not find it on our first attempt. we asked a nearby taxi driver, tried again. found the store -- closed. we inquired at the nearby bakery: does any one know where is mustafa who owns the pine nut shop next door? the baker did. he told us: you will find mustafa in the tea shop with the simit wagon in front (simit is a kind of pretzel). down we went to look for the simit wagon. no simit wagon. about to give up, but deepdown determined, we asked at a restaurant. does anyone know where is mustafa who owns the pine nut shop up the way? a man stood up. i, he said, i am that mustafa.
he walked with us back up to his shop and opened the sheet metal doors. inside was a courtyard and an unlocked building where he had us to wait.
we were in a plain tile lobby with industrial power fixtures and fixture-less fluorescent lights. to the left, wholesale canvas bags of pine nuts, processed and unprocessed. to the right, an arrangement of green plants. at our feet, a balance with weights, 5g, 10g, 20g, up to 100, then as well weights up to five kilos. the door to mustafa's office was across the empty lobby. most of the lobby space sat unused.
"the machinery is in the back," said mo, picking up an unhusked pine nut, tarry and brown. he manipulated it. "the trick is to crack the shell without cracking the nut inside."
there was one bag of unprocessed nuts, and several bags of finished product. then mustafa returned, sent for tea, and ushered us into his office.
he and mo talked and talked -- about pine nuts. easily they talked for thirty minutes. on the table in front of his desk was an arrangement of pine cones, one of them placed on three to make a pyramid. there hummed a water cooler.
from there back out to the car for the ride home.
with toastywarm bread from the bakery we made pine nut buns. the pine nuts were tender. there are definitely good pine nuts and bad. i did not know this all was such serious business. i was wrong.
