There is a turkish fruit shop and bakery not far away from my appartement. I go shopping there since over five years or maybe more. The prices for fruits and vegetables and other things are pretty reasonable there. More favorable and tasty than in any other shop I know. It´s my favorite shop for such things.

It´s a family-run shop. A man with his woman and son. I’m on very good terms with them and always if I go there we have some nice talking. I like that so much and it is such a difference to many other shops.

I am not sure if it is three or four weeks ago but some weeks ago I went to the shop again and then I saw something like red coloured rice and as my mother likes to cook Tunisian, the rice did remind me instantly to the tasty Tunisian Couscous dish, which we eat sometimes.

When I was in the shop, I asked if this is couscous and they said “No, it might look similar but it is called Bulgur and we do call it Bulgur Salad.”. I thought regardless of whether it is called, it simply looks delicious and I said “Give me a cup of it!”. They amusingly answered “Ok but be careful, it might be the start of an addiction!”. They also told me that it is home-cooked and fresh, the woman makes it. I paid, said thank you and went at home to eat it.

The first spoon and I thought “Wow! That is amazing and delicious!”. But even the taste did remind me a little bit to Couscous which is tasty as well. But it was still a little bit different. But as said extremely delicate! We had those hot days and I was not sure if this is the perfect dish for the warm weather but then I noticed, it is perfect even if it was just a little bit spicy. But it was not warm food and that was reason enough as I don´t like to eat warm stuff if the weather is already warm enough.

They were right. I think I bought Bulgur five times in a row after my first time. It was the start of an addiction. Turkish is anyway tasty but Bulgur brings you again straight to the point “Turkish food is fantastic!”.

And I went day after day to the shop to get Bulgur Salad as it is the perfect summer dish. One day there was a Sicilian customer in the shop and when I got my Bulgur he asked “Hey you bought Couscous?”, “This is Sicilian national cuisine since we know the recipe from Tunisia!” and “We copied it!”. He was funny and I answered humorously like he was “Copied like we germans did with your italian food?” and “You know pizza and pasta stuff is today german national cuisine!” and we all laughed a lot. But then again the turkish shop owner´s interrupted us to say “This is not Couscous, this is Bulgur Salad.”. And we all laughed again. But he then asked why I know Couscous and I told him because one of my aunts was married with a Tunisian and this is why we can now cook Couscous too. And we again laughed.

You know I like these shops, where you also meet strangers and if you have a talk with them. It happen pretty often there in the fruit shop. Always pretty nice atmosphere there. Days later when I again bought Bulgur, the turkish women said that it is even more tasty if I eat it with lemon juice and green salad together. I now do often buy a lemon and green salad when I shop for Bulgur. She also said that she will write down the recipe for me so that it gets little bit cheaper and that I can cook Bulgur in mass. 😀 I think I will do then. 😀 I love it.