Picnic at Silivri -- on the Marmara Shore

August 29, 1985

We ate green almonds from the tree at Silivri while lambs were turning and turning on the spits, and a little boy was basting them with fat on a long stick over glowing coals in the garden. We ate green almonds while the dessert of butter and bulgar and pine nuts was being stirred and stirred over a little pit of fire, in the garden. When the lamb and the big pot of pilaf and the crusty bread and the salad came to the spread-out table we were sorry that our hosts might have to climb for ripe fruit to the topmost branches of the almond tree.