It's here! Locum...also known as Turkish Delight.
Arriving today, my first impression on tasting it is "Gelatinous Cube". The Turkish Delight I had shipped is also Rosewater...but is sprinkled throughout liberally with Pistashios, Almonds and Hazelnuts. The addition of nuts may be it's saving grace.
In Narnia (C.S. Lewis: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe) the youngest son turns the whole family in (they are hiding) for the promise of his beloved Turkish Delight.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...maybe not.
It reminds me of Gummy Bears...melted...refirmed into cubes...with nuts...and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It is chewy.
Really chewy.
Over-cooked calamari chewy.
I'm looking forward to trying to make my own using Orange instead of Rosewater...and dipping the top in dark chocolate, then sprinkling with chopped pistachios.
Dark chocolate makes everything amazing.
Today's Virtual Adventure is a peek inside The Whirling Dervishes: The Mevlevi Sufi Dance.
A meditation practice still used within the Mevlevi Order said to originate with Rumi. (...we'll get to Rumi later..)
The Dervishes are also called Semazens. The meditation consists of spinning one's body in clockwise circles while abandoning one's ego and personal desires, listening to music and thinking of Allah/God.
Example
https://youtu.be/L_Cf-ZxDfZA
In the symbolism of the Sema ritual, the semazen's camel's hair hat (sikke) represents the tombstone of the ego; his wide, white skirt (tennure) represents the ego's shroud. By removing his black cloak (hırka), he is spiritually reborn to the truth. At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to God's unity. While whirling, his arms are open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive God's beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. The semazen conveys God's spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love.
Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says,
"All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!"
It is called Raqs Baladi or Raqs Shaabi and the term Belly Dance or Danse du Ventre came from the French. It is performed by men and women alike in Turkey.
As with many thing in America we tend to hypersexualize the appearance of a "belly dancer"
A tourist in Istanbul would be greatly shocked.
Most of them ranging from simply overweight...to what one Wall Street Journal contributor once referred to as "whale dimensions"
I will never forget the article. The mid-flavour column in the WSJ where the writer had done a piece on The Middle East, and experienced REAL Raqs Baladi, describing it through the eyes of someone who expected something much different.
"...midway through her dance, this woman of whale dimensions reached into her cavernous cleavage and procured a tissue like a magician's trick. She then blew her nose loudly, stuffed the used tissue back out of sight between those enormous breasts, and continued her undulations..."
~laughing~
Belly Dancing
https://youtu.be/mHpg-7n7QvQ
Tomorrow we will discover the Original Whirling Dervish- Rumi
More anon...
