Ginger and Football

Many of you may know that I love my Ginger. Like crazy. I munch on candied ginger all the time and drink ginger tea whenever I can. I brought a huge stash of ginger tea from Canada but now sadly my supply has almost run out.

Today I set out to find a Turkish alternative to fuel my desperation for the tea. I had found a shop my last time in Ankara, but this time, I had not been able to find it after many days spent searching:) But today I finally found it. There was the shop right there on Guvenlik Caddesi – I had probably walked by it a million times but not realized it.

I walked in and all was immediately familiar. Right away I saw the gigantic bottle of this dried ginger at the back and knew I hit a goldmine.

An older gentleman was running the shop. We greeted each other in the usual formalities and then I asked for a small bag of the prized ginger tea. But he looked at me and said firmly: "Zencefil Çay size vermecağım!!". This means: "I won't give you any ginger tea".

I just stood there. Looked at the guy. I mean, he was totally serious. I thought maybe I asked for it wrong but I was sure he said what he said. I stood there with a giant question mark running through my mind.

"What the $%#&*$%@@@??? " was the main thing going through my head. "Is this gigantic jar of ginger just not for sale or something? Or maybe this guy thinks it’s not healthy for me? Or maybe by some obscure law which I am not aware of, I am not allowed to consume this?

He said it again: "Zencefil Çay size vermecağım!!"

I thought: "Well that's just great. I walk over the whole city for several weeks looking for ginger tea and I finally hit pay dirt, yet I am forbidden to buy it"

Then he pointed to my hat. And said one more time: "Zencefil Çay size vermecağım!!" Then I realized what the hell was going on.

I was wearing a hat that said "BJK" - the logo for Beşıktaş, one of the biggest soccer/football teams in Turkey, based out of Istanbul. People in Turkey are serious about their football, and WHICH team you support. The team you go for isn't necessarily where you live – and it seems once you choose on it's like signing a contract - you are bound to it in blood.

(Of course I have broken that law in so many ways; I seem to cheer for whoever I feel like it:) I have shirts from BOTH Beşıktaş and Galatasaray (another popular Istanbul team), and a few days ago there I was cheering for Gençlerbirliği at a football match in Ankara).

The shopkeeper finally laughed and decided to give in to his loyalty and sell me the ginger tea for a lira and half. I asked which his team was and proudly declared “Fenerbahçe”, the third popular team of Istanbul.

So I smiled and walked out with my bag of ginger tea, and considered buying another hat for another team for my next trip to the shop. . .