Have you ever tried Turkish ice-cream before? it's really really yummy. It's nothing like the other ice-creams you've had before. It's creamy, chewy and even stretchy! It's like the Stretch-Arm-Man toy of ice-creams.... but delicious.
Anyway, so I was reminded of them today, and when there's something I don't really know about, I usually go to Wikipedia or what-not, and do a little mini-research on it. (I know I'm a dork, but I'm proud of it! haha) So I find its wikipedia page, and they're called "Dondurma".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
To sum up the description, they're stretchy ice-creams that come in different flavors... one of which is the "salepi" flavor made of orchids. Side note: because of the popularity of this ice-cream, there was a threat to wild-orchid populations in Turkey! Interesting for me, being a biologist and all.... hmmmm "sustainable ice-creams, anyone?" ANYWAY, so I continue reading the description.... and it reads:
There are many different flavors of dondurmas. (I'm thinking, uh huh, sure, like strawberry, banana, chocolate.... and then I read: The literal translation of salepi dondurma is "fox testicle ice cream".
*sound of record scratching* and I do a double take, wait, WHAT? I read again:
"The literal translation of salepi dondurma is.... "fox testicle ice cream"
Yep, you read it right, my friend. Salepi Dondurma's translate to FOX TESTICLE ICE CREAM....
WTF, right? WHAT THE EFFFFF? I seriously heard the sound of a record scratch in my head! Being the mega-dork, know-it-all wanna-be that I am, I HAD TO click on the citation it has which leads me to another article:
http://www.salon.com/wlust
it says:
The word "salep" comes from the Arabic sahlab, which means "fox testicles." Ali showed me a handful of the dried tubers, and although I have never had the opportunity to examine a fox that closely, the paired, ovoid spheres did bear a striking resemblance to that part of the male anatomy. Ancient accounts referred to this similarity, and the first-century Greek physician Dioscorides recommended the use of orchid tubers as an aphrodisiac. The word orchis in Greek means "testicle," and so it seems that human interest in orchids was originally focused on the erotic aftereffects of eating the tubers rather than on the cultivation of plants for their showy floral displays.
Interesting! I knew that Orchids have sexual connotations, but I thought it was for female body parts... so I got curious as to what this flower looks like and I wikipedia-ed this Salepi flower. Here's the botanical drawing I get:
Do they look like fox testicles to you? Like the author says, I've never had the opportunity to carefully inspect fox testicles before, but, this is NOT what I had imagined them to look like.... Is that what fox testes look like?... scratch that, is that what ANY animal's testes look like?
So yeah, there's really no point to this blog other than: "WTF, Turkish Ice cream, W-T-F?"
I guess people in Turkey don't say "I scream, you scream, we all scream for SALEPI DONDURMAS"... cuz that's just a little too embarrassing.... hahaha
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