Unsweetened Introduction (conclusion) -- Light at the end of the tunnel Some of you must have been wondering, "Well why didn't you pack a good-sized cooler with ice -- and use it to bring 10 or 12 boxes of ice-cream at a time from big-city Izmir?" "Or, if you didn't want to go to all that trouble (or if you didn't have that much freezer space at home), why didn't you use a good-quality insulated freezer bag to transport one-zies and two-zies?" Both good ideas, definitely. Because if we could get the ice-cream home unmelted, we did have a reliable mini-freezer (a housewarming gift from Peri's sister Semra) -- that could accept a dozen liter boxes of ice-cream at a time. But finding either of those products on the market back then (1992) was 'to dream the impossible dream'. Coolers and freezer bags hadn't yet found their way to Turkey -- even in big-city Izmir. We looked in every conceivable store (except the US Government PX in Izmir -- which our taxes supported but where we weren't allowed), and came up empty. Nor were searches in Ankara any more successful -- as friends and family there discovered. In those days, the variety of goods available here was pretty basic. Thankfully, in that regard at least, a lot has changed in the last 5-10 years. (Other things have changed too; not all of them get our seal-of-approval. But that's another story.) So...'our' (my) only real hope lay with our household goods that hadn't yet arrived by slow-boat from the States. The week before we departed from Dulles Airport we very haphazardly filled up a standard-sized shipboard container to the brim -- and shipped it to Izmir (addressed to ourselves) via an inexpensive stops-everywhere cargo ship. But a lot of useful-items didn't make it into 'the box' and had to be left behind. Was our el-cheapo Styrofoam cooler and our grungy insulated freezer-bag among the items that got packed -- or not? And were they undamaged -- or at least still functional? When the container arrived in late October, it took us two days of official-ese in Izmir to extract our goods from Turkish Customs (with the help of one Atilla Bey, a commercial customs agent -- at a cost of $500, as I recall). And, transporting the goods (which filled 2 Tangerine-carrying trucks) from Izmir (down that long Aegean coastal road) to Gümüldür cost another $200. We reckoned we'd gotten off cheap... But best of all... though our freezer-bag was missing, our Styrofoam cooler was among those goods that had made it all the way from Mt. Airy, Maryland. And, though a little worse for wear, it was still in working condition. So, for the next 5-6 years until the coming to our environs of the first Tansaş Supermarket (with its year-round ice-cream deep-freeze units)... if I wanted ice-cream 'out of season', we'd make an ice-cream run to Izmir to fill up that beat-up cooler (which we still own) -- and then make a non-stop return. Up and down that coastal road in record time. Lickety split. Comments Posted by Eva | July 13, 2006 Oh, I was right with you in epicurean spirit as I read of your quest for a steady supply of ice cream. I'm a fellow ice cream fiend. Just returned from a trip to Italy a few days ago where daily trips to gelaterie were a must. Supposedly New Englanders are especially avid consumers of ice cream year round, but I find fellow fans where ever I've travelled. If you're curious about a very low tech way of making your own, I've read directions for a "Kick the Can" ice cream making method which involves a 1 pound empty coffee can (metal is important for temperature conducting) put inside a 3 pound coffee can surrounded by layers of ice and rock salt. The ice cream ingredients are in the smaller can and, of course, you kick it around a while with some stirring now and then. A search would bring up directions for sure. I'd be happy to share a couple of good base recipes from B&Js which I use in an electric ice cream maker. At any rate, happy dondurma enjoying any way you get a hold of it!