Baklava, the magical fruit

Okay, so it's very much not fruit. Not at all. But it is delicious!
I've never really cared for baklava. The few times I tried it back in the States, I just wasn't really impressed with it and thought it wasn't a dessert for me. But little did I know the many variations of it. And further did I not know just how delicious Turkey can make it!

My first encounter with baklava here was at a bakery nearby. Some friends wanted to stop by and get some things so I tagged along. At this point I had no idea how delicious Turkish baklava was so I didn't get any.... Sad.

I had my first bite of this awesome dessert on a trip back from Tarsus. Our guide knew a good place for ice cream so we stopped there and got ice cream and free samples of baklava, fresh! Wikipedia tells me this is usually eaten cold or at room-temperature, but eating it while it was still warm from the oven got me hooked and I'd gladly eat it this way if no other way was available.

My second go around with the dessert was at a carpet where a whole tray was set out. I'm pretty sure I ate the most baklava out of every one there (not combined, jeeze!). This only confirmed my first impression. This baklava is delicious. It wasn't simply a good recipe from that particular store good, but Turkey has the whole recipe figured out and it's great.

So finally! After many trips to the mall and telling myself that I should get some baklava because I know I want, I got some!

Yarım kilo cevizi baklava. (Half a kilo of walnut baklava.)

It's taken a bit of restraint, but I've only eaten 4 pieces so far today. I think that's good.

It looks like a little sandwich.