I have brought 4 liters of domestic Rakija with me to Belfast for Organise! crew. I don't know if the guys have delt with it already...
Raki, and the Shaikh al-Islam
Hey rata - Well I'm not dead yet, having some now. I must get the rest of them together to drink some and see if any of us go blind, have strokes or end up stabbing each other. It'll be fun to see our Armagh Local try it to see if they really can handle their alcohol the way some of them like to claim they can!
newyawka wrote:
so, what was mr. yilmaz' position on religious sectarianism?
I can't exactly remember. That is one of the problems with Raki. I didn't know who he was at the time anyway. I didn't recognise him without his clothes on*.
Devrim
*He had clothes on obviously. He wasn't wearing his funny religious robes though.
rata wrote:
I have brought 4 liters of domestic Rakija with me to Belfast for Organise! crew. I don't know if the guys have delt with it already...
II think it is a different drink though:
Wiki wrote:
In Turkey, raki is the unofficial 'national drink' ...It is similar to several kinds of alcoholic beverages available in the Mediterranean and parts of the Balkans, including pastis, sambuca and ouzo. The general consensus is that all these liqueurs preceded arak, a similar arabic liqueur, but it remains a theory. In the Balkans, however, raki refers to a drink made from distilled pomace, similar to Italian grappa, Bulgarian rakia, Greek ouzo and tsipouro, Cretan tsikoudia, Cypriot zivania and Spanish orujo
Rakija: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakia
Raki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raki_%28alcoholic_beverage%29
I have drunk Slivovitza, which is similar to what you are talking about. It is impresive, but doesn't quiet have Raki's effects.
Devrim
Jack wrote:
Dev - are the new government going to ramp up taxes on alcohol or anything like that?
The new government is the same as the last government. The difference is they have their own President now.
The have been 'ramp[ing]' up the prices on alcohol for years.
Devrim
I think 'rakija' in Serbo-Croatian is a generic term for several distinct distilled alcoholic drinks, the most common are:
slivovic - plum
loza - grape
kruskovac - pear
Heaps of people distill their own rakija in ex-yugo. Some hillbilly distant cousin of mine told me, as we sipped slivovic fresh from the still a few years ago that two of the thousands of laws Serbia would have to pass if they joined the EU would ban home-distilling and home-slaughtering. This he assured me would have every peasant in Serbia digging up their AKs and violently overthrowing the government.
I've drunk rakija in Moldova- a clear spirit like a godawful vodka- not nice
I 've drunk rakija in Bulgaria which was like grappa or French marc, much nicer
Both a lot different from raki
There is a raki in Crete also known as tsikoudia,, but this is also a clear liquid and not tasting of anis. It is very like the tsipouro in northern Greece (Epirus) and is sometimes made with mulberries (mournoraki) which gives it a slightly fruity taste. Very nice ( as is tsipouro) Zivania or Tsivania from Cyprus is similar and also very nice.
I'll drink to everybody's health until I ruin my own!
Confusingly, there is a ouzo/raki like drink in Bulgaria called mastikha which is quite drinkable but totally different from that country's rakia. Even more confusingly, totally different from the original mastikha from the Greek island of Chios, made with mastic gum and tasting and smelling like horse embrocation, and from mastika from mainland Greece which tastes like a sweetish ouzo/raki
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Joseph K. wrote:
Devrim wrote:
There is also an 'ouzo/raki like drink' throughout the Middle East, generally called something like 'araki'is that the one which tends to blow westerners heads off?
Yes, the Turkish one is good too. It is a really weird kind of drunkenness. I enjoy it, occasionally.
Devrim
Devrim wrote:
Joseph K. wrote:
Devrim wrote:
There is also an 'ouzo/raki like drink' throughout the Middle East, generally called something like 'araki'is that the one which tends to blow westerners heads off?
Yes, the Turkish one is good too. It is a really weird kind of drunkenness. I enjoy it, occasionally.
Devrim
no, sorry, i was thinking of 'iraqi'
Joseph K. wrote:
Devrim wrote:
Joseph K. wrote:
Devrim wrote:
There is also an 'ouzo/raki like drink' throughout the Middle East, generally called something like 'araki'is that the one which tends to blow westerners heads off?
Yes, the Turkish one is good too. It is a really weird kind of drunkenness. I enjoy it, occasionally.
Devrimno, sorry, i was thinking of 'iraqi'
I was gonna make that joke, assface.
I don't drink Raki often, but when I do it always reminds me what a superb drink it is.
I drank a little tonight, and ended up sitting at the table of Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz, ex-Diyanet İşleri Başkanları* (the successor to Shaikh al-Islam-the supreme Islamic authority), drinking raki, and discussing religious sectarianism with him**.
It is strange what happens when you drink raki. I must do it more often.
Devrim
*I also realise that know one knows who the guy is, but leo will be a bit shocked if he reads this thread before I next see him.
**Needless to say he wasn't drinking raki that was only me. In fact he was sitting at a special table where nobody was drinking alcohol until I came along.