When I moved to Turkey, I discovered the versatility of instant coffee. Filter or drip coffee isn’t really a big thing here; people just buy Nescafé or similar and live with that (if you want a real coffee you have a Turkish coffee, which is another animal altogether). Of course I can never leave well enough alone, and soon after I bought my first jar of instant coffee I started experimenting with possibilities, and after some tweaking and adjusting, finally came up with a recipe I like to call TurboCoffeeWOOWOOWOO. Over the years people have asked me to share the secret energy-renewing formula, and finally I’ve given in. So here it is for your Creative Commons remixing pleasure:

minimum three heaping spoonfuls instant coffee
minimum eight sugar cubes (that’s a bare minimum for me)
enough milk to fill the mug

Place sugar and coffee in mug, fill to the top with hot milk (no water whatsoever), and stir.

If you think that sounds awful, just give it a try. It’s not as bad as you think, and I guarantee it’ll get you in gear.

Another variation, called the TurboCoffeeBombBOOMBOOM, is to add just enough hot milk to the sugar and coffee to stir it into a sludge, and then carefully pour the remaining milk on top of the sludge in a separate layer. Do not stir. The sludge will mix in somewhat on its own, but the real rocket launcher is at the bottom of the cup. BOOM!

Since I first released this recipe to friends last week, I’ve already heard back about some remixing efforts, including a skinny version using nonfat milk and artificial sweetener, and a soy version for the lactose intolerant. I challenge you to try all these variations, and please, by all means send in your own so we can all share.

How many of you knew that today is International Museum day? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m always shocked when my own lack of culture awareness comes back to slap me in the face.

Here in Turkey museums across the country are celebrating not just today, but throughout the next week with special exhibitions, displays, activities, and events aimed at increasing public interest in Turkish museums. As is the norm in Turkey, children are especially included, and there are a large amount of concerts, shows, and practical workshops catering to younger visitors.

International Museum Day is organised by the International Council of Museums, and has been celebrated since 1977 (embarrassing that I only learned about it now). This year the theme is “universal heritage,” and Antalya Museum (pictured, wiki), one of Turkey’s largest museums, is bound to have lots of things going on, so my plan this week is to stop being so lazy and head down to the museum and check it out.

[thanks to rhombitruncated for the photo; also check out the Antalya Museum flickr stream— the museum looks fantastic, doesn't it?]