Here’s a mystery perhaps one of our Turkish friends can solve: I’ve never, ever, ever seen a lime in this country. My guess is they just don’t have them here, which hardly makes sense because Turkey is a huge citrus producer. But if you order a shot of tequila, it gets served with salt and a wedge of lemon. Wrong. I asked the bartender, “can I have a slice of lime?” He looked at me blankly. I tried to explain about limes. Same shape as a lemon, but green, and tastes different. He just continued on with his blank look. I finally gave up and reluctantly drank my tequila with lemon.
That incident happened a long time ago, and to be honest I’d forgotten about it until about a week ago when we bought some henna and lime shampoo. The label was written in English, with a Turkish translation below. I noticed the Turkish text said “henna and green lemon.” No, no, no! Not the same thing at all. To say that a lime is simply a green lemon is like saying that a grapefruit is just a big orange. No!
So I asked Emirhan, and he didn’t seem to know what a lime was, either. We looked it up in our Turkish-English dictionary, and the respective translations for “lime” and “lemon” were exactly the same— both are called “lemon” in Turkish. I’m frustrated about this, because a lime is certainly not a lemon, though many Turks have looked at the photos of limes I’ve shown them and said, “that’s just a lemon that’s not ready yet.” Sigh.
The reason this annoys me is because in almost every instance that one might use a lemon for something, I would prefer a lime. This is particularly true in the summer— almost every summer of my adult life I’ve made watermelon with lime syrup as a light snack or dessert. Lemon syrup is not the same; it’s like eating watermelon with furniture polish. But I can’t find limes here.
I know some of my readers are Turks who have moved abroad to Europe or the United States, where limes are in abundance, so for those of you who know what a lime is: is it possible to find them in Turkey? I’m pulling my hair out here, because the watermelon season is upon us (as is the tequila season), and it’s just not the same with lemon. I also like lime in my Coca-Cola, and on certain types of fish, and in countless other dishes. I’d also be interested to know if readers in surrounding countries (I know a few of you are reading from Arab nations, and also some from Israel) have limes in their local markets. Perhaps it’s just a conspiracy to keep limes out of Turkey. Maybe I’ll have to smuggle a lime tree in and grow some myself.