Delicacies from the East (2/6)

Many people refer to them inaccurately as hors d'oeuvres; at the Bosporus they say "meze feast", for in times past these delicacies from the Orient were the dishes of a special meal during which, from early evening to daybreak, the guests would debate, jest, eat and drink. The meze feast often consisted then of over a hundred small dishes, for a Turkish proverb says: "When nothing is left over, then there wasn't enough." Raki, Turkish aniseed brandy, was the customary drink at the meze banquet. Nor was it uncommon for the dignitaries of the Ottoman Empire to drink raki, preferably neat - since undiluted raki looks like water. Contemporary chroniclers complained that even scholars of law and religion "drink like the serfs."