Turkey has a chocolate addiction (and it's awesome)

               Life is full of pleasant surprises, and this one happens to be my favorite so far: Turkey has a chocolate addiction.

               I expected that my sweet tooth wouldn’t be starved when I planned for this semester. Istanbul is full of baklava shops, Turkish ice cream stalls, and loads of Turkish delight. However, I figured chocolate would be hard to come by in this country, given its historical food preferences. Boy, I was wrong.

               Every restaurant here has at least one recipe that includes chocolate. Same with bakeries. You can get chocolate bread, chocolate chip bread, rolls with chocolate filling, and gözleme (a Turkish quesadilla, sans-cheese) with chocolate inside. Supermarket stores are stocked with Nutella, which competes with honey for being Turkey’s national condiment. Nutella is Turkey’s peanut butter- which itself is hard to find, I may add.

               So chocolate lovers, rejoice! Istanbul isn’t a chocolate desert. Although I do recommend trying the baklava when you have some time to spare.