Turkish Delight

Not referring to the pate' here, nor to the crackers but, in this case, to the plate. When My Beloved and I were visiting Arizona a few years ago, we went to the charming little mining town of Bisbee where my worldly and sophisticated sister-in-law Ann was born and has sworn never to return.

From her description, we expected a town populated entirely with rednecks and rubes with gun racks in the back of their pickup trucks and bumper stickers declaring that "The West Wasn't Won With a Registered Gun."

To be sure, we did see a few of those guys and, being peaceful liberal California tree huggers, we avoided confrontations. But, mostly, we enjoyed the town, the food and the people very much. Our only disappointment was the dearth of what we went to Bisbee to find, Mexican pottery.

Bisbee is just a few miles from the Mexican border in far Southern Arizona. One might even call it Northern Mexico. We drove there eagerly anticipating a purchase of several colorful pieces of authentic hand-painted Mexican table ware. We looked all over town and found cowboy attire, chi-chi little dress shops, delicious ice cream and even a Panama hat for MB, but no pottery.

Until finally we stopped in a little shop off the main drag, where we discovered a treasure trove of pottery - from Turkey! The proprietor loves to travel and has made a fun little business out of visiting places, buying stuff, and then selling it, of all places, in Bisbee, AZ! The day we arrived, she was newly returned from Istanbul with a suitcase full of their hand-painted wares. It's hard to be disappointed not to find local pottery, when the global economy has presented us with lovely Turkish delights.