I feel a little bit bad and a little bit like a poser when  I accept guide book recommendations on eateries.  If I were a real traveler, one of the people who charges into the Australian outback armed with no more than a bowie knife and a flask of whisky, I’d be…well, I’d be dead, to start, but I’d also be ashamed to be caught with a copy of “Lonely Planet Australia.”  Which I expect tells you exactly which bowie knife to purchase from Levenger.

No, real foodies stride into local eateries with intent and purpose, ordering fearlessly things wot they know knowt of and which turn out to be delicious and delightful local concoctions that they then learn how to make and take the recipes home to all their friends and families.

Or they turn out to be herring.  I have a rant about herring coming later.  Spoiler: herring is evil.

At any rate, here I am in Ankara, a Turkish place recommended by the guidebook, after eating last night at another place recommended by the guidebook and absolutely swamped with tourists and their broad flat American accents.

And I suppose I was adventurous this morning, what with the going off half-cocked to find a bakery.  But by the time dinnertime rolls around I’ve usually expended most of my energy for the day, my feet are appallingly sore, and I don’t quite dare to have a bad meal.

So that’s the thing.  A meal from a guidebook restaurant is often not spectacular; lowest common denominator and all that.  But it is, almost always, at least passable, competently executed, and edible.  Also, they usually tell you roughly what it will cost which is pretty vital at this stage.  The opportunity cost is way too high for me right now to go rambling off.  Even in Rotterdam the pressure is  lessened – I have almost three weeks there, while in Copenhagen I have three dinners, three lunches, three breakfasts, and a semblance of a budget to worry about.  It’s quite entirely possible that the crowded and charming brasserie down the street is much better than this, but it’s also quite possible that they serve nothing but herring.

And anyway, Ankara really is pretty good.  So there.