Everyone loves a freshly grilled hotdog. What is there not to like!? The smoky and savory taste of meat sandwiched between soft bread than is easily topped with one’s favorite ingredients and eaten anywhere makes hotdogs one of the most popular foods around the world.

There is a tradition in Adana in the winter of heading north to the snow-covered mountains to grill spicy beef sausage to be eaten in between freshly baked bread. As the sausage is cooking the fat from the sausage is soaked up into the bread. Usually these are eaten plain but some people add cheese, pickles, ketchup and mayonnaise. When I returned from our day trip to the snow and told people we grilled out they quite naturally assumed that we made sucuk ekmek (soo-jook ehk-meck), or sausage sandwich.

Karboğazı (car-bow-ah-zuh), a valley about an hour north of Adana, is a well-known destination for day trips to the snow. Along with a few friends, one of whose birthday we were celebrating, we decided to escape the city life and drive to a picnic area in Karboğazı.

With sucuk in hand our day began with a stop by the local bakery of which the smell of fresh baked bread tempted us the whole drive. As we drove, it was remarkable how the terrain transformed before our eyes. The fields were full of blooms, a clear sign that spring comes early in Adana. Then the road began to steadily climb, and the temperature began to drop, though the car was nicely heated by then. Out of a clear horizon hills began to emerge. It was not long before these hills were layered in snow.

Turning off the freeway we drove a way through a picnic area passing by many families playing in the snow and making fires. Driving through wooded areas and snowy plains we stopped as the snowy road took a downhill and walked through some trails. We marveled at the snowy mountains that could not be more different than our home less than fifty miles away.

After a brief snowball fight, a couple of snow angels and some amazing pictures we found a spot along the edge of some woods to build a fire. Leslie built us a world class fire as Ginny Lou appeased our appetites with delicious homemade stuffed grape leaves, which you can read more about here.

Putting into practice lessons learned from previous picnicking with locals, I funneled coals from the fire into a trough made with rocks. Then the grilling began. I unwrapped, sliced, skewered and grilled these delicious beef sausages over the fire. They are packed with such flavor that nothing but bread is needed, but a little bit of ketchup and mayonnaise definitely took it up a notch. Let’s just say I thought I bought too much but there were no leftovers!

Sucuk ekmek was not the only Turkish tradition that we enjoyed on this trip. At the insistence of our local friend, we gathered fresh snow into cups and mixed in pekmez (peck-mehz), which is grape molasses. This was by far the best snow cone I have ever eaten!

It was not long after our Turkish snow cones that the sun began set and the fire burned down, which combined with eating snow, urged us to gather our things and enjoy our final moments in Karboğazı from inside the car.