Enjoy delicious Turkish cuisine, local food, sweet treats, and vegetarian/vegan delights during our Tango Camp!
2019 post-camp survey results show that our attendees graded our dinners at the camp 4.9 out of 5 points, while milonga snack selections were graded at 4.7 points. It’s probably is safe to say that campers were happy with the food we provided. We are gearing up to make you just as happy this year.
Zeynep, one of the camp organizers, and her brother Engin will provide (mostly) Turkish food for us to enjoy. Zeynep is a Turkish-American food studies scholar that will help us get our baklava game on, while Engin will dazzle you with his döner cutting skills.
We plan to kick off the festivities with a local salmon bbq. We are so lucky to be offering fish caught by our own community tangueros/tangueras, and their generously donated salads, sides and 4th of July desserts. This welcoming dinner allows us all to get to know each other before we hit the dance floor. This community potluck was rated 4.9 out of 5 points last year.
We will have midnight snacks and bonfires with s’mores (assuming no wildfires and fire bans), an ice cream bar, hot soup to warm us late at night, and pastries (all homemade). Birchwood camp will serve a typical camp-style breakfast with options like oatmeal, eggs, bacon/sausage, cereals, juice, pancakes etc.
We will keep the hydration station available and stocked during milongas and throughout our stay at camp (hot water/tea bags, water, coffee, juice etc. – and who knows, maybe even some Turkish coffee!). We recommend keeping an identifiable water bottle handy, and perhaps your favorite durable camping mug.
Last year we served dishes like lentil soup (dubbed the ‘heavenly soup’ by campers), meatballs, pilav (rice), grilled veggies, hummus, kisir (Turkish tabbouleh),
a variety of böreks (Turkish style spanakopita),
cacik (tzatziki), green beans with tomatoes, 
baklava, 
lokum (Turkish Delight) and pogaca.
Why Turkish in Alaska you say? Well, did you know that Anchorage has the most diverse census tract in the nation? There are 110 languages spoken in our school district. Enjoy our delicious diversity under the midnight sun.
Zeynep will accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences to the best of her abilities with vegan dips, raw desserts etc. We will replicate some of last year’s favorites and add new dishes to the selection to peak the interest of our returning campers. We will have paleo/trail bars, non-dairy yoghurt, gluten free snacks available to make sure no one goes hungry. 
Please let us know your dietary preferences and allergies and we will do our best to provide reasonable accommodations. The camp has minimum amenities where we do not have access to the industrial kitchen. We have a small kitchen and two very old fridges to work with so please bear with us.
As our tango camp is a wilderness experience, we are asked NOT to eat or store food in our cabins (to avoid becoming intimately acquainted with a rodent or bear.) We plan to have plenty of food throughout the weekend to avoid any hunger, but if you choose to bring snacks with you, we will have an area set aside to store them in the dining lodge. Although last year most campers found they didn’t need them as there was plenty of goodness to go around. We will have snacks available in the lodge (such as nut butters, bread, jams, fruit, nuts, bars, yoghurt) as well but if you find yourself hungry or dissatisfied, Zeynep or Engin will be there to help.
We hope you enjoy the tango camp cuisine as much as our 2019 campers did and we look forward to sharing it with you this year!