I often post a photo of a dessert, starter or main dish I have enjoyed when eating out, and my friends back home on Facebook love seeing the pictures.
I love the fusion of continents and food in Turkey. I think of Turkish cuisine as fusion of food because many of the dishes came from the Mediterranean, Middle East, East Asia and Eastern Europe. You’ll fall in love with it too if you come. You will find, if you are ever invited to a Turk’s home for a meal or go out to eat with some Turks, that it is festive-like, with people visiting each other, socializing and drinking lots of tea and coffee.
Perhaps you have come across the quote from George Bernard Shaw, who once said, “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” Nothing could be truer! If you are planning a trip to Turkey, don’t be shy when it comes to choosing Turkish food: In some local small restaurants you can often inspect the kitchen and point to what you want.
I have previously touched on the subject of food because it is a topic everyone is interested in when they visit another country. I will mention a few points here to bear in mind when you eat out at a typical Turkish restaurant. The menu will usually contain the following courses for you to choose from:
Meze (cold starter): Usually a tray carrying 10 small dishes will be shown to you. Typical selections include stuffed vine leaves or peppers (dolma), cheese, vegetables such as eggplant or okra in olive oil, spicy tomato paste, eggplant and yogurt paste, humus, potato salad and cracked wheat in tomato and chili sauce (kısır). You may choose from the selection offered on the tray. The waiters will normally also bring delicious fresh bread to your table.
Salata (salad): Fresh fruit and vegetables are wonderful in Turkey. The two most common types of salad are “shepherd’s salad” (çoban salatası), made of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, and “seasonal salad” (mevsim salatası), which consists of lettuce, grated carrots or red cabbage, tomato and cucumber slices, sweet corn and green peppers.
Çorba (soup): It is worth trying lentil soup (mercimek), yogurt and rice soup (yayla), tomato (domates), chicken (tavuk) and mushroom (mantar) soup. Tripe soup (işkembe) has a strong smell and an acquired taste.
Ara sıcak (hot starter): Here you can choose from such delights as deep-fried cheese pastry rolls (sigara böreği), deep-fried balls of rice, ground beef encased in bulgur wheat (içli köfte), calamari, fried mussels, etc.
Et (meat dishes): Kebab means small pieces of meat. A şiş kebab entails pieces of meat cooked on a skewer. A döner kebab is made with lamb or chicken that is cooked on a rotating spit. The slices of döner meat are either served in bread like a sandwich (ekmek arası), wrapped in flat bread (dürüm) or served on a plate with vegetables. Köfte are like meatballs or hamburgers. Steaks are available, but Turks normally like them well done. Rare steak in Turkey normally corresponds with medium elsewhere. Chicken can be roasted on a spit, grilled or served as a schnitzel. There are a variety of specialty dishes, such as slices of lamb served with tomato sauce and yogurt (İskender kebab), ground meat pressed onto a skewer (Adana kebab — spicy, Urfa kebab — not spicy), chunks of meat wrapped in flatbread (sarma beyti) and pieces of meat served on a bed of pureed eggplant with garlic and lemon (alinazik).
Balık (fish): Best eaten fresh at a coastal or lakeside restaurant, fish is normally steamed (buharlı), grilled (ızgara), or fried (kızartma). It is best to ask the waiter which fish is freshest and in season. Popular choices, depending on the time of year, include anchovy (hamsi), sea bass (levrek), bluefish (lüfer), gilt-head bream (çipura), turbot (kalkan) and Atlantic bonito (palamut).
Tatlı (dessert): This is usually very sticky! While in Turkey, you must try sheets of filo pastry soaked in syrup and sprinkled with nuts (baklava), a similar dish made with shredded wheat (kadayıf), quince in syrup (ayva tatlısı) or pumpkin in syrup (kabak tatlısı). Alternatives to the syrupy desserts are milk pudding (muhallebi) or rice pudding (sütlaç).
Turkey’s rich cultural heritage and superb food and hospitality will make your trip complete. One of my favorite quotes about dining comes from Geoffrey Neighbor, and it goes like this, “Good food ends with good talk.”