Traveling to Turkey, I did not quite know what to expect in terms of food. I had somewhat hazy sorts of ideas based on my very rudimentary knowledge and a single Turkish restaurant in New Home: basically rice and meat.
Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.
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| Not in Turkey but on the plane over. Yay complimentary alcohol! |
Turkish cuisine is a delight. It shares a great many similarities with Greek cuisine - or as our guide noted, Mediterranean cuisine. Below is a sampling of our foods in Istanbul.
From our first night in Turkey. The main dish is called manti. They are small stuffed dumplings similar to ravioli. Traditionally they are stuffed with lamb but beef is also used. To the right you can see dipping sauce including a yogurt based sauce. Bread is to the left (some sort of bread was with almost every meal). To the front is hot tea (which we will get to tomorrow).
The rings are simit, a bread roll similar to a bagel. They are rolled in sesame seeds. This was from a street vendor.
As part of our pre-tour time, The Ravishing Mrs. TB signed us up for a food tour. These foods were from the area around the Spice Market: simit, cured meat (not pork though; only made that error once in conversation), humus, cheese, and olives. The small red lump on the right is shakshuka which primarily consists of eggs and a tomato sauce. This is very traditional food and we saw it at virtually every hotel we were at.
One of the stops we made on the tour was at a very highly rated restaurant which had a rotating menu of regional Turkish dishes. No recollection of what any of these were called - but the green dish up front had unripe almonds as an ingredient.
Bellow is lavas, a Turkish bread. Quite thin and crispy, it comes to the table puffed up but deflates - especially if you tear off a hunk!
Below is perhaps one of the most unusual meals we had in Turkey: kokoreç, which is lamb or sheep intestines rinsed (perhaps obviously), stuffed with sweetbreads, and grilled over charcoal. Ours, as you can see, was put into grilled bread. It did not have an overpowering taste but was a bit on the fatty side - but quite delicious none the less. The white foamy liquid is ayran, a drink made by adding water and salt to yogurt. It is served cold and traditionally in a traditional style cup. Quite popular in Turkey, I did not really seek it out.
Baklava: Not just a Greek dessert, it was available almost every night of our trip. The ones below were from a shop that has sold only baklava since 1956. Unusual fact: there are many different kinds. The only in front is called Angel's Hair; the one behind it is (I believe) has pistachio.
Gryos on the street outside the Hippodrome. Somehow as in Greece, french fries are a regular "thing".
The second night we were there we had dinner at a literal hole-in-wall down from our hotel. They spoke no English and we no Turkish but we had a fine meal just the same. Out of the goodness of their hearts they brought us a round of starters. The balls on the left are mercimek köftesi, or lentil meatballs. Made with red lentils, bulgur, and spices, they were an excellent vegetarian option and commonly available at all of the places we stopped.
Fairly traditional Turkish meal: bread, meat, rice, and a variety of vegetables.
And, of course, baklava.
A lunch: lamb prepared in tomatoes and vegetables with a hefty side of yogurt.
Oh look - more baklava.
Dinner starters: vegetables, humus, cheese, and mercimek köftesi.
Dessert. What a surprise - more baklava and a honey cookie.
Turkey: Come for the history, stay for the food.
Is it fair to characterize traditional Turkish cuisine as bread, many kinds of "dipping sauces", meat as more of a flavoring than as a food-group...and baklava as dessert.
ReplyDeleteHmmm ERJ. We always had bread and I believe it to be part of the food heritage much as pita is to the Greeks - although dipping sauces only accompanied dishes where it was used as an adjunct to the meal. I would say it was more whole cooked dishes where the majority was grain or vegetable and smaller amounts of meat. Which varied by region of course: near the sea fish was always available for example.
DeleteWhat a great post. Cuisine is fascinating in any culture and I think one of a regions distinguishing features. A food tour sounds like a great idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks Leigh!
DeleteThe Ravishing Mrs. TB started doing these food tours some years ago and I have to say I am rather sold on them now. It allows you to get some real off the beaten track sorts of cuisine that one will typically not get on a tour. I believe she has now done them in Spain, Morocco, Greece, and Turkey.
I should also note that all of the hotels we stayed at had some amount of local cuisine at their food venues. They seem very conscious and proud of their local regional dishes. Lots of interesting cheeses for example.
A lot of those foods are completely unfamiliar to me. Not many Middle Eastern - European restaurants in our neck of the woods. One of our consultants regularly sent Baklava to our office during Christmas - so good ! And yes, quite a variety of flavors.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your effort to share your meals with us. Made me hungry ! :^)
Anon - Many of them were quite unfamiliar to me as well. When I asked our tour guide he commented that Turkey shares the Mediterranean food culture to some extent combined with those dishes originally brought from Central Asia. But all quite delicious - I do not believe we had one bad meal!
DeleteAnd you are quite welcome. It is a joy to share.
I noticed a theme in Turkish foods and allowed for the richness of "Tourist" foods.
ReplyDeleteLots of wheat products, yogurt and lentils. The basics instead of imported foodstuffs. (thinking of Avocados from Mexico ads here)
A dab of meat instead of main calories of the plate.
Micheal - On the whole I would say that foods we had that were "non-tourist" oriented were very much similar in nature to what you saw here. Later in the tour we had a true home cooked meal which did not differ much in nature from what you see here (but very much in flavour!). Mercimek köftesi were available almost every. Rice or bulgur was the base for many if not most of the meals or a large accompaniment. Vegetables were largely things such as tomatoes and cucumbers and leafy greens. No avocados that I can recall, for example.
DeleteBut also a peasant cuisine in some ways still - such as the wrapped sheep intestines.
When I was serving in West Germany I used to zip off on train trips. I recall once stopping in somewhere in Greece where one old partisan and a 7 year old spoke any English. OK JOE, and a nice little girl was translating.
DeleteI pointed at a dish on the menu and Very good Joe and a timid nod so I ordered it.
Was plain spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. A family sized order.
I first thought it a gag but looking around folks were eating it with gusto so I ate it and the train went onward.
Thus my tourist food comments.
Michael
Michael - The context is helpful. We did not really experience that at all, although we are also somewhat mindful of the locale we are eating. Tourist "traps" tend to attract tourists who may care less about these things.
DeleteIt looks like you had a wide variety of food, well with the exception of dessert, which is how I like to roll when in a foreign country. I just hate going all that way to eat things easily obtained back home.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, some good friends of mine are now in Istanbul and posting lots of pictures of their trip on the Book of Face. I am getting a sense of deja vu on many of their photos.
Ed - I guess it would have been possible to approximate a typical American diet at home but not that easily. I would say - in general - the food was lighter fare but filling. And even the buffets at the hotels were 90% Turkish cuisine oriented - except for French Fries; those seem to transcend every cuisine at this point.
DeleteSo glad you are getting two rounds of review on Turkey. I hope you can go there one day.
I have not been anywhere that serves more food per meal regularly than here in America.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought Ed. I need to ponder this more - do you think it is somehow American culture (and if so, what does this say about us)?
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