Turkish cuisine - spicy and aromatic, with a lot of pastries, sweets, vegetables, fresh seafood and meat dishes - leaves no one indifferent. The traditional cuisine of the Turkish people has been developing for several centuries and has absorbed the best of the Greek, Arabian, Caucasian cuisines. Of course, Islamic traditions and restrictions have had an impact. Dishes are divided into haram - prohibited and halal - permitted.
We invite you to get acquainted with some popular Turkish dishes!
Kahvalti - Turkish breakfast
We are used to inviting each other for dinner, sometimes for lunch. Turks are happy to call each other for breakfast. The morning meal - kahvalti - has been transformed into a real ceremonial with an abundance of dishes, certainly in a beautiful setting. Often breakfast spills over into brunch.
There is no special set of breakfast dishes, but most often they serve: fresh vegetables, nuts, boiled eggs, olives and olives, bread and pastries, butter, honey and jams. Turks are clearly adherents of the opinion that the most important meal of the day is breakfast.
Menemen
Continuing the breakfast theme, it is impossible to pass by a dish called Menemen - a vegetable omelet made from a mixture of eggs and stewed vegetables. Peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic are pre-sautéed, and then eggs are driven into the vegetable mixture. Served with fresh and warm lavash, which is usually broken off and dipped in the egg mixture.
Simit
A ruddy sesame bun that looks like a bagel. Simit is served with breakfast or as a snack with coffee. You can grease with butter and jam, or you can buy from a street vendor and eat on the go, walking and seeing local attractions.
Meze
This is the name of a popular cold Turkish appetizer - an aperitif before the main course. Meze is served with alcoholic drinks, in Turkey it is raki (raki). The composition of the appetizers can be very varied, but most often they will serve you: cheese, melon, a mixture of hot peppers and nuts, meat balls, eggplant salad, yogurt and dolma. Any meza should be accompanied by a basket of bread.
Dolma and Sarma
Dolma and sarma are served as meze in Turkey - these are mini cabbage rolls made from grape leaves, where the filling is wrapped. Dolma is filled with vegetables, rice, spices, nuts and minced veal. Sarma is stuffed with just rice.
Kebab
Meat cooked over a fire is called kebab in Turkey. Each region has its own recipe for this dish. Some recipes both look and taste like a simple kebab, some are wrapped in pita or pita bread, like shawarma.
Kefte and Chi Kefte
Meatballs, like mini cutlets or vegetable meatballs. Prepared from beef or lamb meat, if it is a meat version, in the case of a vegetable snack - a mixture of tomato paste and bulgur with spices.
Interestingly, in the traditional version of cooking, the dish was served raw, but since the use of raw meat is prohibited in Turkey today, the balls began to be fried or baked.
Imam Baildi
Baked eggplant stuffed with vegetables. It is so tasty that you can pass out from delight! By the way, the name of the dish is translated as “the imam fainted”. The eggplant is cut into two parts and baked with a filling of tomatoes, garlic, onions and herbs inside.
Lahmakun and Pide
Turkish fast food, reminiscent of pizza: a filling of minced meat, vegetables and spices is laid on a flat Turkish tortilla. Lahmakun has a simpler composition, but many different toppings are added to the pide.
Goezleme
Puff pastry with a variety of fillings: you can add cheese, potatoes, minced meat, seafood or mushrooms. A cake is baked in a special frying pan in the oven or over an open fire.
Balik Ekmek
A local bread sandwich with fried fish pieces and fresh vegetables is the best snack while walking. You could say a fish hot dog. There are known options for making pita bread.
Kumpir
A pre-baked and then stuffed potato is called a kumpir. The abundance of filling options amazes the imagination: meat, fish, vegetables, cheese. The potatoes must be baked in their uniforms, cut in the middle and the filling is placed in the hole - hearty and tasty. "Little Potato" in Turkish.
Dondurma
Ice cream vendors put on a real show on the Turkish streets for the delight of tourists! Dondurma is not really ice cream, but a kind of dessert. A delicacy is prepared from cream and sugar, but with the addition of mastic and salep. As a result, ice cream becomes sticky, thick and plastic, allowing you to get up with it in different tricks.
Mussels Dolma
Literally - mussel dolma. This unusual kind of street fast food can be found in the cities of Turkey. The country is rich in fresh seafood, thanks to which even street food can surprise with delicacies such as mussels.
The shell is opened, the inedible debris is cleaned out, and stuffed with a mixture of rice, raisins, nuts, pepper and cinnamon. The dish is incredibly tasty and aromatic.
Chorba
Soups in Turkey are rich and thick, most often prepared on the basis of tomatoes and lentils. For satiety and get the desired consistency, add rice.
Of course, the list goes on: Turkish cuisine is plentiful and varied, Turks are imaginative people and love to eat. What unusual Turkish dishes have you tried?
