I recently returned from Turkey and was compelled to share my culinary experience. In every country I visit and have been fortunate enough to travel to at least 80 countries, I seek to eat like the locals at the local traditional venues, be it enjoying the street food markets or in a dingy canteen e.g. in China, where the menu is only in Mandarin.
Today I will be sharing my insight into traditional Turkish food.
Traditional Turkish food encompasses an entire world of flavor that spans the Mediterranean, Caucuses, Near East and Arab world. It is certainly more than just kebabs!
A) Lahmacun
Lahmacun is thin dough lightly covered with a mixture of minced meat, herbs, and spices. Lahmacun is cooked on a long paddle and slid into an oven. It is usually sprinkled with chopped tomatoes, parsley sprigs and a squirt of lemon juice, and then rolled up before eating.
It originates from Turkey’s Southeast; Gaziantep is well known for lahmacun, but is widely available in Istanbul.
It is delightful with a healthy splash of squeezed lemon and fresh herbs.
For the best Lahmacun and the most tradtional Turkish culinary experience, try Çiya in Kadıköy.
B) Kebap
Turkey is known for its kebabs the world over. There are şiş kebabs and döner kebabs as well as specialities like çağ kebab and adana kebab. Our personal favorite is the İskender kebab. İskender kebab originated in the city of Bursa. It consists of juicy, tender pieces of lamb meat spread over chunks of pita bread with steaming hot butter poured over the entire plate.
The best kebap is not found in the restaurants but on the streets of Istanbul. Delicious slices of moist meat sandwiched in a pita.
C) Turkish Meze
In Turkey, you'll find some form of 'meze' wherever you go. There are few cuisines in the world that can rival Turkish cuisine when it comes to 'meze.' Completely different line-ups of 'meze' are traditionally served with either fish or meat fare.
My personal favourite meze include Turkish roasted egg plant , stuffed vine leaves and Içli Köfte – Turkish filled meatballs (picture). This is a bulgur and potato filled with spicy meat and nut mixture is fried to perfection. This dish is common in southeastern regional cooking where many Middle Eastern influences are present in the cuisine.
D)Salted Fish
Walking through the rambling streets, I was grateful for my guide. There was plenty of food on offer. Balik Ekek – a fish sandwich is a favourite all over Turkey, particularly in the coastal regions and certainly in the city of Istanbul. It was traditionally the food of the local fisherman. My guide, rather, suggested the salted fish, a signficantly superior choice and one of the best-kept secrets of Istanbul, a true delicacy. It was exquisite.
E) Turkish Sweets
Visit any bazaar or street market in Istanbul and you are bound to find an incredible array of sweets. Counters filled with Turkish delight, baklava and other treats are about as popular as the spice markets that you’ll also find intertwined with every market stall in the city. Just a few to make your mouth water other than the obvious include ‘tel kadayıf’, pastry threads stuffed with nuts, ‘ekmek kadayıf’, bread like rusks topped with clotted cream, ‘künefe’, a delicious concoction of pastry threads stuffed with cheese and syrup, served hot, ‘lokma’, ball shaped fritters smothered in syrup, and ‘revani’, a very sweet cake made with semolina.
My personal favourite and only available in Turkey is the Turkish delight made from honey and also I adored the nougat pistachio.
F) Turkish ice cream – Dondurma
Turksih traditional ice cream incorporates natural thickening agents, which give it a smooth, compact, and almost stringy texture. The stretchy Turkish ice cream is sweetened and flavored with aromatic mastic (derived from an evergreen in the pistachio family) and thickened with salep (a powder made from wild orchid tubers). Salep dondurma is about 300 years. Worth trying but certainly doesn’t compete with the Gelato of Italy.
