Traditional Turkish Food

Iskender Kebap

Istanbul has many choices about food. If you may not be into trying different tastes, you can eat something you know, such as global fast food. There are many people who don't trust the hygiene and don't try traditional food. But you don't need to worry much. You can look for the comments at web sites and mobile apps to be sure.

Don't forget that you are at a special taste stop. If I were you, I wouldn't go back without putting on some weight!

While you're walking in Istanbul, you'll see everywhere foods with different names. You're so hungry, but you don't know which is available for you. Okay then, we will introduce you some of our traditional foods, maybe with a couple of suggestions.

Chicken Shish Kebap

Kebap

When somebody says Turkish traditional food, probably the first thing that comes into mind is "sis kebap", doesn't it? Actually, "kebap" means meat food which is cooked by barbecue, wood oven and the like.

There are so many kebap types. The most popular ones are Adana Kebabi, Cağ Kebabi, Doner Kebap, İskender Kebabi, Kağıt Kebabi, Testi Kebabi, Urfa Kebabi. They are many differences between them, based on the ingredients and baking method. When they are cooked with skewers, they becaome shish kebaps.

Urfa Kebabi and Adana Kebabi are cousins. Keep this mind: Adana Kebabi is the spicy one. If you don't like hot, order Urfa Kebabi. I don't want to bore you explaining every single kebap, but if you wonder any of them, you can ask us, we will reply you gladly.

Lahmacun

Lahmacun, Etli Ekmek, Pide

I gathered these all in one title, because their main ingredient is "pita" bread. Lahmacun is a thin pita with ground meat, spices and some other ingredients on it. Some restaurants offer a vegetarian version of it with cheese on. Some people call it Turkish pizza, but you don't cut it in triangles like pizza. You roll it.

Now pita gets thicker. Pide is pita in Turkish, but it may mean two things. There is plain pide that is put under İskender kebaps or shish kebaps. There is the other pide with various ingredients. With eggs, with ground meat, with meat cubes (my favourite and mostly the most expensive), etc.

Etli ekmek (meaty bread) is a speciality of Konya. It looks like pide but it is closed and made with meat only. If you are a vegetarian, this doesn't have a cheese or vegetable option.

Pita used as bread

Pastries

Turkish kitchen cannot be thought without pastries. There are both salty appetizers and desserts with sorbet. (We'll mention desserts in another post.)

Phyllo is frequently used in Turkish kitchen. Sigara boregi is wrapped phyllo with cheese and parsley. Su boregi is layered phyllo with cheese or ground meat, and looks juicy. Kol boregi is wrapped and then twisted phyllo with cheese, ground meat, spinach or potato. Talas boregi has green peas with meat in it. There are probably hundreds of "borek"s, so let's stop with these popular ones.

Gozleme is a very thin phyllo wrapped usually with cheese, potato, spinach or yellow cheese, and cooked on a sheet metal. It is rather delicious and cheap.

Pogaca, acma and simit are the pastries you'll see on every baker's shop windows. Turkish people prefer to choose one of these and have breakfast with black tea. Pogaca is more salty, and can be plain, or stuffed with cheese or potato. Acma is a soft and oily bagel that is usually plain, or stuffed with olive, yellow cheese, or chocolate. Simit is a usually hard bagel that is usually decorated with sesame (there are different local simits). Simit isn't filled with anything, but it is very common to use it for making sandwiches

Manti is a pastry that is made by filling little dough pieces with ground meat and spices and cooked in boiled water. It is served with garlicky yoghurt and oily spicy sauce. It is very delicious, but be careful: it is a diet enemy.

Stuffed vegetables (Dolma)

Stuffed vegetables are very popular in Turkey. If they are cooked with olive oil, they are eaten cold. If they are cooked with sunflower seed oil or some other oil, it is eaten warm. Warm ones usually contain ground meat. Most popular vegetables for stuffing are bell pepper (with different colours, paprika, zucchini, eggplant, tomato and potato.

Stuffed grape leaves (yaprak sarması) actually isn't a dolma in Turkish kitchen; it is a wrap. You can eat it hot (with ground meat) or cold with olive oil and no meat. I prefer the one that is cooked with olive oil, but try both. It is delicious in every way.

Vegetable Dishes

In Turkish kitchen almost every vegetable is cooked in two basic ways: with olive oil to be eaten cold, and with another oil or butter to be eaten warm and usually contains meat or ground meat.

French beans are no exception. In my opinion, they are the most delicious when cooked in olive oil.

Maybe I should write a new article only for eggplant, because it is a fixture of Turkish kitchen. There are almost a hundred different eggplant dishes. From main course to meze (appetizer for alcoholic drinks), from stuffed to mashed.

Spinach and purslane are two of the most popular herb dishes. They are usually served with yoghurt. Yoghurt is also an important part of Turkish kitchen.

Okra, architoke and celery are other popular vegetables used in meals.

Meatball (Kofte)

A meatball is basically a piece of ground meat mixed with other ingredients like spices, eggs, stale bread, and given round, oval or rectangular shapes with hands (there are machines to do that, but hands are more appreciated).

There are innumerable meatballs, including the local ones. Some popular meatballs are icli köfte, cig kofte, kadınbudu kofte, Tekirdag koftesi, Inegol kofte and Akçaabat koftesi.

Dried Beans

That is not actually a speciality of us, but it is very famous in Turkey. Dried bean is used mainly at two dishes in Turkey: as main course and as a salad (or meze, the appetizers eaten with alcoholic drink, especially raki).

We say to bean salad "kuru fasulye pilaki", in short the dried bean is boiled and added carrot, potato, onion, garlic, carrot in it. It is eaten as cold. It goes well with ayran.

I think one of the best places to eat dried bean as a main course is the restaurants next to Suleymaniye Mosque. There you'll both enjoy the meal and the view.

Other legumes that are consumed frequently in Turkey are cranberry beans, green beans, chickpeas (both as a dish and a dried nut), lentils (both main course and soup).

Afiyet olsun! (Good appetite!)