Who can ever claim that the Turkish Cuisine is not one of the world’s best tastes? Turkey is known for offering one of the three most distinctive, traditional cuisines in the world. It is renowned for its wide variety of high-quality fresh fruit and vegetables, different kinds of fish and fresh meat, delicious desserts, traditional drinks, famous spirits and a large selection of traditional produce. Gastronomy has its very own special place in Turkey. Wherever you look wherever you go, you can find good food and drink in Turkey.
TRADITIONAL TURKISH FOODS
KEBAB: Kebab is the common name for a dish where meat is coated around a skewer and grilled over a charcoal fire. The best-known Turkish kebabs are Doner Kebab, Iskender Kebab, Shish Kebab, Adana Kebab, Kuzu Tandir.
PICKLE: Pickle is another typical food in Turkish cuisine. Often, Pickle is displayed in colorful, decorative jars, particularly in the windows of many specialty pickle shops. These shops also offer a wide variety of pickle juices.
TURKISH RAVIOLI: Turkish ravioli is known as Manti, forty pieces of which are said to fit in one tablespoon. Turkish ravioli is served with fresh yoghurt, melted butter, chopped herbs and chili flakes.
VEGETABLE DISHES WITH OIL: Vegetable dishes with olive oil, which constitute the core of the Turkish cuisine, are the key to taste and health. Vegetable dishes with olive oil include a variety of delicacies such as Sarma, Dolma, Imam Bayildi, and the similar vegetable dishes made with kidney bean or artichoke.
WHITE BEAN STEW: Vegetable dishes with olive oil, which constitute the core of the Turkish cuisine, are the key to taste and health. Vegetable dishes with olive oil include a variety of delicacies such as Sarma, Dolma, Imam Bayildi, and the similar vegetable dishes made with kidney bean or artichoke.
TRADITIONAL BREAKFAST: Turkish breakfast usually consists of fresh white bread, honey, clotted cream, jam, sheeps’ milk cheese, tomatoes, egg, cucumber and black olives, washed down with black tea.
SOUPS: Soups have a special place on the Turkish diet. Soups can be consumed any time of the day and may be served hot or cold depending on the recipe. Tarhana, Yoghurt, Lentil, Red Lentil and Mint, Tomato, Tripe, Wedding, are among the most renowned soups of the Turkish cuisine.
TURKISH DESSERTS:
Turkish cuisine has a wide range of delicious desserts, including milk puddings, sweet pastries, and fruit puddings of various kinds, often flavored with pistachios and other nuts. This is a list of some of the most special Turkish desserts.
Baklava: Baklava is at the top of the list, a world famous dessert. The crispy Baklava is sweetened with light syrup made from sugar, water and lemon juice to make it deliciously light. Would you like yours with pistachios or hazelnuts?
Kunefe: Kunefe is a traditional Turkish cheese pastry soaked in sweet syrup and popular especially in the city of Antakya located on Mediterrenean. Kunefe is considered to be one of the most delicious Turkish desserts.
Kazandibi: Kazandibi is a caramelized milk pudding, developed in the kitchens of the Ottoman palace and a rich part of Turkish cuisine. Even more surprising it is made with traces of chicken breast despite being a dessert.
Tavuk Gogsu: Tavuk Gogsu is a very special pudding with chicken breast. It is one of the most famous delicacies served to the guests in Turkey.
Sutlac: Sutlac is among the traditional Turkish desserts, milk based dessert, known as rice pudding. Sutlac is a cold, light dessert, and has a wonderful taste.
Asure: Asure is a pudding made of wheat, beans, chickpeas and dried fruits and nuts. It is served during the first month of the Islamic calendar. Asure is an important part of the culinary tradition in Turkey.
Candied Chestnut: Since the 1300’s, the people of Bursa have been preparing a delightful treat from these chestnuts by boiling them in a sweetened mixture creating this incredible Turkish flavor.
Turkish Delight: Traditional Turkish delight has been produced for over 500 years and is the most well known Turkish candy in the world. Nearly all candy shops sell Turkish delight, which can be seasoned with many different flavors.
Maras Ice Cream: Turkish style Maras ice cream is like no other ice cream you have had. It is a creamy, world famous Turkish ice cream with an elastic texture, served with a knife and a fork.
Marzipan: Marzipan is one of the delightful confections made famous by the Ottoman palace. Marzipan, which has been produced for centuries in Edirne, one of the former capital cities of the Ottoman Empire.
TURKEY’S TOP 10 SUPERB TASTES
The splendid tastes of Turkish cuisine also reveals itself in ceremonial food. Turkish cuisine, having a six-hundred-year splendid flavor inheritance, is considered as the third richest cuisine in the world.
Breads of Anatolia: The resurrection of an extinct seed. Bread is the labor of 5000 years; wheat has a history of 10,000 years. Kavilca and Siyez are two types of wild emmer wheat originating in Anatolia brought back to life.
Cheeses of Anatolia: Where milk goes to sleep. (Can be omitted not sure what it means) Cheese is where the rich and poor each delight in the incredible flavors. Every locality in Turkey produces its own specialty of cheese.
Meets and Kebabs: The arrival of Turkic people from the Asian heartland enriched Anatolia’s meat culture. The succulent meeting point of meat and fire is kebabs.
Spices: Delicious sprinkles. Spices provide an extra flavour to Anatolian dishes and help preserve foods from going rotten. Their curative properties make them one of the flavourful staples of Anatolian cuisine.
Secrets of Tastes: In Anatolian cuisine, cauldrons are placed over an open fire in a tradition that brings the past of Anatolian flavours right into the present.
Summer Foods: Preserving summer foods into the winter. Preserving fresh flavours of summer is a skilled passed down to each generation. Handmade produce bursting with flavour brings the tastes of the past to the future.
Seafood: All fresh from Turkey’s four seas. Hundreds of kinds of seafood await you on the shores of Anatolia. Whatever flavour appeals most to your palate, you will find it Turkey’s amazing seafood.
Sherbets: Health and happiness. Sherbet fruit juices are the healthy tradition of Anatolian cuisine. They also represent a healthy and refreshing way to enjoy your meal.
TRADITIONAL DRINKS:
TURKISH TEA: If you drink a cup of tea with someone you are a neighbour, if you drink a second cup you are a friend and by the third cup you are family. You will be happy starting your day with a hot cup of Turkish tea.
Unlike in other countries, tea in Turkey is prepared using two pots. The tea is steeped in a pot that sets on top of a larger pot of boiling water. The vapors aid the steeping process of the tea. Tea is generally consumed as hot as possible and in little, tulip shaped glasses called Ince Belli.
Turkish tea is usually prepared quite strong and some boiling water added to taste. With its mild climate, high precipitation and fertile soil, the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey is renowned for its high quality black tea.
Tea is an important part of the Turkish culture and can be enjoyed in every social context. Offering tea is considered a sign of friendship and hospitality.
Turkish people are avid tea drinkers. Turkish tea coming from the Black Sea region, is the most popular drink and a part of the lifestyle in Turkey, taken at any time of day, usually more than once a day.
Brewing Turkish Tea: Usually Turkish tea is brewed in a sort of combined tea pot which is placed directly on the hob and has water boiling in the bottom section and tea brewing in the top so it can be made weaker or stronger as required.
Turkish tea is traditionally drunk from small tulip shaped glasses, always black and usually with plenty of sugar. You can serve Turkish tea with sugar cubes. However, most Turkish people like to have their Turkish tea without sugar with just a few drops of lemon juice.
TURKISH COFFEE:
Turkish coffee is the perfect way to finish off a good meal. When ordering you specify whether you want it plain, with some sugar or very sweet and it is brewed with the specified amount of sugar mixed in with the coffee granules.
A cup of Turkish coffee is remembered for 40 years. With its delicious foam and wonderful aroma, there is no drink quite like Turkish coffee. Served in small but delicious doses, the calorie and caffeine count in a cup of Turkish coffee are moderate, meaning you can enjoy it more often.
Turkish coffee grounds, can be read to tell one’s fortune. It is the only coffee that can be used to predict the future. The wonderful taste of Turkish coffee has been bringing people together for centuries, inspiring countless works of art and having a profound influence on culture.
One of the traditions that should be fulfilled in Turkey is to see the preparation of Turkish coffee and surely taste it.
Turkish coffee derives its name from a specific preparation method; finely powdered roast coffee beans are boiled in a pot also known as cezve in Turkish and served in a cup where the dregs settle. The most distinctive characteristic of Turkish coffee is that only the flavor is consumed, not the grounds. Therefore, this beverage made from Arabica coffee grounds is healthier than most coffee types.
Black Pearls: Coffee lovers described the coffee beans as black pearls and Turkish coffee has a flavor worthy of this description. The fine grounds sink to the bottom of the cup and are not for drinking but used by fortunetellers to read the drinker’s future.
Coffee Fortune: Coffee fortune telling was born out of Turkish coffee and is an inseparable part of the pleasure and conversation associated with coffee.
How to Serve: Turkish coffee is served in small cups. Usually, a glass of water and Turkish delight are served with Turkish coffee and they are generally consumed before drinking the coffee.
Turkish coffee combines special preparation and brewing techniques with a rich communal traditional culture. The freshly roasted beans are ground to a fine powder; then the ground coffee, cold water and sugar are added to a coffee pot and brewed slowly on a stove to produce the desired foam. Turkish coffee is served in small cups, accompanied by a glass of water, and is mainly drunk in coffee-houses where people meet to converse, share news and read books.
Turkish coffee is regarded as part of Turkish cultural heritage, it is celebrated in literature and songs, and is an indispensable part of ceremonial occasions.
SOURCE: goturkeytourism.com
Who can ever claim that the Turkish Cuisine is not one of the world’s best tastes? Turkey is known for offering one of the three most distinctive, traditional cuisines in the world. It is renowned for its wide variety of high-quality fresh fruit and vegetables, different kinds of fish and fresh meat, delicious desserts, traditional drinks, famous spirits and a large selection of traditional produce. Gastronomy has its very own special place in Turkey. Wherever you look wherever you go, you can find good food and drink in Turkey.