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Turkish cuisine
A richness of dishes
Typical breakfast in Turkey consists of bread, sheep cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers and also mercimek áorbasi – chick pea soup, served with a lot of bread. Meze - various popular side dishes - are served with every meal.
Vegetable independence
Turkish cuisine, besides using vegetables as addition to dishes, also uses them as separate dishes. A perfect example of such practice is the most famous Turkish dish Imam Bayildi. “Fainted Imam” (this is a literal translation) is nothing else but an aubergine stuffed with onions, tomatoes, and garlic. What’s interesting is that this dish is cooked in olive oil, but it is served cold.
„Fainted Imam”
When speaking about this dish it is impossible not to mention the legend accompanying this specific name. There are many of them, but the most credible seems to be the one of a Muslim leader, Imam, who fainted seeing his wife prepare stuffed aubergine.
The Turks are never in a hurry with food. They enjoy having slow foods and really tasting them. The same goes for drinks. Kahve, famous Turkish coffee, is brewed in special small melting pots, ground beans are mixed with sugar. When it is strong enough, it is poured into miniature cups with no handles. Coffee is served in three ways: sekrali (very sweet), orte (a little sugar) and sade (bitter).
Although coffee is really popular, tea is a drink numero uno. They say, even if a Turk isn’t occupied with anything, he will go and drink tea. It is brewed up to 10 minutes. Boiling water is poured over strong extract and it is sweetened. Tea is served in small tulip-shaped glasses.
Mezze is the base ...
There are many restaurants that only serve side dishes. They can be a great replacement of a regular meal, as they are really rich. Among many side dishes, it is worth to mention beyaz peynir - sheep milk cheese, yaprak dolmasi – stuffed grape leaves, tarama – cod spawn paste, or kabak kizartmasi – fried zucchini in yoghurt sauce. Turkish favoured dish is imam bayildi (imam fainted) – aubergine fried with tomatoes, onion and garlic. One thing characteristic for these side dishes is that you can eat them with your fingers.
Traditional Turkish meat dishes are famous all over the world. The Turks are forbidden to eat pork by the Koran, but it allows them to eat lamb. They also stuff vegetables with meat. Seaside towns of Turkey serve fish and seafood.
Kebab - a brief history of meats roasted on the sword
How about Turkish kebab? Is there someone who hasn’t tried it at least once in their lifetime? According to the legend, Iskander of Bursa invented the fire grate for kebab. Turkish warriors, when they were away from home, used to roast the meat on their own swords.
Iskander thought of a vertical grate, the difference was that the fat dripping from the meat saturated it from top to bottom. Today the invention can be found at many kebab places all over the world. Kebab usually is served in pita bread with salad.
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