Best of Turkish Cuisine

Intro

This time around I gather a bunch of pictures from my personal gallery in order to showcase some of the best foods when it comes to Turkish cuisine. As far as I know we are all food lovers, especially when a dish it catches our eye. I cannot say that I am truly addicted to Turkish cuisine but for sure things had improved for me since last year when I relocated here for Erasmus.

It is hard to get used to new lifestyle when it comes to culinary goodies, for me was more hard due to the fact that I am not a meat lover and I can say that I am so picky when it comes to food. I don't eat many things and those I eat must to be excelent taste and plate presentation. One thing I don't eat is pork or beef or other meat except chicken and fish. But this is another story to be continued...

Today my post will be an photo album about my favorite dishes in Turkey and basically what I eat on a regular day or just when I go out. Of course I hope it will be inspiring and once in Turkey trust my appetite!

Long story short

Turkish cuisine is very much related to Otoman Empire, what they cooked in the old times at the Sultan's palace you may find it today with a few other influences. We cannot say that Turkish cuisine is pure, it has a lot of Arabic and Greek influences and in my case I may say also Romanian also. I found many similarities between my cuisine and Turkish one. But indeed our history do meet in one point so is perfectly normal.

As I was saying the food in Turkey has a international twist to it, which it makes it more interesting and tasty. Now it may be a bit different from region to region, for example they have the Istanbul region, then the Black Sea region which is very famous in dishes with fish. The Anatolia region which is more authentic and more close to Otoman Empire cuisine. The Eastern region where I am now in Elazig has a lot of Asian influences, such as rice on a daily basis.

It is almost my one year anniversary since I relocated to Turkey, it was indeed hard in the beginning to adjust to the culinary life here, at first it was all shaormas and chicken, rice and their salads with a lemon twist. My life in Romania includes a lot of junk food so i had a hard time until i started to learn and actually make home cooked meal everyday. But it was so worth it!

Enough talking let's make it like a restaurant menu, starting with breakfast all the way to dinner and if there is also room for dessert as well.

Breakfast

Nothing screams more breakfast in Turkey than bakery products and the typical full table dishes. First time i came to Turkey and had a traditional breakfast in Diyarbakir I was beyond overwhelmed with the many plates they brought us, i did count them was almost 30 plates on my table, just breakfast! I've never seen in my life such a rich expose of food. Everything from bakery to butter, cream cheese, vegetables, fruits, sausages, omlettes all together at the same time. No big deal for them, they told me it's normal, yes right!

It's very common in the South East of Turkey for people to eat on the ground, this is more Arabic style so you can see the similarities as well related to culture and traditions. In Diyarbakir yes we were eating on the floor but where i am now in Elazig no, we do have tables!

The picture above showcasing a Sunday breakfast alongside other Erasmus students from Ghana, Turkish cuisine, Romanian and Ghana food.

But just so you guys can make an idea the normal breakfast includes a bunch of plates with plenty of dishes to choose from.

My favorite thing to eat in the morning it must be Simit, which is a bakery product, more like a sesame pretzel, we have it also in Romania but here has different shape and is a bit ore hard as in consistency. Turkish people they eat it with the traditional ayran which is a yogurt drink with water. Price is 1tl (Turkish lira ).

Another idea for breakfast are the Cigar rolls, some they have cheese inside other without. I absolutely adore them, i ate them usually in the night, i buy them frozen and fry them few minutes in oil. I served them with ketchup. Price is around 4 tl with at least 20 in the package.

Lunch

There is not so much difference between lunch meals and dinner. Usually includes the main course which is always a side dish of rice or bulgur alongside chicken cooked various ways or beef. As soups the most common one is the lentil soup which they always serve us in school cantins.

This is the soup which i always buy like this because is the most easy to cook and taste is same as homemade. Just add boil water and mix.

Fish is such a great idea for lunch especially in the North region, near the Black Sea cities. It's fresh fish and cooked always on the grill, and they have many types of fish from where to choose from, also salmon.

Rice as a garniture is a must in Turkey. Asian population they serve this on their daily meals and many years back Asian countries as Mongolia shared a history episode with Turkey so they say the rice came from them and now they continue this habit in Turkey.

Also if you look more close some Turkish people have Asian facial figures, many times I made the mistake to ask them if they are from other countries.

So as I said fish is my first pick for lunch, is an easy dish and served with plenty of salad it makes it a perfect choice.

Dinner

For me always must be chicken as main course with some side dish of salad and grilled vegetables. Turkish people they eat extremely healthy this is what i realized, in every meal the salad is a must. And every meat is grilled or boiled, never fried in oil. Plus grilled green pepper or tomatoes are always very common.

I love tavuk sis ( chicken on a stick), and the Turkish bread is always cooked in a shape of pie and is very easy to roll inside some pieces of chicken and salad. You can make your own shaorma bites.

Dinner and breakfast is always looking like a feast, too many plates to count, which is more like a extravagant but a display like this is always good because attracts food lovers.

Dessert

Everybody knows the most traditional dessert in Turkey is the baklava. Even so the Greeks say it came from them, i may give props to the Turks, backlava is an extremely sweet dessert with an inside consistence of nuts or pistachio. Some people they cannot eat more than one piece because of the sweetness but you can get used to it after a while.

A good quality backlava is always more expensive, usually around 40tl per kilogram. It can also be kept over some time.

There are different shapes and in other countries you may find with fruits and cocoa but the original ones they will always be with nuts and pistachio. I preffer one from Trabzon because this city is famous for their hazelnuts. So they always use them in backlava which is very hard to find in other cities.

When eating outside always look for the small places not always the most fancy ones promise you the best authentic food. Less is more this is a saying that applies for Turkish cuisine when comes to restaurants. I always enter the most ugly small places and i always exit with the best impressions.

And you don't need always to pay such a great check in the end, for example a dinner for two my boyfriend usually pay around 30 tl which is around 10 euros, so no big deal, quality food for a reasonable price.

I hope i could give you some ideas and maybe some inspirations in case you plan to travel to Turkey. The food for sure will win you over!

And to and end in a high note as the Turkish use to say Afiyet Olsun which means enjoy your meal !

Photo gallery