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What to Expect When…Dining in Turkey

By Megan Underwood

The diversity, flavor, and healthfulness of Turkish food make it one of the most pleasurable cuisines in the world.  With over 55% of the population living in the countryside and working in agriculture, Turkey has a multitude of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products available.  It is one of the few self-sustained countries in the world, producing all its own food.  Because of the uncomplicated nature of the cuisine, even the most unpretentious of restaurants can provide wholesome and satisfying meals. 

Like Americans, Turks eat three meals a day.  Breakfast is often just cheese and olives, bread with honey, butter, and jam, and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.  Don’t expect coffee with breakfast, as the drink of choice is tea, made from leaves grown in the Black Sea region.  Turkish people drink tea all day long, the same way many Americans drink coffee.  It’s served in little glass cups, usually with sugar, but no milk.  

Turks love bread.  It’s always fresh, bought daily from the bakery, and includes ekmek (white loaves) and pide (flat bread), which is often served with kebabs, and also eaten during religious festivals.  Be sure to try simit, flat, bagel-like bread rings covered with sesame seeds, which are sold by many street vendors. 

Lunch tends to be the lightest meal of the day.  Today, there are so many hazir yemik, or “fast food” places, that visitors can be assured of a delicious lunch even when on the run.  Try a kebab, which is thin pieces of meat sliced off slabs of lamb and beef that are cooked on a rotisserie.  The slices are folded into flat bread and served and eaten like sandwiches.  Or choose “Turkish pizza” with various toppings cooked on pide.  Another light-lunch possibility is manti, meat-filled ravioli drenched in oil and yogurt (one of the few Turkish words now part of English vernacular). 

Restaurants open for lunch at 10:00 or 11:00 AM and remain open through dinnertime.  The menu and the prices do not change between lunch and dinner.  Seat yourself, except in the most upscale restaurants, and even then you are usually given a choice of tables.  Tipping, as in the United States, is expected and should be 10%-15% of the bill.

Dinner starts with meze, which are small dishes for the whole table to share.  Four people can easily eat eight to ten appetizers.  The vegetable appetizers are cooked and drizzled with olive oil, then served at room temperature.  The warm appetizers are spiced seafood or meat, meant to tease the appetite before the main meal.  There’s no such thing as the typical “three course meal,” because appetizers and salads remain on the table after the main dishes are served. 

Main dishes are also small portions, as diners usually fill up on the appetizers.  Lamb, chicken, beef and seafood are the meats of choice (pork is rarely available because most Turks are Muslims).  When ordering fish, you will be presented with a selection on a tray, and you can discuss the price of each choice as you order.  For dessert, baklava, pastry filled with almonds and pistachio nuts and soaked in syrup, is on of the many sweet desserts popular with Turkish dinners. Often in the summertime, dessert is simply a big arrangement of the seasonal fruits, including plums, cherries, apricots, melon, watermelon, grapes, figs, and peaches. 

Turkish coffee is always served after dinner.  After the coffee beans are roasted, they are ground to a powder.  In a small pot, the powder, water, and sugar are mixed together and brought to a boil.  Then, the coffee is served unfiltered, in espresso-size cups.  Don’t drink it right away; instead wait for the grounds to settle, and never finish the cup.  Turks leave almost a third.  Even so, drinkers will taste some coffee grounds, so no Turkish coffee is complete without a glass of water on the side. 

The Turkish national drink is raki, “lion’s milk,” a strong anisette liqueur that is always presented with water and ice so that the drinker can dilute it to his or her taste.  It’s to be imbibed like wine, throughout the course of the meal.   The Turks believe that the first wine was made in Turkey, and the country is rich with grape varieties.  Wine is inexpensive, and red and white varieties are served in many Turkish restaurants.

Whatever you order, wherever you go, you can be certain to eat well in Turkey.

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