"Meals and the socializing that happens while eating are a big part of the Turkish culture.
When I visited Turkey for the first time I quickly noticed that restaurants always seem to be busy and food places are on every corner. If you have ever been to Turkey or are living here now and you have Turkish friends, you know that Turks are passionate about their food.
Colorful and inviting, cafes and restaurants are on every corner. Vendors roam the streets or stand on the line between lanes on the motorway as you approach the bridge to sell snacks. Buffets and kiosks line the roadside and glass-sided pushcarts display other savories. For better or worse, the American fast food chains have joined the race. Don’t get me wrong! I love a good American pizza or hamburger. It is great to drive through and pick up on the run or to settle the bad tummy syndrome. In that moment of feeling homesick, it is good to go to the fast food chain we are familiar with. But we must be honest with ourselves and admit that any fast food next to good home-cooked Turkish food is rather pathetic.
Eating Turkish food is one of the most memorable events of a trip to Turkey.
Just think Turks enjoy this privilege every day!
The other night I was craving Turkish food. I have never really tried to learn to cook it because I have never been able to really master it like a Turk. My early attempts were met by neighbors saying, “This is an interesting American dish, we have something like this called …” and naming the dish I had tried to make. So I gave up.
We decided to eat Turkish food out at one of the nice, moderately priced restaurants. To this day, after having been here for so many years, I am still impressed with the meze (cold starters) trolley the waiter brings to the table. It usually has 10 or more varieties to choose from. Typical selections include stuffed grape leaves or green peppers (dolma), cheese, vegetables such as eggplant and watercress folded in garlic yogurt, chickpea paste (hummus), potato salad and cracked wheat in tomato and chili sauce (kısır). Of course, there is usually delicious fresh bread or pita. Normally for me a few of these dishes make a meal in itself along with a salad. But this time I was craving a special meat dish. I wasn’t sure which one.
Even though I have eaten at this restaurant many times over the years, I studied the meat dishes (et) pages carefully, trying to figure out which one I was craving. The waiter watched me from a distance, probably wondering why is she taking so long since she knows our menu almost by heart.
It must have taken me 15 minutes to decide. I read what seemed pages and pages about the meats: regional specialties abound. In southern Turkey, Adana is famous for “Adana kebab,” a spiced minced meat. Istanbul is known for “midye” or pilaf-stuffed mussel meze. The Black Sea specializes in hamsi (fried anchovies) and corn bread; and the Syrian borderlands (e.g., Antep and Urfa) love spicy shish kebabs. By the way, the spices and herbs used to delicately flavor the meat vary from region to region. I kept reading -- güveç dishes, which are delicious casseroles cooked in earthenware pots were on the list. I considered et sote, a kind of goulash that is very good, would be a possibility for me to order.
But then I saw Iskender kebab.
It is a speciality of Bursa. I knew what I was going to order.
Maybe you did not know that İskender kebap is named for the chef who created the dish. Also İskender means Alexander. According to all the ocal sources, Mehmetoğlu İskender Efendi created the first plate of İskender kebap in Bursa in 1867. The lamb he chose was raised on the thyme-covered slopes of Mt. Uludağ (which rises south of Bursa, south of İstanbul and the Sea of Marmara). He roasted the meat as self-basting döner kebap on a vertical grill, cut off thin slices as it was done, spread the slices on top of a bed of diced flat pide bread, then topped the meat and bread with savory tomato sauce and browned butter. Adding a dollop of yogurt on the side and a sprinkle of parsley on top, the dish was served to his guests.
It is absolutely delicious! Just hit the spot.
Even though fast food chains seem to be everywhere and I enjoy them, may Turkey preserve her culinary heritage! Turkish cuisine is among the best in the world".

Charlotte Mcpherson, "Turks: A nation with a passion for food", Today's Zaman, 16.02.2007

I agree about the Turkish love of food (I love Turkish food too!). But....I wonder sometimes why Turkish people are so stubborn to try foods from other countries?

For example, at home I will regulary cook Italian, Spanish, Indian, Greek, Chinese, Turkish, Moroccan and French food - but have noticed that Turkish people only seem to like their own food and are not even curious

Ahh ok thank you! Well, I am vegetarian so I avoid all the meat elements of recipies and adapt them .

Maybe in Turkey it is simply a case of "when you have the best, why try the rest"


PS. I love Mexican food too and Sushi!!!!

talking about food and spices.....:

"Archaeologists in Ecuador have found evidence that chillies were used in cooking more than 6,000 years ago.
They say that chilli grains found in south-western Ecuador show they were cultivated for trade and cooking much earlier than previously thought.

The findings show it was people in this area who first added the spice to cooking and not those in the highlands of Peru or Mexico as first thought.

The hot new research was published in the journal Science.

These ancient remains of chilli peppers have changed the way scientists think about prehistoric Latin American agriculture and cuisine.

At around 6,000 years old, the chilli grains show that peppers were among the oldest domesticated foods in the hemisphere.

The team of scientists who made the discovery in a tropical lowland area say the spice must have been transported over the Andes to what is now Ecuador as the chillies only grew naturally to the east of the mountain range.

The farmers in that ancient village would have been among the first to domesticate the plant.

Spiced staples

The remains of the chillies were not well preserved and it was only by finding microscopic starch grains on ancient pestles and mortars and cooking pots that scientists were able to find any evidence of their use.

It is believed those early Latin Americans would have used chillies with corn and beans.

The author of the report, Linda Perry, says the findings will change perceptions about the sophistication of food on the continent, thousands of years before Christopher Columbus arrived.

He took the chilli pepper to Europe, from where it spread to the rest of the world".

story from BBC News, published: 16.02.2007

I'm hungry now for bulgar and cacik