Ben Türkiye'deyken çok başka Türkçe yemek denemek istiyorum.
Whilst in Turkia I want to try lots of different Turkish food.

Can you suggest some common dishes that I should try???
So far I have this list:
- İşkembe çorbası
- Lahmacun
- Menemen

Tell me more please......

Mantı!! It's a sort of ravioli but much nicerrrr!

If you like lahmacun, you might like 'gözleme' as well. My dictionary translates it as pancake, but the only thing they have in common is its shape and size.

Like lahmacun, it's a round, flat piece of dough (???), and you can have it filled with several things.. egg-plant, onions, meat and cheese for example. The meat version goes great with ayran.

The meat in it is not that spiced, but has some onions through it and I really liked it. You can also order for example 'patlıcanlı ve etli gözleme', so you can mix the ingredients.

--

Maybe for lunch you'd like to try a tosti with cheese, tomato and a spiced sausage called sucuk. You can buy these at a 'kumrucu' , which now makes me think that the tosti is probably called 'kumru'. I'm nto sure if they have it everywhere, as it is a speciality from Çeşme.

Hmm I think this is also special Çeşme speciality, but they might have it in different places as well... it is called 'damla sakızlı dondurması'.. it's ice-cream in which they used 'droplets' of some sort of sticky gom/mastic. It makes your usually soft and milky icecream sticky and it has a special taste.

I tried a damla sakızlı fıstık and one with just the taste of the mastic.. but for its taste I won't recommended it! To me it felt like I was eating toilet-refresher or something, it was perfumed in a not nice way.. Ohh i still get chills at its taste. And the structure of the icecream was not my favourite either.. But I guess it's nice to have tried such a thing they don't have in UK or Holland.

Kumpir!! That just came to my mind!!

It's a big potato that goes into a special oven with its skin.. and once it's finishede you can get it filled with all sorts of things. I think that especially gurks and olives go well with it.

Though it looks like 'just' a potato, it's really a full meal

I feel hungry now

Me too! Going to have cheese on toast!!!!

I'm gonna prepare some awfully instant noodles.. but they are from England! They are way better than the ones they sell here!

Anyway, they say.. hunger makes raw beans taste sweetly.. so i think i'm gonna enjoy my noodles as i feel a rumbley in my tumbley n I'm cold!!

my cheese on toast is yummy!

Noodles for me too. Egg noodles with chicken and bamboo, left from last night. Too lazy to cook something fresh

This is kunefe. It has cheese inside but it is sweet. It is served hot and it is DELICIOUS!!!

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!



Okay I give in - I have to go and eat something - anything

Oohh I've had kunefe! it's really really great!!!

ooooo......I've found another two dishes I have to try......

- midye tavası
- tavuk göğsü kazandibi

I am not a great fan of desserts - I prefer savoury foods, but a dessert made with chicken breast seems so unusual that it must be tried

Theres also a desert made with marrow! Unfortunately I don't like it! I love marrow but just on its own!
Everyone else likes it though!!!!

you should defenatly try lokma i love it!!!!!!also there is borek,simit,köfte,turkish pizza,dolma,kumru and çorba.
hope you like them!!!!

This is the worst thing possible, I dont know how people eat it. The smell is already like sh..., my husband´s mother made it and I thought it wouldnt be polite to refuse so I decided to eat it... After one spoon of it I said I really cant eat it I really really dont understand how people eat that!!

 You should try kocoreç 

 oh I love that! Especially when out  

 and karides...one day i ate 2 kilograms till i got sick 

  that should not surprise you!

 Still I cant get enough of karides 

This one´s for you then: http://www.turkishcookbook.com/2008/06/oven-shrimp.php 

Great site btw.

 I use to go to Kumkapi amd buy fresh karides (1 or 1.5 kilos) and i like to clean them even little ones after my boyfriend fries them with condiments. With garlic are great 

Thanks for the site...Im looking all the time for recieps

By the way..there are 3 types of iskembe..normal, tuzlama and another one i forgot its name..that one that its made from big pieces of stamach ? Does anybody knows its name?

 Ãžirden? Damardan?

 Damar ! Thank you. I tried for few hours to remember it 

I´m sure someone already mentioned lentil soup here, but I will say it again! I used to not like any soups of this kind, but I do like the one from the turkish restaurant. Squirt some lemon juice on top of it and eat with pite bread.. mmmm..

I can make a delicious mercmek çorbasý  much better than in restaurants

How can you be reached?

Karniyarik

Guvec

Hunkar begendi

Dolma (any type, out of many alternatives)

Kurufasulye

Some of these dishes are not  served in ordinary restaurants.  You may need a Turkish friend ( a good cook) to prepare them for you.

Ali Nazik is worth a try as well for those who love spiced meat, eggplants, yoghurt and garlic. And if you have a bbq, it is very easy to prepare!

Great! I vote for Karnýyarýk and Hünkar Beðendi, plus Babaganuþ as I LOVE aubergine/egg plant

 Thank you I made that dish a few days ago when we were having a raký-night with friends, and I just couldn´t remember the name!! And for some reason all the Turkish friends there also didn´t know, they just said ´a different version of patlýcan salatasý´, but its babaganuþ! Thanks

 No one invited me

 I think babaganuþ is actually a Arabic dish.

 I have had white and red iskembe. They were both delicious.  I really should learn to prepare it, but have heard it´s tricky to make.

 I know there is iskembe, tuzlama and damar...I think the red one you are talking was after they put over that sauce made from oil and pul biber?

Actually, you dont need  to any advice. We have gorgeous kitchen, foods and desserts are greatest and delicious. Just try what you see and like, you wont be regret from your desicion.

 red and white is mercimek çorbasý...

Why is it that in almost every dish it seems yogurt is used?  I noticed this with the Greeks too.

 It doesn´t sound very Turkish anyway, so thats very well possible. I heard first of it from my family in law, and considering they are Kurdish from the east, it might explain why they knew it but my Turkish friends here didn´t.

 Not white, red or green lentil.

 I don´t know, iskembe was always white and had a LOT of garlic. The red one also had a lot of garlic, but it was not as thick as the white one.  The red ones I had were made by  people in the Trakya part of Turkey.  From what they told me the red color is from the addition of paprika.

There is a Mexican dish that is very similar to iskembe.....it´s called menudo...in fact it is also used as a cure for hangover. The ingredients are similar too.

 If you go to restaurant there are 2 types of mercimek corbasi one is red one a white-yellow colour...that green i think is only home made. That yellow coloured i think its made from red  lentils but they dont put tomatoes paste

yellow lentil soup made by red lentil. I didnt try before green lentil soup. 

 Actually

You have red and green lentils, but when you boil the red ones, they open up and the soup becomes yellow coloured.

I think, regarding the colours,  some soups you might be mixing up are

- mercimek çorbasý (it looks yellow but it is made of red lentils)

- ezogelin çorbasý (it is also made with red lentils, but has a more red/orange kind of colour than the regular one)

- kulaklý mercimek çorbasý and varieties which are made with green lentils but generally have a very creamy colour.

The first 2 are the generally sold soups as a starter in simple restaurants, which are yellow and red/orange of colour.

I ate one time green lentil soup made in house but didnt like it....but im crazy for red one...Im sorry in my city i can hardly find and its not quality

I don´t know, possibly.  I put one spoon of acý biber salçasý and one spoon of domates salçasý in my kýrmýzý mercimek çorbasý, and still the colour is yellow after you get it through the blender.

 I like dishes with green lentils, but nothing beats the general red lentil-soup!! (I dont like ezogelin though, it generally has too much peppermint in it).

well im rather hungry reading all this Have you tried borak I think its spell right...its rather yummy and i would like to try and make it myself i just dont have the recipes? so if anyone has a good one then please tell me thanks...

I do like this: i boil the lentil with 1 onion..i use to put also fresh tomatoes. After boiled i made it with mixer. In a pan I put a little oil and add pul biber,mint..when oil gets coloured i put 1 soup spoon of salca and mix ir...I add this at the soup i fix to be enough watter and let it boil..I also add a small piece of lemon. and salt of course. This is the way im doing it

Ohh i have just seen its Borek I had one with goats cheese but this one is with a different cheese but i bet it taste as good...

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4836/cheese-borek.aspx

theres a recipe

Sigara boregi is very good

Quoting ReyhanL

Sigara boregi is very good

 +11111100000009

Deli_kizin how do you prepare mercimek ? I wrote up how i do it..

Edited (7/14/2009) by ReyhanL [add]

 I chop one onion and fry it in butter (or olive oil), then I stir in some flour, and add one spoon of pepper-paste and one spoon of tomato-paste, I add black pepper, cumin, pul biber and after its stirred well I add the water (sometimes with some bouillon), the lentils and the carrot.  I also mix it in the blender and when its smooth I add salt and isot pepper.

I add the spices at the beginning with the fried onion and tomato-pepper paste, but I add more of it after its been through the blender because then the soup gets homogene and you can taste better whats missing.

I keep the mint and lemon apart for everyone to add according to their likes, because I dont like it

I dont put carrot or flour because is sweet enough and has a lots of vitamins..but i use to boil with it ..maydanoz. Mercimek soup is perfect when you eat it at breakfast

 You can find a recipe for Turkish red lentil soup.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Turkish-Red-Lentil-Soup-140836

Afiyet olsun

ofcourse i can look on internet for recieps but i prefer to ask someone the way he/she is making

Quoting ReyhanL

I dont put carrot or flour because is sweet enough and has a lots of vitamins..but i use to boil with it ..maydanoz. Mercimek soup is perfect when you eat it at breakfast

 I think that the carrot really adds great taste to the soup, it made a lot of difference when I first put it after I hadnt done that before. But you must make sure that you get those big carrots which arent as sweet as the small ones.

I dont know why I put flour really. When you dont put it through the blender, the flour helps your to get the right ´kývam´, but now that I started using the blender, I still put it out of habit

A friend of mine puts bulgur...but i have enough kilos so i avoid it

Quoting ReyhanL

A friend of mine puts bulgur...but i have enough kilos so i avoid it

 Hehe I put bulgur in ezogelin.

Quoting ReyhanL

Sigara boregi is very good

Its such a torture. Im on a diet and I think of food all day! You only make it worse with these delicious but greasy böreks  

Same for me I got fat in Turkey

Edited (7/14/2009) by ReyhanL [add]

 BTW....welcome back Deli Kizen!

FWIW...there are actually quite a few different varieties of lentils.  I cook the brown ones about once a week.  I don´t have any electric food processors (hate the noise) , so I use a food mill instead to pure the lentils to a creamy texture.

Thanks!

Yeah I knew about the brown ones but I didnt really see them in Turkey much? The other ones I didnt know

Im using an immersion blender and when you stick them to the bottom of the pan they dont really make that much of a noise..

One of the advantages to the use of a food mill is you catch little pebbles that may be mixed in with the lentils., seeing as everything goes through the holes.  I ruined a tooth eating brown rice and lentils in a health food restraunt years ago.  There was a tiny stone in the mix....ewww...$2,000 and a lot of pain later I´m very careful now.

 i use a strainer...doesnt get as soft as it has to be but the taste is great 

I always check my lentils (and rice and bulgur for that matter) on pebbles or other dirt before I put them in the pan. But Ý guess when youre using more than 2 cups it gets a bit difficult doing it ´by hand´

 Well sometimes I take out a few cups of boiled lentils before I put the blender on it, and once its all smooth and well I put the ´whole lentils´ back in the soup, to give it some more bite. Depends on what i feel like.

 They are very easy to miss, particularly when they are the same color and tiny. Many times the ones who pack things get paid by weight....so adding a few stones makes things weigh more.  I have not noticed this problem as much in the last 10 years though....but from past experience I am wary.  All it takes is one tiny stone to ruin a tooth.

 I can only imagine the trauma. I have luckily never come across stones yet though. (let me knock the wood )

For those who like to experiment with green lentils : Muceddere

http://www.completerecipes.com/Muceddere-Moo-Jeh-Deh-Reh.html?back_url=%2Fcategory%2FAsi

Note: though not mentioned in the recipe, I like it with a sprinkle of cummin powder on the top.

Sounds absolutely delicious! Will definitely try as soon as I have time!

Get the caramelized onions just slightly  burned.

 I was wondering if bulgur instead of pirinç wouldn´t be a better ´taste-match´? Or would that make the dish too heavy?

Right...the recipe states rice, but bulgur would be the correct choice