One thing for sure, you won't starve in Turkey, they will make sure of that! Fun factoid: Turkey is entirely self-sufficient food-wise.
A typical Turkish meal is meze, grilled meat or fish, and dessert. Black tea (chai) is the prevalent drink, and everywhere you go -- stores, meetings, homes -- you will be offered at least tea or coffee. But beware, the coffee is often instant if you don't like Turkish coffee. They also have a good wine industry, and we had some pretty nice surprises on that front!
The meze are just slightly different than in other Middle East counties. Hummus, white bean and creamy and spicy eggplant dips, dolmas, carrot salads (including the amazing carrot/yogurt salad imspoke of previously) cucumber in yogurt, cigar pastries filled with cheese, etc.
One item that was every where in Turkey that I did not see in either Jordan or Egypt is soup. Lentil soup of course, but also fresh tomato soup, and also a nice eggplant and almond soup. I was surprised at how many of my fellow travellers don't like eggplant, since it's one of my faves, but that meant there was more for me, so I wasn't complaining.
Bread is omnipresent, but totally different than the Middle East breads. I loved the very flat breads you made wraps with (when stuffed they're called gozleme, and look like the bread they make lamacun with) and they have something very similar to Montreal-style bagels, called simit, as well as a flatbread that's a bit like a thinner focaccia, otherwise, we had varieties of sliced breads which tasted pretty ordinary to me. Simit is sold on street carts for 1 Turkish Lira, roughly 50 cents. That was my daily bread!
Meat is typical of a Muslim country: lamb and chicken, but they also have beef. Lots of minced lamb and beef preparations, and we were mostly impressed with those. I had two awesome tavok shish dishes ( chicken kebabs). After awhile though, the flavours get repetitive, especially as we're used to more variety food wise. Istanbul just got its first Thai restaurant, for example, so the meals tend to be the traditional foods going back to the ottoman days.
The one unique but quite ubiquitous item I saw pretty much everywhere is urfa pepper. The link describes the smoked version, but you also find the unsmoked version on many restaurant tables to just sprinkle over your food like you would salt and pepper. I loved both and brought some back.
Our last day in Turkey we sampled Turkish ravioli in 2 different restaurants .. The first was ordinary, the second, sublime. So don't let your first experience fool you if you're not impressed.
The best dessert we had, by far, was poached quince, at least it was for me. We had the typical baklava, lacoum, and such, but the poached fruit beat them all.
That pretty much sums it up from my perspective. We didn't have many great meals, but we had decent mid-priced meals, so overall I was pleased.
A typical Turkish meal is meze, grilled meat or fish, and dessert. Black tea (chai) is the prevalent drink, and everywhere you go -- stores, meetings, homes -- you will be offered at least tea or coffee. But beware, the coffee is often instant if you don't like Turkish coffee. They also have a good wine industry, and we had some pretty nice surprises on that front!
The meze are just slightly different than in other Middle East counties. Hummus, white bean and creamy and spicy eggplant dips, dolmas, carrot salads (including the amazing carrot/yogurt salad imspoke of previously) cucumber in yogurt, cigar pastries filled with cheese, etc.
One item that was every where in Turkey that I did not see in either Jordan or Egypt is soup. Lentil soup of course, but also fresh tomato soup, and also a nice eggplant and almond soup. I was surprised at how many of my fellow travellers don't like eggplant, since it's one of my faves, but that meant there was more for me, so I wasn't complaining.
Bread is omnipresent, but totally different than the Middle East breads. I loved the very flat breads you made wraps with (when stuffed they're called gozleme, and look like the bread they make lamacun with) and they have something very similar to Montreal-style bagels, called simit, as well as a flatbread that's a bit like a thinner focaccia, otherwise, we had varieties of sliced breads which tasted pretty ordinary to me. Simit is sold on street carts for 1 Turkish Lira, roughly 50 cents. That was my daily bread!
Meat is typical of a Muslim country: lamb and chicken, but they also have beef. Lots of minced lamb and beef preparations, and we were mostly impressed with those. I had two awesome tavok shish dishes ( chicken kebabs). After awhile though, the flavours get repetitive, especially as we're used to more variety food wise. Istanbul just got its first Thai restaurant, for example, so the meals tend to be the traditional foods going back to the ottoman days.
The one unique but quite ubiquitous item I saw pretty much everywhere is urfa pepper. The link describes the smoked version, but you also find the unsmoked version on many restaurant tables to just sprinkle over your food like you would salt and pepper. I loved both and brought some back.
Our last day in Turkey we sampled Turkish ravioli in 2 different restaurants .. The first was ordinary, the second, sublime. So don't let your first experience fool you if you're not impressed.
The best dessert we had, by far, was poached quince, at least it was for me. We had the typical baklava, lacoum, and such, but the poached fruit beat them all.
That pretty much sums it up from my perspective. We didn't have many great meals, but we had decent mid-priced meals, so overall I was pleased.
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