Days are getting colder and shorter as we stepping into June in New Zealand and experiencing southern hemisphere Autumn. It all adds up to the laziness of these days along side all the bad news around the Covid-19 going viral all around the world and the rest of bad news we are hearing every day. That’s why I decided to write about something to look forward to experience as soon as the limitations are eased and we can all travel again. I decided to start with some tips on what to eat in Turkey based on our four trips we had to Turkey so far. Some tips on delicious treats to lift up our moods. I categorized them all in 5 sections, starting with breakfast.
Turkish Breakfast:
What is called a typical Turkish breakfast is just a dream for me coming true. A combination of nice cheeses, lots of vegetables and different kinds of olives, fresh herbs, variety of fresh breads including Simit, fresh honey and cream and above of all, menemen, followed by couple of cups of Turkish tea. So I definitely recommend having at least two breakfasts a day. Normally we have one in our hotel or home stay and then go for the second round somewhere on the street. It sounds weird but I looked through all our photos from Turkey and couldn’t even find a single photo of the perfect breakfast shot. Probably because we were always right into it. When we were travelling in Turkey overland for a month, we used to stop at a bakery and by fresh bread with a block of cheese from a dairy shop and find an amazing spot to have our simple bread and cheese breakfast.
Turkish Snacks:
Forget about main meals, Turkish snacks can keep you going for the whole day. There is so many street snacks to choose from and most of them are popular almost everywhere in Turkey. Let’s look at few of them.
First of all boiled or grilled corns!! These treats are available all year around and I normally go for for at least one a day. And my preferred version is the grilled ones
The other popular snack, especially in winter time, is chestnuts. They are not my favorites but their smell is pretty nostalgic.
The other favorite is steamed mussels, especially the stuffed ones. They are great snacks on the go during the day and a perfect side dish/ bar snack to have with a drink in the evening.
Gresh fruits are another favorite snack to have on the go. Turkish fruits are amazing!! Doesn’t matter which season you pick to visit Turkey, there are always plenty of fruit options you have in fresh produce markets and shops.
we had the biggest and tastiest strawberry that we have ever had in our life in Turkey. Figs and cherries are also the best.
The last one but not the least in my snack picks is cheese and olives. There are too many types of cheese and olives to pick in Turkey. Perfect combination to take back to your Airbnb or hotel backyard or balcony for the late night drink!
Turkish Drinks:
Ok let’s start with my favorite drink, tea!!!! I love tea. Cannot imagine even one day with at least one cup of proper tea. I mean proper tea. because tea bags are crime against humanity. Turkey is a heaven for tea lovers. Bitter black tea with deep dry taste is a good excuse to sit and have couple of pieces of baklava and watch the life goes by. Drinking tea and coffee culture dates back to centuries ago both in Iran and Turkey. The best place to drink a cup of tea is always in local cafes where locals gather to catch up and talk or play games
The other hot drink that can not be missed is the world famous Turkish coffee. I have to confess that I love Turkish coffee copper decorative pots and Turkish coffee cups more than the actual coffee. I’m not a coffee person anyway but there’s no way to miss the dark grainy thick Turkish coffee in an amazing cup!
Moving to Cold drinks, I have three favorites. Let’s start with Ayran. This interesting yogurt drink is popular both in Iran and Turkey. For the first timers drinking Ayran, its tart and sour taste can be intriguing. The only way to get Ayran in New Zealand is making it, so if we travel to Turkey or Iran, we try as much Ayran as we can with almost every meal, apart from seafood. It just doesn’t work with seafood.
The next drink on the list is Turkish beer. I like Turkish beer a lot. There are quite a lot of local craft breweries available nowadays and different varieties are available on tap in the bars. My good old favorite is Efes beer.You can get it anywhere in the country and it can not be missed with some Turkish olives or some stuffed mussels or any other fabulous Turkish Mezze you can find.
The last drink that we both love is fresh juices in Turkey. Considering the fact that there are plenty of fresh fruit available all year around in Turkey, fresh fruit juices are cheap with great quality and they are available everywhere. Our favorite is pomegranate juice or pomegranate and orange mix juice.
Turkish Food:
Turkey is a big country and there are lots of different kinds of food available all around the country. I’m not going to talk about different types of food and certain restaurants. Instead, it’s more about different categories of food and experiences not to miss in Turkey. Let’s start with buffet style restaurants.
What I love about these restaurants, which are quite popular both in big cities and in small towns, is the fact that you can try different type of foods in any portion that you like.
The other food experience that we like about Turkey is there are plenty of healthy take away options and street foods that are equally delicious and mouth watering as lots of dine in restaurant foods. Especially the ones that are busy with locals all the time. Here are some of our favorites.
Turkey is surrounded by water so trying local seafood specialties is a must especially if you are travelling to seaside towns. See food markets are amazing too with plenty of options to choose from. whether you try it in one of many high end sea front restaurants or buying a fried fish sandwich from the stands next to Bosphorus in Istanbul, seafood must not be missed in Turkey.
Moving on from Seafood, let’s talk about kebabs in Turkey. Most of dine in restaurant menus, no matter how long is the menu, are around different kebabs with different sides or sauteed in different sauces. Apart from few kebabs that we tried over years in more touristic spots in Istanbul and they weren’t great, most of the kebabs that we tried were great and cannot be missed.
The last experience and for us the most important one is experiencing local food out of touristic destinations. This is a perfect example of win-win situation. We get a chance to try the authentic local food that we can not experience in more commercial restaurants or at least not the big restaurants in touristic spots and for the locals, it’s an extra income. We did try few remote and local foods when we traveled in Turkey 12 years ago overland and every single time it was memorable. Even in big cities like Istanbul, finding a local cafe with very basic setting and only one meal on the menu next to the new up market cafes and restaurants with pages and pages of menus is sometimes a gem to find and an experience can not be missed.
Turkish Food to take home:
After eating and drinking enough in Turkey, it’s time to pack some more to take home. Dried fruits in Turkey are the best. Dried figs are probably the most famous one but there are plenty of other options to buy. It’s easy to keep them for the long time and use them as snack back home
Turkish tea and coffee are another good souvenir to take home. Especially in Spice market in Istanbul, there are all different sorts of tea mixed and coffees to choose from. Turkish apple tea is the best after the typical black tea but there are a lot more to chose from. It’s a good idea to get a set of tea Turkish cups to go with it as well.
The last thing to buy and pack must be Turkish baklava. It needs to be fresh so buy it last minute. There are too many shops to chose from and honestly sometimes it’s hard to pick the best one. Just pick one and get a pack or two. Every single time we go to Turkey, we find more interesting packs of baklava and Turkish delights to take home as a gift. The best packages that I’ve seen in our last visit was from Hafiz Mustafa. With too many branches all over Istanbul, it’s easy to find one.
That’s a brief summary of what we have tried and loved in Turkey in last couple of years. I really wanted to categorize and write about Turkish food which has a special place in our heart for few months and thanks to lock down and all the travel restrictions, I finally got a chance to put it all together. I hope that it helps. I badly needed a piece of baklava after this post that I had to go and make some 🙂
Starting from next post , I’ll travel back in time and document all our previous trips in last couple of years but not in particular order. First country we are going to see together is India. Till then, stay safe.
Michael Chernishov
June 12, 2020 at 8:25amWow! What an excellent post! I knew Turkish food was good, but it’s so much better than I realised!