Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ant may try to serve you old fish. Ask the approximate price: the fish will be weighed, and
the price computed at the day's per-kilogram rate.
Fish is typically cooked over coals and served unadorned, accompanied by salads.
Popular fish include hamsi (anchovy), lüfer (bluefish; avoid when this overfished spe-
cies is small), kalkan (turbot), levrek (sea bass), lahos (white grouper), mezgit (whiting),
çipura (gilthead bream) and palamut (bonito).
Vegetables & Salads
Turks love vegetables, eating them fresh in summer and pickled (turşu) during winter.
There are two particularly Turkish ways of preparing vegetables: zeytinyağlı (sautéed in
olive oil) and dolma (stuffed with rice or meat). The Turks' beloved patlıcan (aubergine)
is cooked in every conceivable manner; look out for the famous dish imam bayıldı ('the
imam fainted'; aubergines slow-cooked in olive oil with tomatoes, onion and garlic).
Simplicity is the key to Turkish salata (salads), with crunchy fresh ingredients, adorned
with oil and vinegar at the table, eaten as a meze or accompaniment to a main. The most
popular summer salad is colourful çoban salatası (shepherd's salad; chopped tomatoes,
cucumber, onion and pepper).
Vegetarians & Vegans
The concepts of vegetarianism and veganism may be foreign here, but vegetarian (vejeteryen) dishes are reasonably
common, and usually dominate the meze spread. Salads, soups, pastas, omelettes, pides , böreks (filled pastries) and
hearty vegetable dishes are also readily available. Ask 'etsiz yemek var mı?' ('is there something to eat that has no
meat?').
The main source of inadvertent meat eating is et suyu (meat stock), which is often used in otherwise vegetarian
pilav, soup and vegetable dishes. Your hosts may not even consider et suyu to be meat; ask 'et suyu var mı?' ('is
there meat stock in it?') to check.
Sweets
Turks prefer fruit for dessert, but will often visit a muhallebici (milk pudding shop), pas-
tane (patisserie) or baklavacı (baklava shop) for a mid-afternoon sugar hit. Turkish sweets
worth sampling are honey-drenched, pistachio- studded baklava, fırın sütlaç (rice pud-
ding; tasting of milk, sugar and a hint of exotic spices), dondurma (the local ice cream),
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