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For those who travel in culinary pursuits, Turkish Cuisine is a very curious one. The variety of dishes that make up the Cuisine, the ways they all come together in feast-like meals, and the evident intricacy of each craft offer enough materiai for life-long study and enjoyment. It is not easy to discern a basic element or a single dominant feature, like the Italian "pasta" or the French "sauce". Whether in a humble home, at a famous restaurant, or at a dinner in a Bey's mansion, familiar patterns of this rich and diverse Cuisine are always present. It is a rare art which satisfies your senses while reconfirming the higher order of society, community and culture.
The modern mind, in a moment of contemplation, has similar thoughts upon entering a modest sweets shop in Turkey where "baklava" is the generic cousin of a dozen or so sophisticated sweet pastries with names like twisted turban, sultan, saray(palace), lady's navel, nightengale's nest. The same experience awaits you at a "muhallebi" (pudding shop) with a dozen different types of milk puddings.
Turkey is known for an aounoance and diversity of foodstuff due to its rich flora, fauna and regional differentiation. And the legacy of an Imperial Kitchen is inescapable. Hundreds of cooks specializing in different types of dishes, all eager to please the royal palate, no doubt had their influence in perfecting the cuisine as we know it today. The Palace Kitchen, supported by a complex social organization, a vibrant urban life, specialization of labor, trade, and total control of the Spice Road, reflected the culmination of wealth and the flourishing of culture in tne capital of a mighty Empire. And the influence of the longevity of social organization should not be taken lightly either. The Turkish State of Anatolia is a millenium old and so, naturally, is "the cuisine." Time is of the essence; as Ibn'i Haldun wrote, "the religion of the King, in time, becomes that of the People", which also holds for the King's food. Thus, the reign of the Ottoman Dynasty during 600 years, and a seamless cultural transition into the present day of modern Turkey, led to the evolution of a grand cuisine through differentiation, refinement and perfection of dishes, as well as their sequence and combination of the meals.
Turkish cuisine has the extra privilege of being at the crossroads of the Far-East and the Mediterranean, which mirrors a long and complex history of Turkish migration from the steppes of Central Asia (where they mingled with the Chinese) to Europe (where they exerted influence all the way to Vienna).
Anyone who visits Turkey or has had a meal in a Turkish home, regardless of the success of the particular cook, is sure to notice how unique the cuisine is. Our intention here is to help the uninitiated to enjoy Turkish food by achieving a higher level of understanding of the repertoire of dishes, related cultural practices and their spiritual meaning.
Turks cultivated wheat and used it liberally in several types of leavened and unleavened breads baked in clay ovens, on the griddle, or buried in ember. "Manti", ( dumpling),and "bugra" (attributed to Bugra Khan of Turkestan, the ancestor of "borek" or dough with fillings), were already among the much-coveted dishes at this time. Stuffing the pasta, as well as all kinds of vegetables, was also common practice, and still is, as evidenced by dozens of different types of "dolma". Skewering meat as well as other ways of grilling, later known to us as varieties of "kebab" and dairy products such as cheeses and yogurt were convenient and staple foods of the pastoral Turks. They introduced these attitudes and practices to Anatolia in the 11th. century. In return they were introduced to rice, fruits, and vegetables native to the region, and the hundreds of varieties of fish in the three seas surrounding the Anatolian Peninsula. These new and wonderful ingredients were assimilated into the basic cuisine in the millennia that followed. Anatolia is a region coined as the "bread basket of the world." Turkey, even now, is one of the seven countries in the world which produces enough food to feed every one and then some to export. The Turkish landscape encompasses such a wide variety of geogra.
In Turkey, there is a rich tradition associated with liquor. Drinking alcoholic beverages in the company of family and friends at home and in taverns, and restaurants, is a part of special occasions. Similar to the Spanish tapas, "meze" is the general category of dishes that are brought in small quantities to start the meal off. These are eaten, along with wine or more likely with "raki", the anise-flavoured national drink of Turks, sometimes referred to as "lion's milk", for a few hours until the main course is served.
The bare minimum meze for raki are slices of honeydew melons and creamy feta cheese with freshly baked bread. Beyond these, a typical meze menu includes dried and marinated mackerel, fresh salad greens in thick yogurt sauce with garlic, plates of cold vegetable dishes cooked or fried in olive oil, fried crispy savoury pastry, deep fried mussels and calamari served in sauce, tomato and cucumber salad, and fish eggs in sauce. The main course that follows such a meze spread will be fish or grilled meat.When the main course is kebab, then the meze spread is different. In this case, several plates of different types of minced salad greens and tomatoes in spicy olive oil, mixed with yogurt or cheese, "humus" chickpeas mashed in tahini, bulgur and red lentil balls, "raw kofte", marinated stuffed eggplant, peppers with spices and nuts, and pickles, are likely to be served.
The importance of culinary art for the Ottoman Sultans is evident to every visitor of Topkapi Palace. The huge kitchens were housed in several buildings under ten domes.
By the 17th century, some 1,300 kitchen staff were housed in the Palace. Hundreds of cooks, specializing in different categories of dishes such as soups, pilafs, kebabs, vegetables, fish, breads, pastries, candy and helva, syrup and jams and beverages, fed as many as ten 10,000 people a day, and in addition, sent trays of food to others in the city as a royal favour.The importance of food has also been evident in the structure of the Ottoman military elite, the Janissaries. The commanders of the main divisions were known as the Soupmen, other high ranking officers were the Chief Cook, Scullion, Baker. and Pancake Maker, though their function had little to do with these titles. The huge cauldron used to make pilaf had a special symbolic significance for the canissaries. as the central focus of each division.
lzgara"- mixed grilled meat, it is how main course meat dishes are prepared at a meat restaurant. Mixed grills are likely to include lamb chops, "kofte", or "sis"(select cubes of meat). The way of preparing ground meat will be the "kofte". These are grilled, fried, oven-cooked or boiled, after being mixed with special spices, eggs, and grated onions and carefully shaped into balls, oblongs, round or long patties. Another popular dish, inspired by the nomadic Turks who carried spiced, raw meat in their saddles, and known to Europeans as "steak Tartar", is the raw kofte. Here, it is made of raw, double ground meat, by kneading it with thin bulgur and hot spices vigorously for a few hours. Then bite-sized patties are made, and served with cilantro, known for its stomach-protecting quaiities.Some restaurants specialize only in grilled meats, in which case they are called meat restaurants. The fare will be a constant stream of grilled meats served hot in portions off the grill, until you tell the waiter that you are full. The best one is Beyti in Florya, Istanbul and the best way to get there is to take the commuter train from Sirkeci, the main train station on the European side, rather than negotiating the highway traffic. This way you can also see the local folks, especially the kids who seem to use the train to the fullest, carrying out their summer holiday adventures involving fishing and possibly a variety of other mischief.
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