Istanbul Food and Cuisine

Turkish cuisine is based on lamb and mutton but it also includes beef and chicken (no pork, of course), as well as all sorts of seafood.

The most common preparations are roasting and grilling, which produce the famous Turkish kebaps, including döner kebap, the national dish, and köfte (small meatballs), the workingman’s favorite.

The doner kebap (turning roast) is dish made of meat cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order. The meat may be lamb, mutton, beef, goat, or chicken. It looks great and tastes divine.

Popular kebabs:

• Shish kebab (sis kebabi) is a dish consisting of small cubes of meat threaded on a skewer that are grilled or roasted.
• Adana kepap is a dish consisting of pieces of meat with rice and vegetables (often grilled) and very spicy.

• Urfa kepap. It is the same as Adana but it is nor spicy.

The supremo of döners is Iskender Kebap, named for a chef in the city of Bursa who created the dish: lamb raised on the thyme-covered slopes of Mount Uludag (which rises south of Bursa) is roasted à la döner, spread atop diced flat pide bread, then topped with savory tomato sauce and browned butter and served with a dollop of yogurt on the side.

You will find a lot of delicious food selling right on the street. I recommend trying the Adana kebap, but be careful because it is very spicy.

You will also see a lot of places selling Durum; it is just kebap rolled into flat bread.

Izgara Köfte is ground lamb mixed with egg, rice or bread crumbs and spices, formed into longish meatballs and grilled. They are delicious. Try them.

Börek are filled pastries with white sheep’s milk cheese and a chopped vegetable such as parsley or spinach. Popular types of borek are

• ispanakli = with spinach
• karisik = with everything
• kasar peynirli = with yellow cow’s milk cheese
• kiymali = with ground lamb
• patatesli = with mashed potatoes
• peynirli = with white sheep’s milk cheese (feta)

Istanbul Deserts

The most appreciated are the Baklavaci (baklava).

Besides baklava, the many-layered flaky pastry stuffed with crushed nuts and soaked in honey and syrup, these shops often have other sweets such as tulumba, small fluted cylinders of soft pastry baked, then soaked in syrup.

Dondurma (freezing) is ice cream. The Turkish ice cream is very tasteful.

Helva (Halva) is basically a crystalized paste of sesame seeds (tahini) and sugar. It is made from a variety of other ingredients, including sunflower seeds, various nuts, beans, lentils, and vegetables—such as carrots, pumpkins, yams, and squashes.

Istanbul drinks

Beer

The best—and best-selling Turkish beer (80% of the market) is Efes Pilsen, brewed in Izmir. The same company brews Efes Dark, Efes Light, Efes Extra and Marmara.

Tuborg is also brewed in Turkey under license. Heineken is imported.

Raki

Raki (called by Turks lion’s milk) is clear brandy made from grapes and raisins, flavored with pungent anise. Most is quite potent (80- to 90-proof/40% to 45% alcohol) and thus usually diluted with water and sipped. It’s similar to Greek ouzo and French pastis.

Famous raki brand are Yeni Raki, Tekirdag, Altindag and Efe Raki.

How to drink raki: a clear, straight, narrow glass is filled 1/3 or 1/2 with raki, then diluted with water and/or ice to suit the drinker’s taste.

Turkish Wine

Good wine has been produced in Turkey for millennia, and still is. The Turkish wines are pretty good, and it won’t ruin your budget, but it won’t be cheap, either.

The bottles have a special design as you can see in the image above.

Imported Alcoholic drinks

Istanbul is a cosmopolite city, you will find a lot of imported gin, vodka, whiskey and liqueurs brands.

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee (Türk kahvesi) is made by pulverizing freshly medium-roasted beans in a mortar and pestle, or grinding them very fine in a cylindrical brass coffee mill (kahve degirmeni).

The Turkish coffee is it famous for its flavor.

Turkish coffee types:

• Sade - plain, no sugar
• Az sekerli - with a little sugar
• Orta sekerli - with medium sugar
• Çok sekerli - with lots of sugar (quite sweet; two teaspoons of sugar or more)

European-style coffee has finally come to Turkey, and it’s now possible to get a good cup of French-style or Starbucks-style brew, as well as espresso and cappuccino.

Turkish tea (çay)

It is hot, fragrant, bracing, and available everywhere, all the time in Turkey.

Traditionally, Turkish tea is brewed samovar-style, with a small pot of very strong tea kept hot atop a larger vessel of boiling water.

How to drink it: pour a small amount of strong tea into a little tulip-shaped glass and cut it to the desired strength with hot water.

Types of Turkish tea:

• tea açik (weak)
• koyu (dark)
• çay (it will come normal strength)
• Ada Çay (sage tea, one of several popular herbal infusions)
• Ihlamur (linden-flower tea)
• Elma Çay (apple tea)

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