Turkish diet habits

Turkish diet habits

The Turkish cuisine is millenarian, as well as the Turkish alimentary habits. Turkish recepies passes from grandmother-mother-daughter since generations and they are very traditional in their diet habits. Turks doesn't like much to try different kinds of food.

Beginning with a very oriental breakfast.... bread, olives, tomatos, cucumberes, white cheese, honey and black turkish tea. At the weekend some families can add to the table: an omelet or boiled egg, borek (pie filled with vegetables, meat or cheese), sucuk or pastirma (Turkish salamis), butter or fresh cream, marmalades, etc...

The lunch is served between 12:00 and 13:00 in the normal work days . In big cities people do not go back home for lunch. There is usually restaurants in big companies. Meals are generally simple but Turkish cookery. At street restaurants you can see Turkish typical dishes that can be chosen at self-service restaurants without having to wait a long time to be served.

We can separate the turkish dishes in 5 types: soups, cold dishes, hot dishes & meats (main dishes) and dessert.

Turks love soup, even in the summer some turks eat hot soup. Some soups: yogurt soup, red lentil soap, tomato soap, sheep soap with yogurt, etc... Turks eat lots of bread with soup and all
other dishes.

Usually the colds Turkish dishes are eaten in the summer. The colds dishes are delicious, usually it doesn't have meat but lots of fresh vegetables like: leek with carrots, green paprikas filled with rice, fresh green beans, yogurt salads (eggplant or carrot), chicken with walnut sauce, etc... During the summer Turks eat a dish called cacik, which is a cold soup made of yogurt, cucumber and herbs.

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The Turkish hot dishes (main dishes) usually have some meat on it and a lot of vegetables, however the Southwest population eats more meat. You can eat in Turkey fried eggplant with meat, spinach with yogurt, pepper filled with rice and milled meat covered with yogurt, etc...

You will also be able to eat sis kebap in Turkey, that are small barbecues in wood stick (beef, sheep or chicken - due to religion you won't find pork in Turkish restaurants). The doner kebap (translated literally means beef that rotates - because beef is piled up and it rotates around itself when cooking) it is a good dish to ask for. You can eat it with french fries and salad, or you can eat the beef as sandwich.

In all Turkish meals you will find bread: in breakfast, lunch or dinner. The yogurt is also very used as a cream over certain dishes.

As dessert you can eat a turkish sweet: baklava (special sweet with all kinds of nuts), rice pudding, chocolate pudding or muse, asure, chicken pudding.... Turks also love seansons fruits and they eat plenty of it. During the summer they eat cherries, peaches, grapes, watermelon and
melon... and during the winter orange, apples and pears.

During the whole day Turks drink black traditional Turkish tea in small glasses. You can see in the whole country Turks drinking black tea. It is the most popular non alcoholic and traditional drink in Turkey, followed by the turkish coffee. The snack during the afternoon can be done with a tea
and a simit (small round bread with sesame over it) or piece of cake or cookie. Turks love all flour products. Some other tipical Turkish drinks:sahlep, boza and ayran.

Dinner is usually made at home with the family. The housewives love to cook and they make it very well. Due to rush of the daily life, women who work prepares easy turkish dishes. The dinner menu would be a repetition of what can be eaten at lunch or for some families only a snack.

During the weekends Turks eat in restaurants or use to visit some friends.Usually when they visit friends they would find a banquet, the housewife works hardly to satisfy her guests. You should try to eat everything otherwise the housewife will not be satisfied.

Turks drink beer but the most popular alcoholic drink is Raki, made of anises. This drink is
served in two long glasses. In one glass they put water with ice until the top, in the other the raki until the middle of the glass. The person who is drinking keep on mixing the water to the raki. Raki is transparent but when in contact with water gets a whitish color. The drink has high alcoholic content.

For the curious people who would try the Turkish cuisine we suggest in our site some books. Have fun!

More on Turkish cusine:

Turkish recepies
Turkish Cuisine books
More about Turkish Cuisine

Coffee, Tea and Narguile
Coffee, a Turkish tradition
Tea gardens in Istanbul
Making Turkish black tea like the Turks

Typical Turkish drinks: sahlep, boza and ayran