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.

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.

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!