Food in Istanbul

Food in general and Turkey in Istanbul in particular - are everywhere! You feel it captures your thoughts, how it affects your daily routine, both for its beautiful view confuses you with a pre-planned way.

Resist it is useless, and does not want. After all, how else can you deeper and more accurate to know another country and its people, but through food?

Warning!

Do not look at this post on an empty stomach =) Otherwise - on the contrary, it is recommended for viewing, reporting excellent.

Yes, my friends, if you are vegetarian - in Turkey, you will have hard times.

Kebabs, shish kebabs, doner, duryumy at every step. Do not succumb to the seductive flavors only being five seconds from the table, but not for long. 30 minutes after a hearty lunch, the flavors continue to tempt further.

Only at the end of our journey we started a little bit to understand the kinds of Kebab skewers, before ordered at random. Now we know that everything on the round spit (that in Russia we call shawarma or shavermoy) - a Doner (döner means "spin"), minced meat on a skewer - it is Adana kebab, shish kebab - shish kebab.

With meat often served bulgur. Turks sometimes referred to as its turkish rice. Very tasty cereals, something resembling barley, only a very, very delicate. And because the country, despite the similarity of tastes, barley is made from barley, bulgur and millet.

When not know what to choose, caring hosts institution it will always offer a mix of all possible kebabs.

No less important than kebabs in Turkish cuisine occupy steamed vegetables with meat. Pass this impossible, but try everything can not be in a few days. Only eggplant stewed with meat, we met with a dozen different recipes.

In the second place, after the eggplant with meat, dolma worth. Marinated grape leaves dolma for sale almost everywhere. But strangely enough, we have not tried dolma in grape leaves, but tried in the pub! Amazingly delicious. In fact stuffed peppers - is also a variation on the theme of dolma.

In fact, to begin a story about going to Turkey I had a lentil soup. In Turkey, a small selection of soups, most of them are getting ready to yogurt, almost all the soups - mashed potatoes, but the lentil soup with dry mint served in any establishment where there is a meal satiety than tea. And we even thought that at lunch time this soup is served to all without reservation, although it may just all bought.

We tasted it too much. Even already prepared at home. It turns out very quick, tasty and unusual.

Or even there. We must start with the kebabs were not, not with the lentil soup and eggplant, and on the bread. Delicious bread than in Turkey, we did not eat anywhere else! The trouble is that he served there for free, in the wild amounts (cm. In the basin above) and there is no way it is not. At home we do not have scales, but it is suspected that during the week we have got there on a couple of kilos to our weight.

Bread shop necessarily found in every quarter. They do not sell anything except bread. But the bread is only the most recent and certainly not less than 6-7 species.

And here is the worst part of the Turkish cuisine. Bagels with sesame seeds from mobile merchants. You know what horror? The fact that they are everywhere and they are terribly tasty. So you go out in the afternoon, it takes about 40 minutes, no, no, nothing like the feeling of hunger you have no experience, but you can breathe freely after a meal. And then there are the traders of fresh bagels with sesame seeds and a few seconds later you're standing with a bagel in his hand.

And with delicious bagels have freshly bought in the market basturma and olives the size of a kitten's head.

Do not need any restaurants, cafes and fast food. You can bask in the sun and observe the life around.

This is the pide. According to Russian means pita. These are the pits with fillings also sold on every street corner. They are perfectly fresh. Here are the ones in the picture, brought in a few seconds before I photographed them. After half an hour they will be gone and a new cake. You probably should not say that they are delicious?

Cheese. Cheese very much. Goat, cow, pig-tailed, soft cheese and hard.

You can buy the ubiquitous bagel with sesame seeds, a little pickled beans and cheese on a 1 lira (about 20 rubles) and a great lunch.

Another common type of "fast food" - burek. Generally, burek we have tasted in Israel. But there they were mainly prepared with potatoes, and in Turkey and cheese that resembles cheese.

Typically, burek sold in the same place where they do (as well as almost all of Turkey). Therefore, there was nothing more beautiful in the morning, as two cups of strong tea and hot, straight from the oven burek. By the way, this is important. If you buy burek in a place where it is not baked, it is 99% and it will not half as tasty way can be. So hunt down places where there stove.

And this is Istanbul's famous sandwiches with mackerel - balik ekmek (more precisely, while only an inscription that they are sold here), but it will come back a bit later. White liquid in a photo on the right - this is probably the pillar of the entire Turkish cuisine and Turkish food - ayran. I, with my hatred of all milk is not able to try this drink, but local drink it completely with any meal. It tastes salty and speak very good with meat dishes. By the way, in a cafe with food often is not tea, as the Turks drink tea only with sweets, but Ira is always there!

So, fish sandwiches. To make it clearer, I am strongly to fish cool, especially in the marine and especially mackerel, but even with all this, it seemed to me that balik ekmek - the most delicious food in the world. Just imagine, the freshest fish, fried on the grill directly on the boat, and immediately filed for eaten bread, salad, onion and lemon juice. BUT?

All of this is possible to eat right here on the waterfront.

And this is how it looks like a miracle.

Yes, in Istanbul with fish everything is fine. You can wander into one of the many fish markets and there, right among the ranks, you are sure to find the tents Cafe with freshly prepared fish, which will be served with the same tub of fresh bread and salad.

But the most delicious little plain anchovies (hamsi) were out of the fish. They gutted and fried in boiling oil, after which the fish can be eaten completely, seizing onions, green leaves and bread strangers. In this cafe, where we got into the habit to go to taste the fish, we went only locals, whole families and all ordered a portion of fried anchovies. It looks like a place of worship.

It is impossible not to mention about a very important discovery! More precisely, it is misleading. We were confident that the pickled tomatoes, cucumbers - a lot of Russian cuisine and a large draw. Something like a business card of our cuisine. Nothing like this! The Turks know how to do and do the same delicious salinity, and they are very similar in taste to it, as do the salinity of our grandmother's house. Besides salinity in Turkey are wildly popular.

They even sold on carts, usually on the waterfront.

For 1 lira (20 rubles), you can buy a plastic cup of pickled cabbage with chopped cucumber and all bathed in a delicious brine. It is a pity that we did not have time in Istanbul to cheer with a hangover. I am sure that there with the brine, a hangover - a trifling matter :)

But the steady sale of delicacies in the market. Choice is quite impossible. Only cucumbers of 3-4 species 5-6 species of olives, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, beans and all that you could ever think of in pickled form.

So after breakfast or lunch, you go out on the street, and there you are met by a trader of fresh juice. So tell me, who give up a whole glass of fresh juice in April and just 20 rubles? And no matter what to eat or drink have no strength :)

Oh yeah! Then you go through the small streets and from each gate in addition to magical smells of kebabs, pilaf and burek, came the smell of freshly brewed Turkish coffee.

That seems to be all. Tested meat, fish and vegetable dishes, drunk juice and coffee, what else? But we must not forget that this is Turkey. And do not try Turkish delight it would be unforgivable.

It is good that we are not a sweet tooth! Because otherwise through the streets it would be almost impossible to move around! Because so many sweets that are sold under all pavilions, shops, markets, stalls and carts, do not know no other country.

Sweets in Turkey so much that if a species of kebabs we badly poorly understood in six days, then there we do not even try to understand. Baklava from the banal to the downright unbanal halva at least 10 varieties and absolutely unexpected kurabe 5-6 species. (All my life I thought that kurabe -. Soviet cookies with the French name appears, it is traditionally Eastern dessert!)

And this is terribly tasty Turkish kunafe (künefe). It seems that it is prepared from cheese, but we do not vouch for.

Halva all possible.

Pieces of fruit in syrup. Especially beautiful amber dried apricots! You probably think that now all exactly? And you can safely proceed to the scrutiny of attractions? Go to the Hagia Sophia, for example? No. Still early. Meals can not be over just like that, sweets and tea. On the street, you will always be greeted traders chestnuts.

Even if you do not like chestnuts as a class. Pass by and have a look even for a second on the sellers of chestnuts - is blasphemy. You should have seen with what care, with what tenderness and care they take the chestnuts for roasting. As they shift from side to side them on the coals. As gently clean them from the husk. Honestly, it is possible to watch endlessly. And the smell, the smell of roasted chestnuts! If you know the smell of roasted chestnuts, you know the smell of Istanbul.