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Turkish cuisine, along with the French and Chinese, is considered one
of the world's three most varied and sophisticated cuisines. This comes
as no surprise, since Turkish cuisine today possesses the traces of an
historic range of cuisines, going as far back as the Byzantine epoch.
Lamb is the basic meat of Turkish cuisine. Small pieces of lamb, threaded
on a skewer and grilled over charcoal, is the basis for the famous shish
kebab, known throughout the world. Doner kebab is another famous Turkish
dish, consisting of paper thin slices cut from a roll of lamb turning
on a vertical skewer over a hot grill and served with salad, bread and
hot butter. Eggplant is an extremely popular vegetable in Turkey and is
transformed, in the hands of the Turkish chef, into a wide variety of
hot and cold versions. Of the hot versions, karniyarik and hunkarbeyendi
are both favorite eggplant and meat dishes; of the cold versions, patlican
salatasi and patlican dolmasi are favorite eggplant and olive oil dishes.
Eggplant may be cooked with onions, garlic and tomatoes and served cold
as imambayildi, which literally means, "The Sultan loved it"! A delicious
Turkish speciality is pilav, a rice dish difficult for the inexperienced
cook to prepare. Borek are pies made of layers of paper thin dough stuffed
with meat, cheese or a combination of cheese and spinach. The English
word yoghurt comes directly from the Turkish word, yogurt, which is a
must at almost every Turkish meal and justifiably renowned. One particularly
notable variety of Turkish cuisine are those dishes called zeytinyaglilar,
which are cooked with olive oil and often served cool. Dolma is the name
applied to vegetables such as grape leaves, cabbage leaves, green peppers
and tomatoes stuffed with spiced rice. Turkish sweets and desserts are
famous throughout the world. A number of popular desserts have milk as
the basic ingredient: among these are sutlac, tavuk gogsu and kazandibi.
But, of course, the most famous group of Turkish desserts are the wide
variety of pastries that are known as baklava, cut into small triangles,
these flaky, walnut or pistachio filled, honey soaked pastries are beloved
the world over and were first invented by the Byzantines. Among its national
drinks, Turkish coffee is the best known. Turkish coffee is thick and
dark, cooked with the drinker's choice of a lot of sugar, a little sugar
or no sugar. Ayran, a refeshing yogurt drink, shira and boza are also
classic Turkish non-alchoholic drinks. Raki is the anise flavoured spirit
of Turkey, resembling pernod in France and ouzo in Greece. When you come
to Turkey, you will find an unbelievably delicious galaxy of dishes, suited
to every conceivable taste. Please click on Cookbook for sample recipes.
For a list of famous Turkish restaurants, serving the best versions of
some of dishes described above, please click on Restaurants.
This article on Turkish cuisine is adapted from an
article by Mehmet Yazgan. guidetoturkey.com. thanks him for his contribution.
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