Food in Turkey

Anyone who knows me knows that my life revolves around food.  Learning about it, finding it, eating it.  As I've joked "If you're going to have a hobby, it might as well be something you do three times a day anyway.

Below are a bunch of food photos from my trip.

 (Food from Turkish Airlines flight.  Weirdly delicious after many months in the village.) 

(Istanbul:  Little cup of Turkish tea.)  

 

(Istanbul:  Morning pasty with cheese and with spinach.)

(Istanbul:  Liver in lavash with various saladas and vegetables.  Onion, tomato/cucumber, spicy pepper (?), greens, etc.  The white bowl to the left is ayran.)   

(Me with fresh ayran - in a bowl with a ladle.  Ayran is a yoghurt drink that basically tastes like liquid cottage cheese.  I had it first in Turkey in 2001.  I love it.  It's great - especially when the weather is hot.) 

 (Istanbul (near Spice Bazaar):  Dried fruit in the market.)  

(Istanbul (near Spice Bazaar):  Me inside tasty food store.  That had everything - including lots of salads. Mmmmm - salad...)

(Istanbul:  On Istiklal Street:  Very enjoyable salad with tuna.  But also possibly the reason I woke up at 4am and 5am to be ill.  It also might have been the ice cream I had after this.)  

(Goreme:  Grilled river trout lunch.)  

(Goreme:  Rice, eggplant, fresh bread, salad.)  

(Goreme:  Beef stew cooked in traditional pot.  The pot had a top half, but that was knocked off in order to open it up - to make the contents accessible.) 

Goreme:  

This is what happened when I order an iced coffee:  

1.  Order iced coffee.  

2.  Received hot coffee. 

3.  Told the man of the error - asked for ice.  And milk. 

4.  He brings milk.  And 2 ice cubes.  I tell him I need a tall glass with many ice cubes.  He brings it.  

5.  I assemble drink.  

(Plate of side dishes - largely salads.  Yoghurt and carrot, yoghurt and cucumber, spicy eggplant, cheese, friend eggplant, bean salad, pumpking salad, potato salad, etc.  And fresh bread!  (Bread in upper photo))

(Dessert:  "The Turkish variant of the pastry kanafeh is called künefe, and the bunch of wirey shreds that it is based on is called kadayıf. A semi-soft cheese such as mozzarella is used in the filling. In making the künefe, the kadayıf is not rolled around the cheese; instead, cheese is put in between two layers of wire kadayıf. This is cooked in small copper plates, and then served very hot, in syrup, with clotted cream (kaymak), and pistachios or walnuts. (Compare with kadaif.)"  (Wikipedia)
Beverage:  If I recall, the (hot white) beverage was sahlep.  "Sahlep is another favorite in winter (served hot with cinnamon). Sahlep is extracted from the roots of wild orchids and may be used in Turkish ice cream as well. This was a popular drink in western Europe before coffee was brought from Africa and came to be known." (Wikipedia))

(Istanbul:  Many pouring syrup over pastry.  I suppose to keep them moist.)