Turkey is popularly known for its delicious cuisine, which is a great mixture of Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and European cuisines. This means that when in Turkey, you will have a great deal of choices of delicious best Turkish food selections.
Best Turkish Food Choices
If you want to experience Turkey, one of your best options is to savor some of the most commonly served dishes in local restaurants. Most of these dishes are also favorites for home cooking. Some of the best Turkish foods include:
Vegetable Dishes (Zeytin Yağlı)
The Turks are very fond of eating vegetable dishes. In Turkey, a vegetable dish cooked without meat is called zeytin yağlı, cooked using olive oil, and served cold. The following are some excellent example of Turkish vegetable dishes:
•Dolma – fresh or dried vegetables (zucchinis, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants) stuffed with onion, rice, and several spices.
•Taze Fazulye – green beans prepared and cooked with onions and tomato or tomato paste.
•Yaprak Sarma – rice, onion, and spices wrapped in vine leaves.
Meaty Turkish Dishes
Meat is also a popular Turkey food ingredient, and the following are some of the best Turkish meat dishes:
•Lahmacun — pizza-like dish topped with finely minced onions and meat with added spices on flaky thin bread dough. This meat dish is served with lettuce, tomatoes, or parsley, and most people squeeze lemon on it while others roll it to enjoy it like tacos.
•Karniarik — fried eggplant filled with minced onion, meat, tomato, garlic, and parsley
•Kurufasulye — Turks love this bean dish, and it is cooked with pastirma (thin beef slices) and served with plain rice (sade pilav) and pickles (tursu). The best places to enjoy this meal are the restaurants across the Süleymaniye Mosque.
Other Special Dishes that Belong to the Best Turkish Food Selections
Kebaps is the common name for dishes in which skewered meat is grilled atop a charcoal fire. The usual meats used for this dish are beef, lamb, and chicken.
Doner—This dish is made of meat pieces seasoned with spices, suet, and local herbs, skewered, and then grilled vertically.
Kofte — basically, these are meatballs that come in different shapes. The essential ingredients of this dish are ground meat (either mutton or lamb), minced onion, spices, and crumbled bread. A popular variation is Izgara Köfte, a dish where the meat mixture is grilled and then served with chopped parsley, green peppers (grilled), dried red peppers (crumbled), and bread and rice on the side.
There are many other best Turkish food choices that you can enjoy while vacationing in Turkey. You will surely get the best if you head out of the tourist areas and into more local restaurants.