Turkey lays claim to creating one of the world’s four great cuisines (along with France, Italy and China), so any visit should involve sampling as many traditional dishes as possible in authentic surroundings, rather than hotel-restaurants. In season, many restaurants begin serving around noon and stay open until nearly midnight. Set meal times, and required reservations, are rare except in more upmarket eateries. A tip of around 10 percent is customary, unless there is a substantial service charge – identified as either garsoniye or servis (sometimes both).
Children are welcome in all establishments except the rowdier meyhanes. A ban on smoking in public places is generally enforced inside, making open-air restaurant terraces very popular. Some restaurants have separate seating areas for women and children – the aile salonu – but these are rare in resorts.
Hygiene and cleanliness may be pillars of Islam but some restaurants, especially in mass-market resorts, are known to cut corners, particularly with proper heating and refrigeration of foods. Especially in mid-summer, always prefer cold appetisers from the start of a batch, and avoid cooked dishes stored uncovered or at tepid temperatures.
Where To Eat and Drink
A lokanta is the main type of restaurant found all over Turkey, catering to workers at lunch and, often, to neighbourhood families in the evening. The six to eight steam-tray dishes offered on a given day are displayed in a glass case, served on request; expect one or two meat or fish dishes, often prepared as stews, with vegetable and rice or potato accompaniments. Adventurous chefs are increasingly part of the lokanta scene, with daily specials written on a board. A full-blown restoran, or restaurant, may be only marginally fancier than a lokanta, but can also be quite elegant, with a fuller range of salads, grills and starters.
A meyhane (tavern) was traditionally a male-dominated establishment where food was on barely equal footing with alcohol (especially rakı), but more recently women are generally welcome, and the emphasis has shifted to quality dishes that go well with drink. There will often be recorded music, or on certain nights live performances of poignant old-timey songs.
Waterfront restaurant at Ayvalık
Frank Noon/Apa Publications
A pastahane (or pastane) is a patisserie offering a mix of both oriental sweetmeats and western-style cakes and profiteroles; you can usually sit at a table and have tea or coffee, or buy to take out. A muhallebici is a pastane whose remit extends to the healthier milk-based desserts like sütlaç (rice pudding) kazandibi (similar to crème brûlée), keşkül (custard) or the divine aşure (so-called Noah’s Pudding).
A pideci or pide salonu specialises in that made-to-order dish; a few also offer some salads and side dishes, and may even be licensed. A simithane (bun shop), often favoured by youth, is a cheerful new trend in Turkish snack venues (a simit is a bagel-like ring studded with sesame-seeds, tasty with cream cheese or jam).
Simit bread rings
Frank Noon/Apa Publications
A kebapcı serves that ubiquitous staple of Turkish cuisine, the kebab; lamb is continually roasted on a revolving spit, ready to be sliced and skewered on a şiş with roast vegetables. Dönercis offer roast döner, an initially conical mass of fatty lamb or chicken which as the day progresses gets whittled down into thin slices served atop pide (pitta bread) or rice with garnish.
Büfes (roadside kiosks) sell convenience foods, snacks or tasty grilled cheese sandwich (tost). Street carts sell everything from roasted chestnuts in winter to ice cream in summer, but should not be patronised for perishable dishes like midya dolması (rice-stuffed mussels) or anything with mayonnaise.
A kahvehane is a coffee-house for men, with women not welcome. Much the same can be said for the occasionally encounterd birahane (beerhall). Visit a şaraphane (wine bar), however, and you find slick service and excellent food with a comprehensive wine list and nibbles.
What to Eat
The stars of Turkish cuisine are the unfailingly delicious appetisers known as meze, which are a feature of meyhanes and better resort lokantas. Several meze platters can in fact be so satisfying that you may not need a main course. Typical choices are piping hot cheese rolls (sigara böreği), smoky-flavoured aubergine purée (patlıcan salatası), or assorted stuffed vegetables (dolmalar). Sophisticated specialities include çerkez tavuğı (shredded chicken and walnuts) and arnavut çiğer (Albanian-style liver).
Sweet Teeth
Syrupy pastries like baklava (phyllo pastry with syrup and nuts) are consumed with tea or coffee, usually mid morning or during the afternoon. But Turks also love dondurma, the putty-like ice cream that originated in central Anatolia and is named after the town, Maraş Dondurması. It includes sahlep (ground orchid root) which makes it, quite literally, elastic.
Turkish delight, lokum, was the confection creation of an İstanbul confectioner, Hacı Bekir, in the early 19th century. Highly prized by women of the harem, it is a typically Turkish gift to take home – as is the rich and gritty sesame treat, helva, more likely to be some variation on baked flour, butter, sugar and flavoured water than the sesame-paste concoction known in the west.
Typical vegetable accompaniments are simply prepared beans, okra, cauliflower or perhaps turşu (pickled vegetables); salad is typically the micro-chopped çoban salatası – greens like rocket or lettuce are relatively rare.
Meaty main courses rely on various cuts of lamb or chicken, doled out with garnish and rice (pilav), often with chips as well; pork is not served in this Muslim country, and beef is usually ground. Clay-pot stews (güveç), simmered or oven-baked, are made with vegetables and either meat or seafood. Aubergine is a staple food: grilled, stewed, stuffed and roasted or as part of a kebap. The Ottoman court kitchens prided themselves on having 150 recipes for this vegetable.
A meze platter
Frank Noon/Apa Publications
Fresh fish, often various kinds of farmed bream, is a mainstay of menus along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, where restaurants display their wares (often not local) on ice and serve it simply grilled. Always establish per-kilo or per-portion prices beforehand to avoid later misunderstandings.
Turkish breakfast, available at even the most modest pansiyons, typically includes sliced cucumber, olives, tomato, a hard-boiled egg, yogurt, seasonal fruit and bread slices to be topped with jam or honey. In multistar hotels, buffet breakfast can be elaborate, with omelettes live-cooked and various charcuterie laid out. Out in town, you can patronise a counter or cart from which börek, a fluffy cheese pastry, is served.
Later on, the most ubiquitous snack in rural areas is gözleme, a paratha-like delicacy cooked on a saç (griddle), stuffed with a variety of fillings. Other sit-down snacks include pide (Turkish pizza), an elongated dough ‘boat’ topped with cheese, minced meat, egg or other choices and baked in a wood-fired oven. Lahmacun, a round thin crust with a spicy meat and tomato topping, has Armenian/Arab roots. Ayran (diluted yogurt) is the traditional accompaniment to any of these.
Beverages
Turkey is an overwhelmingly Muslim country but most Turks have a relaxed attitude towards alcohol in coastal resorts. However, hefty taxes boost the price of even the cheapest plonk, and a bottle of wine easily doubles the cost of a budget meal.
Tea for two
The delightful ritual of Turkish tea drinking launches lasting friendships. It is offered generously and ubiquitously and it is impolite to refuse. If it’s too strong and too sweet, ask for Açık çay, şekersiz (weak tea without sugar).
Turkish wines, mostly made in Cappadocia or along the Aegean coast, are ubiquitous, and many restaurants serve nothing but domestic varieties; the two largest vintners, Doluca and Kavaklıdere, dominate the market, but it’s worth asking for local microwinery products, in particular Talay and Corvus from Bozcaada, and Likya label from near Elmalı. The most popular domestic beers, bottled or draught, are Efes Pilsen, Carlsberg and Tuborg, all at about 5 percent; Efes also makes ‘Dark’ (6.1 percent alcohol) and ‘Xtra’ (7.5 percent). The spirit of local choice is rakı, similar to Greek ouzo and enjoyed before, during and after a meal, mixed with water and ice.
On the non-alcoholic side, try the freshly-squeezed juices: orange (portakal) is the most common but mulberry (dut) and pomegranate (nar) are even better. Refreshing fresh-fruit smoothies and shakes are also available. Bottled mineral water (memba suyu) is the usual alternative to tap water – not recommended except for rural springs designated as potable.
Instant coffee is almost always referred to as Nescafé; if you want something more satisfying, request Turkish coffee, usually served orta şekerli (medium sweet) or çok şekerli (very sweet). In all resorts, at least one café will be doing European-style espressos and cappuccinos. Tea, çay, is more common; it is served in distinctive, tulip-shaped glasses, to which you can add water and sugar, but never milk, as desired.