Turkish cuisine is about as unique as they come, with breakfast offering dishes like Turkish-style scrambled eggs and sesame seed bread, entrees focused on pastries and sheep milk feta cheese, plenty of flavourful, succulent meat options that are so delicious they have made their way out of Turkey to all-night kebab stands around the world, sides like stuffed vine leaves, and seafood – try the fish sandwiches served from boats bobbing on the Bosphorus and you won’t be disappointed! For dessert, the classic ‘Turkish delight’, known here as lokum, is best enjoyed with a local-style coffee or apple tea. Take a look at our list of must-eats and start salivating as you compare tours through Turkey!
Breakfast:
Menemen breakfast
Simit/Gevrek sesame seed bread
Dürüm bread/pita
Entrée:
Lentil soup
Börek and Gözleme pastries
Sheep milk feta cheese
Kebabs:
Adana (minced meat)
Döner (sliced meat)
Iskender (tomato sauce)
Sişh (skewered meat)
Köfte (meatballs)
Pide (kebab pizza)
Sides:
Dolma stuffed vine leaves
Kumpir jacket potato
Aubergine/Eggplant
Seafood:
Sea Bass, Trout, Mussels, Shellfish
Dessert:
Lokum Turkish Delight
Baklava
Dondurma ice cream
Red Poppy Syrup
Sütlaç Rice Pudding
Beverages:
Turkish Çay (Tea) (flavoured and with plenty of sugar cubes!)
Turkish Coffee
Ayran (salty yoghurt drink)
Beer:
Efes , Tekel Birası, Marmara Gold
Wine:
Boza millet wine
Spirits:
Raki (aniseed ‘lion’s milk’)
Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC
