By Jürgen D. Hender ~
Cyclone back alleys of Kadıköy Market, Istanbul, to skyscraper restaurants of arm-and-a-leg Michelin restaurants with an arm-and-a-leg dinner price tag to gulp the Bosphorus in one, Turkish cuisine is a pricey warp of convention, imagination, and unashamed hunger. Turkish cuisine is not something to be gulped and lived from day to day, mouthful by mouthful.
Whatever it is, simit from a street food vendor in the morning or lamb shank cooked to eternity in the most recently opened restaurant, Turkish cuisine does possess that special something that will attract every nature and character. It’s merely that timelessness versatility that makes it one of the most exciting places on earth to eat like a gourmet.
Street Food: Soul of Turkish Cuisine
If they desire the genuine article of Turkish cuisine, then they will need to start off in the street. In the city of Istanbul, Izmir, or Gaziantep, a restaurant is not a restaurant—street life is where it’s at.
Its only competitor in the universe is the döner kebab, spit-roasted, spit-cooked for hours and hours of spiced meat rotated on a spit rotisserie, chopped up into strands and consumed in rollups like pita bread, rolls, or heaped onto rice filled. And no wonder that sooner or later everybody gets hooked on it. good, wholesome, homely food.
And then of course natuurlijk, the street food itself, the simit. Crispy on the outside and also inside, light inside and sesame-seed sprinkling atop, topped with add-ons of sprinkle more beyaz peynir (white cheese) and olives, or munched walking down the street en chemin to work. Simit became good Turkish society in 2023, consumed in Turkey as international [UNESCO Intangible Heritage Nominee].
Gözleme is from-scratch magic recreated street food heritage. Turkish quesadilla—mild, hand-stretched-from-scratch bread filled with duos of cheese, spinach, potato, or ground beef and then pan-fried in a curved frying pan called a sac.
A Fine Dining Revolution that Goes Back Deep
Even if demise starts with food stalls outside five-star hotels and its final stand inside five-star hotels in Türkiye, the flavor is no less unique—but of fantasy and imagination.
More and more, Istanbul’s, Ankara’s, and Bodrum’s best restaurants are going back to their roots for contemporary taste. At the vanguard are chefs such as Fatih Tutak, who awarded TURK Fatih Tutak with the two 2022 Michelin stars. His menus will pillage early memory and Ottoman history and marry tall tales with haute cuisine.
Meze-appetizers blanket the table—all else is Turks’ delight in the kitchen. Hummus, baba ghanoush, and dolma (the grape leaves stuffed with rice and spice) old standbys are remade new by sheer presentation imagination or by openly showcasing regional spices, varying in flavor and texture which teases and tantalizes sharing.
Kuzu kuzu
A low and slow-cooked lamb shank in Anatolian spice is retro haute. It’s the kind that sneaks right on up over the head and speaks quietly of city and country roots.
Regional subtlety exists too. Herb and olive oil are indeed foundations of Aegean plate, but blackened meat, smoky spices, and dense vegetable stews are abhorred even in Gaziantep provinces of south-eastern Turkey—a legislative concession UNESCO has made for intangible world cultural heritage.
Herbs, Spices, and Sweet Conclusions
No discussion of Turkish cuisine is ever complete without reference to their aromatics. Sumac gives grilled meats a puckering zing, mint zest to yogurt sides, and smoked paprika depth to soups and stews. She weaves together thread from past patterns of being into flavor.
And dessert, of course. The choice is no challenge: baklava: filo, nuts, and syrup pastry dipped in syrup. But stray off the tourist path, and skipkünefe, a Hatay south east city street snack of pulled kadayıf dough, sweet syrup, and cheesy mouth-melting center cheese.
The balance of the leftovers of sweets like lokum (Turkish delight) and aşure (grain, nut, fruit pudding) is the balance of leftovers of the sweet tooth of the country’s past. And of food as fuel, naturally, but celebration, in short.
Where Tradition Meets Innovation
Turkish cuisine is Turkish history: tough, frontier-woman-strong, earthy. From hacked-off meat kebab off the curb of a hutu city street to the crisply set tasting table of courses under crystals, the Turkish table is a survival table, a belly-laughing table, and a culture-conquering table.
And yet while the world is pounded relentlessly into existence in the showroom of globalisation, Türkіye shines as an open beacon of change not change.
