Turkish Food

Cig Kofte (left), beyti kebap (bottom left), iskender kebap (bottom right)

If there is anything, other than Ataturk, that the Turks are most proud of, it's their food. I've been told that the biggest problem Turks have when they go abroad is not the language barrier, but the food! After having spent some time here in Turkey, I am beginning to understand this fierce pride. To start with, because of the varied climates here, almost any type of produce you can imagine can be grown, from tomatoes and eggplant to bananas and pomegranates. The absolute freshest produce is available on every street corner for prices that we could not fathom back in the US. Meat is fairly expensive so it is used sparingly compared us carnivorous Americans, but chicken (tavuk), beef (et), and lamb (kuzu) are all common. Cheese is everywhere, but unfortunately does not compare to Cabot cheddar or other amazing Vermont cheese, so I only like one type they have here. Beyaz penir (white cheese) is similar to feta, but not as strong, and is served with breakfast or as a meze (appetizer) to accompany the Turkish national drink, Raki (which deserves a whole post to itself). The most common dishes found on any street corner are various types of kebaps, soups (corba), and koftes (sort of like meatballs), as well as many types of mezes, which are small plates of delicious things, sort of like what we know as appetizers. There are numerous other types of dishes, especially from region to region, but these are what we are most familiar with.

In the past week or so we have had a few memorable experiences with traditional Turkish food, both delicious and maybe not so delicious. Last week we went out for a few beers with some players from the Police super-league team and the two import players from the Ankara University women's team. After a night of drinking it is apparently tradition to have some food, so we went to Kuzu Kuzu (sheep sheep) to sample cig kofte (a spicy ball of rice, tomato paste, and many other unidentifiable ingredients), mussels with rice (a little sketchy as they are left out on the table, definitely inadvisable to eat during the warmer months), and iskembe corba (tripe soup). Iskembe corba is the most important post-alcohol snack, because it apparently wards off hangovers. Personally eating soup made from two unidentifiable types of meat that were apparently tongue and some type of "meat from the head" (though not brain they assured us) only made me feel queasy the next day, it is believed to be a miracle cure. And of course we finished of the meal with the inevitable Turkish cai (tea) that you are served after every meal or every time you meet a friend at a cafe. It may be 3:30am, but we still must have cai.

Today was probably our best Turkish meal to date, though Tyler missed out because this was a girls-only dinner. After practice Kate (our new American player) and I joined our team for some traditional Turkish food, specifically kebaps as they are a favorite of our most spirited player, Seda. Seda and Lola (not her real name but a nickname that is easier for us English speakers to pronounce) ordered for the table, and we started of with cig kofte, salad (salata), pickles, pickled carrots, garlic, and peppers, yogurt with chick peas, and a sort of turkish sala served with a thin pita covered in sesame seeds (pide). Then we sampled some icli kofte, a fried ball filled with meat and spices, that was absolutely delicious and my favorite thing that we ate. Finally our meals came, if you can believe that we were able to eat after all that. We tried both iskender (Alexander) kebap and beyti kebap. Iskender kebap is shaved meat served over crusty bread cubes soaked in butter and covered with some type of tomato sauce. Beyti kebap was meat rolled in a tortilla and covered with another kind of tomato sauce. Both equally fantastic, though considering the amount of butter and bread involved I don't think it would be advisable to eat iskender kebap very often. Finally we stuffed a little bit of dessert in our incredibly full stomachs, because the Turks apparently always have room for dessert. We tried kunefe, some sort of shaved buttery pastry with cheese in the middle, served warm and covered in a sweet sauce and pistachios (YUM!). All this food was washed down with su (water), ayran (watery, salty yogurt drink), and to finish off Turkish kahve (coffee), which is a little like espresso but really totally different. Kate normally hates coffee, but was able to get down Turkish coffee because we asked for it sweetened, which you definitely would not do with espresso.

While I certainly miss the diversity of food we have in North America, and I specifically miss Cabot extra sharp cheddar, I am certainly not starving over here in Turkey!