The richness of Turkish cuisine has made it popular in many countries around the world
Turkish cuisine does not use any products unknown to us; it is usually not abundant in spices (except for dishes from Southern Anatolia). Food establishments are divided into taverns, where you can get a hot dish like a thick soup throughout the day, and restaurants (kebab salonu), where soups and vegetable dishes are not served, but there are roasts of all kinds. It is not customary to offer a menu, but anyone can go into the kitchen and choose a dish to taste.
Turks are great lovers of appetizers (meze). When dining in a restaurant, many order nothing else but a variety of mostly cold appetizers. These include salad (salata), sheep cheese (beyaz peynir), beans (pilaki), rice in grape leaves (sarma), stuffed tomatoes or peppers (dolma), and in port cities also seafood. Appetizers are often so abundant and varied that ordering other dishes simply makes no sense. But Turks also love soups, for example, chicken (tavuk suyu), yogurt (yayla çorbası), lentil (mercimek çorbası) and tripe (işkembe çorbası) or noodle (şehriye çorbası).
Vegetables are widely used in Turkish cuisine, as most of the population can afford meat only on holidays. Depending on the season, green beans (taze fasulye), white beans (kuru fasulye), potatoes (patates), eggplants (patlıcan), tomatoes (domates), and peppers (biber) are offered. Sometimes vegetables are stuffed (dolma) or stewed with other vegetables and pieces of meat (güveç) or minced meat (kıyma).
Meat dishes are prepared from beef, veal, lamb, and poultry. Pork is taboo for Muslims. The most popular dishes are minced cutlets (köfte) and pieces of meat on skewers (döner kebab).
Apart from hard garlic sausage (sucuk) and a type of salami (salam), there are almost no sausage products in Turkey. Fish is relatively expensive.
As for dessert, in summer fruits and berries are usually served, primarily strawberries (çilek), unripe plums (yeşil erik), apricots (kayısı), peaches (şeftali), oranges (portakal), figs (incir), pears (armut), grapes (üzüm), watermelons (karpuz), melons (kavun).
In the cool season, you can order sweet dishes (tatlı) in restaurants, usually sold in pastry shops. In Turkey they are very sweet. The most popular are baklava (a pastry made of layered dough), tulumba (a type of candy made from sweet dough soaked in syrup), kadayıf (baked vermicelli), muhallebi (pudding), komposto (compote), and dondurma (ice cream).
Tea is considered the national drink of Turkey, with plantations located on the Black Sea coast. Tea is usually served in small glasses. Expensive Turkish coffee is typically drunk after meals and is never diluted with milk.
In summer, Turks drink ayran (kefir diluted with water), in winter – a hot drink salep (a decoction of dried orchid roots) and boza (a thick millet drink). Men allow themselves to drink rakı (anise vodka) with meals, neat or mixed with water. Milk (süt) is usually drunk hot and sweetened (mainly at breakfast). Beer (bira) is sold almost everywhere, dry Turkish wines (şarap) are comparable to wines of other southern countries.
By the way, if you are ready to try cooking some national dishes yourself, we advise you to check out the website http://webspoon.ru/, where you can find many culinary recipes with step-by-step instructions accompanied by photos. This way you will learn even more about the rich flavor of the country's national dishes and test yourself as an experienced chef.