Edible Turkey

Allright, you’ll all be chuckling at me, but I need to make a list of all the things we’ve eaten here that have been excellent. And they have been excellent. Also, for the information of future travellers, is where we had the best example of each foodstuff. Enjoy.

Turkish Breakfast at the Kelebek hotel in Goreme.

Happiness, I have decided, is a wonderful breakfast in a beautiful place. This particular state of happiness involves a boiled egg, excellent bread, green and black olives, tangy white cheese sprinkled with black sesame seeds, cucumber, and good tomatoes. Also yoghurt, watermelon and honeydew. Partaking of this overlooking Goreme village for the last three mornings has been sublime.

Lentil soup at the Belisirma Restaurant, in the Ilhara Valley in Cappadocia

This restaurant had tables in the water, where you could dangle your feet in the river. Lovely! And here we ate what Lara decided was one of her favourite things to eat ever: lentil soup, with lemon and chopped vine leaves. Tangy.

Ayran at a courtyard cafe behind the Aya Sofiya

Cold, salty, yoghurt drink.

ALI NAZIK at Alaturca in Goreme

This was sliced lamb, chargrilled eggplant, yoghurt. Divine.

Mezes

I have mispronounced this word consistently for almost a week now, but we have eaten many of these plates of dips and salads. So good to nibble on when not quite hungry enough for a meal but looking for an excuse to eat some tasty Turkish food. By far the best we have eaten was last night at Alaturca. It included a chicken and walnut salad that was unexpectedly wonderful.

Baklava

Lara was on a misson in Istanbul. Good baklava. We had to get through several indifferent versions until we hit paydirt: Hafiz Mustafa Sekerlemeleri, a shop and cafe in Eminonu, near the Serkeci train station. This place was the bomb. Its baklava is dense, nutty, not too sweet. Our only problem there was working out how to say “can we have one of each?”

Turkish delight

We went to the shop owned by the family of the dude who invented this stuff, but it was still not as good as that we tasted at the Hafiz Mustafa. Their pistacio and hazelnut, in particular, were yum-oh.

Borek

This stuff - noodly pastry containing cheese, spinach, whatever you like - is the bog standard street food here and we’ve tasted some really greasy ones. We couldn’t believe it - also the best version of this was at the Hafiz Mustafa. I want to live in that shop. Or at least nearby.

Gozleme and apple tea

I’ve eaten many a hungover gozleme at the orange grove markets in Rozelle. This one, at the Nazar Cafe in Goreme, was different. Not at all greasy. the cheese here is not at all strong, but very tasty. good stuff.

The Nazar also served us the best apple tea I’ve tasted so far. And I’ve tasted gallons of the stuff. it’s usually made from a powder, which is kind of scary. But I love it anyway.

Raki

While I’m on to beverages, praise be to raki, the national spirit of Turkey. Like Ouzo, served watered down in a tall glass, with a tall glass of water to go with it. A glass of this and a game or six of backgammon and lara and I are two contented ladies.

Pickles

I bet you were wondering when I’d get to this. We went (twice) to the spice markets in Istanbul, which are fabulous fun, selling spices, tea, nuts, dried vegetables on strings, herbal potions… Down a sidestreet from the market we found a cheerful man decorating his window full of pickles with olive branches. So many different pickles! Lara and I had long planned to have a picklefest, and we finally had one: on the rooftop terrace of our hotel, with some bread and enormous mugs of Efes, Turkey’s ubiquitous beer.

After writing that enormous list, I’m exhausted. And hungry. We haven’t tried the kebaps yet…

Posted by Julieanne on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 7.58 pm AEST