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TURKEY DINING : Dining in Turkey Guide

Turkey is rightly famed for its cuisine, which is rich and savory, not particularly spicy-hot, with abundant use of vegetables.

Though based on lamb, it includes beef and chicken (no pork, of course), as well as all sorts of seafood (even shellfish, which are forbidden to strict Muslims). The most common preparations are roasting and grilling, which produce the famous Turkish kebaps, including döner kebap, the national dish.

Turkish cuisine has been renowned for a long time. In 1854 the Earl of Carlisle (George W F Howard) visited Constantinople (Istanbul) and sampled Turkish food in a simple bazaar cookshop. The understated praise in his travelogue Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters (1854) reads, "We...went for our luncheon to a Turkish, not kibaub, but cook-shop, where different ragouts of meat and vegetables are always ready in large pans. I think the nation has a decided turn for cookery."

Meat portions are small compared to those in North America. Actually, vegetables predominate in most meals, though many vegetable recipes use small amounts of meat as a flavoring. If you're not strictly vegetarian or vegan, yet you prefer to eat more vegetables than meat, you'll do very well in Turkey

Bread is baked fresh early morning for breakfast and lunch, and late afternoon for dinner, and varies from the common sourdough loaf to rounds of leavened pide (flat bread) to flaps of paper-thin lavas (lah-VAHSH, unleavened village bread baked on a griddle).

Turkey produces excellent, delicately scented honey of many varieties.

Snacks and side dishes include gözleme (fresh-baked flat bread folded over savory ingredients—a sort of Turkish crêpe—and börek, pastry filled with cheese and vegetables or meat.

If you are vegetarian, you'll get along alright by choosing the few Turkish dishes made without any meat, and by dining in the increasing number of restaurants offering vegetarian plates. A popular traditional dish is gözleme, flat bread folded over various fillings.

As for drinks, pure spring water is always available. Drink only bottled water. Some tap water is safe, but it's difficult to be sure.

Turkey is famous for its succulent fruit, and thus for its fruit juices. There's also ayran (yogurt mixed with spring water--tastes like buttermilk), which goes well with kebap (roast lamb).

Islam forbids drinking alcohol, but many Turks are European in their lifestyle and enjoy alcoholic beverages with meals: beer, wine, and raki (clear grape brandy flavored with anise and diluted with water) are the favorites, although gin, vodka, whiskey and liqueurs are also served.

Turkish tea is the national stimulant, even at breakfast, and famous Turkish coffee only a distant second.

Among the favored treats is Turkish Delight (lokum).

Main Dining areas in Istanbul

Medusa Restaurant Yerebatan
Cad. Muhterem Efendi Sk. No: 19
34400 Sultanahmet Istanbul
Tel:90-212-511-0903
email: info@medusarestaurant.com
website: www.medusarestaurant.com

Dubb Restoran & Coffee
Incili Cavus Sokak 10 Alemdar -
Sultanahmet Istanbul
Tel:90-212-513-7308
Fax:90-212-513-8890
email: aaras@isbank.net.tr
website: www.istanbulguide.net

Restaurant Altin Kupa
Yerebatan Caddesi Seftali Sokak 6 ,
Alemdar Sultanahmet Istanbul
Tel: altinkupa@istanbulguide.net
website: www.istanbulguide.net

TOPKAPI KONYALI RESTAURANT
Topkapy Sarayy Muzesi Sultanahmet Istanbul
tel:90-212-513-9696
fax:90-212-519-0452

Tiryaki Restoran
Hocazade Sokak 11/a Siraselviler
Caddesi Alman Hastanesi yani
tel:90-212-293-7785
email:ouzelli@hotmail.com

Galata Evi
Galata Kulesi Sokak 61, Galata
tel:90-245-1861

Source: Worlwide-tax.com

Haci Abdullah
Sakizagaci Caddesi 17, Beyoglu,
Istanbul, Turkey
Phone: +90 212 293 8561

Hidiv Kasri
Hidiv Yolu 32, (Cubuklu-Beykoz),
Istanbul, Turkey
Phone: +90 216 413 9253

Feriye
Kabatas Kültür Merkezi, Çiragan Caddesi 124
Istanbul, Turkey
Phone: +90 212 227 2216

Source : Yahoo travel