50 Fun Facts About Turkish Food

Turkish cuisine developed primarily from the cooking of which earlier state?

Ottoman court cooking synthesised Central Asian traditions with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences.

Hamsi, a staple of Black Sea cooking in Turkey, is what kind of fish?

Black Sea fish are usually fried in thick corn flour, and the region also leans heavily on maize dishes.

Mantı, the small stuffed dumplings, are especially associated with which Central Anatolian city?

The name is cognate with the Chinese mantou, and the dish is thought to have originated in 13th-century Mongolia.

How does Urfa kebap differ from Adana kebap?

Both come from the southeast, where the cuisine is famous for kebabs, mezes and dough-based desserts.

The Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, literally means what?

Despite the name, it is Turkish tea that is invariably served at breakfast.

Menemen, a Turkish breakfast speciality, is built around which ingredient?

Tomatoes, green peppers, onion and olive oil go in alongside; çılbır pairs poached eggs with yogurt instead.

Lakerda, traditionally served with rakı at taverns, is pickled what?

Fish are also eaten smoked (isleme) or dried (çiroz) along the coasts.

Cacık blends garlic, dried mint and olive oil with which vegetable into a cold dairy dip?

It often accompanies pilav or bulgur, and dried mint and olive oil finish the meze version.

About how much pistachio does the average person in Turkey eat per year?

Pistachios, chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts all feature heavily in desserts such as baklava.

Kuyruk yağı, sometimes used in kebabs, is fat from which part of a sheep?

Butter, olive, sunflower, canola and corn oils are the everyday cooking fats.

Hoşaf, a compote served beside meat or pilav, takes its name from a Persian phrase meaning what?

In Ottoman cooking fruit routinely accompanied meat, and dolma and pilav still carry currants or raisins.

Which English food word is borrowed directly from Turkish?

Ayran, the most common cold drink in Turkey, is simply yoğurt mixed with water and a little salt.

How many different cheeses does Turkey produce, according to the count cited on its cuisine page?

Only eight of them carry a geographical indication; most are made from sheep's milk and not long-matured.

Beyaz peynir, the salty brined cheese on every breakfast table, takes its name from what?

It is similar to feta but milder, and goes into menemen, börek and pide.

Kaşar, sometimes marketed as 'Turkish cheddar', is made mainly from which animal's milk?

It is occasionally mixed with sheep's or goat's milk; the Kars and Thrace varieties are the popular ones.

Tulum cheese is traditionally moulded and aged inside what?

Regional tulums from İzmir, Elazig and Erzincan all taste quite different from one another.

Van herbed cheese, otlu peynir, is traditionally flavoured in Van with which herb?

Bitlis uses a damp-loving herb called sof otu, while other areas use horse mint.

Baklava in Turkey is made with either walnuts or which other nut?

Şöbiyet, bülbül yuvası, sütlü nuriye and burma are its baklava-like cousins.

Künefe is wire kadayıf layered with what, and served hot?

It is rich in syrup and butter and topped with pistachios or walnuts.

Tavuk göğsü is a sweet milk pudding given a chewy texture by which surprising ingredient?

Kazandibi is its close relative, named for the burnt surface from the bottom of the pot.

Un helvası, or flour helva, is traditionally cooked on what occasion?

Other helvas use semolina and pine nuts, walnuts or almonds, or crushed sesame.

Güllaç, layers of thin dough in milk and rose water, is typically served during which period?

Palace legend held that the dough had to be opened with prayers or it would never come out thin enough.

Legend says aşure, the sweet soup of beans, wheat and dried fruit, was first cooked where?

It is still cooked during the month of Muharrem across Anatolia.

Tahin-pekmez mixes sesame paste with a syrup made from which fruit?

The two are sold separately and combined just before eating, especially in rural areas.

Mesir macunu, the spiced paste of Manisa, contains how many different spices?

It was handed out on the first day of spring in the Ottoman palace and is still believed to have healing effects.

Hünkârbeğendi, lamb over a purée of grilled eggplant and cheese, has a name meaning what?

Hünkâri kebabı, the 'Sultan's kebab', is a related dish of sliced lamb with aubergine purée.

Karnıyarık, fried eggplant stuffed with minced meat, has a name that translates as what?

İmam bayıldı is the same dish without the minced meat and can be served as a meze.

Çiğ köfte, a meze from south-eastern Turkey, takes its name from what?

Most restaurants now omit the raw meat and use extra-fine bulgur instead.

Sucuk, commonly eaten at breakfast, is what kind of food?

Made with beef, garlic and spices, it is the default filling for toasts and sandwiches across Turkey.

Kokoreç, a cheap traditional street food, is made from which part of a sheep?

Kelle, roasted sheep's head, and Arnavut ciğeri, fried liver with onion and sumac, are other offal classics.

Arnavut ciğeri, fried liver cubes served with onion and sumac, is named after which people?

Edirne ciğeri is the other famous liver dish, where frozen liver is sliced paper-thin and fried.

Cağ kebab, lamb roasted on a horizontal rotating spit, is a speciality of which region?

The Ottoman horizontal rotisserie predates the vertical döner spit by centuries.

İskender kebap, döner with tomato sauce and melted butter, originated in which city?

İskender Efendi is credited with turning the spit from horizontal to vertical in the 19th century.

In which year is İskender Efendi said to have invented his kebab?

His grandson Yavuz İskenderoğlu trademarked 'Kebapçı İskender', and the family still runs the restaurant.

The Beyti dish of grilled ground lamb wrapped in lavash takes its name from what?

Ground lamb or beef is grilled on a skewer, wrapped in lavash and topped with tomato sauce and yogurt.

Talaş kebabı wraps diced lamb in flour dough; what does talaş mean?

Kağıt kebabı is the paper-wrapped one, kuyu kebabı the pit-roasted goat, orman kebabı the 'forest' stew.

Lahmacun, the thin flatbread topped with spiced minced meat, has a name from which language?

It is eaten with red onions, parsley and a squeeze of lemon added after cooking.

Su böreği, the most commonly eaten börek, is made with yufka layers that have been what?

Cheese and parsley go between the layers; the rod-style oklava rolling pin made such thin dough possible.

Sigara böreği gets its name from its resemblance to what?

Kol, fincan, muska and gül böreği are likewise named for their shapes.

Simit, the sesame-crusted ring bread, is known by what name in İzmir?

Ankara's simit are smaller and crisper than those of other cities.

Simit has been produced in Istanbul since which year?

By the 1630s the traveller Evliya Çelebi counted 70 simit bakeries in the city.

Kumpir, a popular street food, is what?

It comes piled with kaşar cheese and a choice of many other toppings.

How is Turkish black tea traditionally brewed?

Strong tea from the upper pot is diluted with boiling water from the lower one.

Şalgam suyu, often drunk with kebabs or rakı, is fermented juice of which vegetable?

It comes in mild or spicy versions and is one of Turkey's key non-alcoholic drinks.

Sahlep, the hot winter drink, is extracted from the roots of which plant?

The same powder goes into dondurma, the stretchy Turkish ice cream.

Boza, a traditional winter drink served cold with cinnamon, is also known as what?

Lohusa şerbeti, by contrast, is a sherbet traditionally given to women after childbirth.

Turkish coffee is brewed in a small pot known in Turkey as what?

Elsewhere the pot is often called an ibrik; the coffee is brought to the boil up to three times for froth.

Reading fortunes in the grounds left after Turkish coffee is a practice called what?

The cup is turned over onto the saucer to cool before the patterns are interpreted.

The sandwich form of döner kebab was popularised in the 1970s in which city?

Turkish guest worker Kadir Nurman's stand at Zoo Station in 1972 is the version most often credited.

Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir, often credited with lokum, opened his Constantinople shop in which year?

He came from Kastamonu and set up in Bahçekapı; sweets historian Tim Richardson doubts the tidy attribution.