Important Things to Know About Turkish Cuisine
Turkey is famous with its cuisine, which is pretty rich and savory, with abundant use of vegetables...
Turkish cuisine has a significant place among world cuisine. The settlement of the Turks in various regions, their establishment of states and civilizations, their adoption of a variety of religious systems, their proximity to different ethnic communities, and adaptation of new dishes by the use of local vegetation of the areas they settled, have been the chief sources of the wide variety observed in their cuisine. Animal husbandry is the most important economical basis on which Turks have depended since the earliest times. Wheat constitutes the second most significant source of nutrition in the Turkish economy. The diet of the Central Asian Turks was restricted to a fatty pastry made of wheat flour, milk and dairy products, horse meat and mutton, and a drink made of mare’s milk.
Turkey is an agriculturally rich country surrounded by the sea on 3 sides - the perfect situation to supply abundant, high-quality ingredients for the kitchen and the dining table. Turkey is one of the few self-sufficient countries in the world in terms of food. Turkey's fertile soil, adequate climate, and abundant rainfall permit growing almost any kinds of crops.
Turkish foods are pretty simple and easy to make, with one - two spices or flavorings used in each dish. But such simple cuisine requires fresh ingredients and careful preparation to succeed.
Having dinner must be eaten together is one of the traditional features of Turkish culture that symbolizes togetherness. Eating together based on the family dinner table, which symbolizes unity, solidarity, and it’s important for the family to come together at this table.
Back in a day, this dining tradition that started with family has expanded with the addition of relatives and friends. In modern days, this tradition is not only in the households, but outside, in restaurants, cafés etc. However, the dinner table, the unity it represents, and the time spent at the dinner table are still very significant.
The Turkish and Ottoman Kitchen is one of the world leading kitchens (Supposed to be the third after the Chinese and French). Dishes are mainly cooked of meat (lamb, chicken and cow -pork is not eaten-) and vegetables (Beans, Eggplant, Peppers, Onion, Garlic, Potatoes, Pumpkin). Rice, Macaroni, local specialties made from flour (Pide, Manti, Gozleme, Borek etc), sweets (Baklava, Kadayif, Burma, Sobiyet...) are all widely eaten.
Because of Turkey is located at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Turkey has been invaded by several people (Lydian, Hitite, Urartu, Mesepotamian, Greek, Roman, Seljuk Turks and Ottoman Turks) and they brought their culture, cuisines and made a huge contribution of culture and food. It's a known fact the silk and Spice -Herb industry has played a significant part in the lives of many a nation since the times of Antiquity. This industry has acquired more importance as it reached our day. Silk and spices deriving from the Far East always enjoyed a remarkable role in international relations. Silk has also enabled the west to get acquainted with the East. This was initiated primarily by merchants traveling in both directions.
The Egyptians, followed by the Romans, purchased spices from the India and other far east countries, and it began to be used by Westerners as early as 753 B.C.
Finally, the Ottomans united Anatolia and created an empire encompassing much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa, becoming a major power in Eurasia and Africa made Turkish Cuisine world-famous. One of the famous work of Ottomans for Turkish Cuisine was to build up Spice Market in Istanbul.
Spice Market (also known as Egyptian Market) originally made of wood in mid-17th century and got its final restorations during mid-forties. The name comes from the fact that Egyptians used to sell their spices here, and that it once received income from taxes levied on Egypt. Instead, the English name comes from the days when the Bazaar specialized on selling spices and herbs, medicinal plants and drugs. Lately there are also shops selling stuff other than spices, but you can still see and smell many interesting spices, dried fruits and nuts, teas, oils and essences, sweets, honeycombs, and aphrodisiacs.
The Spice Routes (Silk Roads) is the name given to the network of sea routes that link the East with the West. They stretch from the west coast of Japan, through the islands of Indonesia, around India to the lands of the Middle East - and from there, across the Mediterranean to Turkey and Europe. It is a distance of over 15,000 kilometers and, nearly 1000 km of 15000 km passing through Anatolia today Turkey that made a big diversity of spices and herbs.
The journey of the goods between all these links in the chain is what is called a trade route. In the case of the Spice Routes, the links were formed by traders buying and selling goods from port to port. The principal and most profitable goods they traded in were spices - giving the routes their name.
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