All over Turkey: Food glorious food

So I keep thinking, should I have any structure to this blog? Should I write in order of all my trips here, of all my experiences from year to year? But to be honest with you, that’s just going to be too hard. So what you read is what you get. My posts may jump around from trip to trip or year to year, but I’m sure it really isn’t going to matter all that much.

When people ask me – why do you love Turkey and I always struggle to answer, well there is one thing that springs to mind and I know for sure is that I LOVE………THE FOOD! For those of you who know me well – that’s a no brainer huh!

I’ve always loved food. Even as a small girl I would be known to sit and have two breakfasts. One when I woke up and then another when my dad would wake up and have his. When packing up the dinner table, I was always the one eating scraps off everyone’s plates (quite disgusting when I think of it now) and you never had too much fuss from me, no matter what you served up. Sure now my tastes have changed and I maybe a little more fussy, but not by much.

In Turkey the food is some of the freshest I’ve ever had. Coming from Australia, where our standard of fresh food is high, that is certainly saying something. The tomatoes are the reddest, largest and juiciest I’ve ever had. They also have been known to grow some very strange appendages on them – check out the photos below. The fruit, as it all comes into season, is so full of flavor. The peaches are HUGE, the watermelon so refreshing and the honeydew melons are juicy and sweet. I especially love the fresh figs and could eat them non-stop if my body could handle it. The quality of nuts, no matter if you buy them from a market or pre packaged, are always fresh, crunchy and full of what I would just say in one word “goodness”. They make for a dangerous pre dinner snack – cause once I have one, I can’t stop.

I remember on one of my first ever trips here to Turkey, eating this amazing fish baked in a salt crust. It was the night before the Anzac Day dawn service and the people I was travelling with all agreed that sitting up at the bar and getting drunk all night into the dawn, wasn’t really our scene. So we trampled off into town to see what we could find from the locals. We stumbled across this small restaurant and I remember they didn’t speak any English, or us any Turkish. We went off their recommendations and next thing we know we had this HUGE, almost the same size as our table, salt baked fish come out. It was on an enormous wooden board & the salt casing would have been about 5cms thick. They had to use a hammer to crack through to get to the fish. Boy, oh boy I will tell you that fish was good, no in fact exquisite, so tender and juicy. I have only seen fish served this way one other time and quite often forget to ask about it when I go out, cause no matter how they do serve the fish around here, its normally pretty damned good.

Another memorial meal for me was a Turkish family picnic I was lucky enough to be part of. On a holiday over to visit my partners’ family, they knew that one of my favourtie foods is the Turkish pancake, “Gozleme”. So one Sunday afternoon, they got all the family together, packed up all the cars and we set off on a picnic. I will tell you one thing, the Turks know how to pack and set up a picnic in the blink of an eye. There was an open fire with the big circle hot plate to cook the pancakes on and even a little tea urn, kept warm with hot coals. My partners’ older sister sat there rolling out pancake after pancake. By the time I had devoured my first one and then everyone else was given theirs (they are part of a large family) there was room in my stomach for round two. I did try to help cook the pancakes, but I tell you, these women have true skill. Although I’m a pretty good cook (if I say so myself), pastry has never been something I can handle well and I have no idea how they roll out these dough balls to such a thin pancake. Then watching them flip them on the hot plate, well needless to say, I was happy enough to just help put the filling in them, watch in awe and eat one after another.

There is one thing that I have not got used to when it comes to the food in Turkey and that’s the hot HOT chillies. The Turks can sit and eat the hottest of chillies as if they are biting into the sweetest apple. As much as I like a little spice, these are just too much for me. My partner has tried for several years to get me to eat one. I cannot tell you how many times, when we have been sitting having meal together and he has gone to point something out enthusiastically for me to look at, while he throws one in my food. I am proud to say out of all the people he has tried this one on, I’m the one he has never got. I don’t know why, but I have always managed to see it before I put it in my mouth. It probably comes back to my love of food and that I like to look at my food all the time, taking in its goodness visually, as well as the taste. I’ve seen a few of his victims come off second best, so am happy that I have always managed to see it before eating it!

So even though I could now write another 4 paragraphs on food in Turkey, Im sure you’ve read enough. I’m already thinking there will have to be another posting all about food! Sometimes it’s not just what you are eating but also the experience’s that may come with it. Either way, whether it’s the freshest of fresh foods or even the packaged foods in Turkey (they have the cheesiest Doritos and tastiest Magnums over here) – its all pretty damned delicious!

So there you go, there is one thing that I do certainly love about Turkey! I’m sure most of you would too. Yum yum yum!!!!

Tuesday markets in Fethiye. The fresh produce is so colourful.

Some of the nuts you can buy fresh from the Tuesday market. Always pure "goodness".

One of my favourite foods in Turkey - Gozleme. Always a good choice!

The tomatoes in Turkey are some of the reddest, juiciest and tastiest I've ever had. But they can grow some strange things. This was one of 3 I found that week.