Turkish Delights

Hey everyone,
I thought I would do an entry on Turkish food because it gives you an idea of all the gastronomical delights I encountered on my trip through Turkey. It's a country well worth visiting, and not just for the food :)

Enjoy!
S xx

Can't get more Turkish than kebabs! As you walk around you hear, "Kebab! Kebab! Chicken Kebab!" There are kebab shops everywhere and they are certainly the cheapest option for meals :) Too bad the Turkish people aren't fans of salad.... One funny thing is that they serve chips in the kebab, together with meat, and a tiny piece of tomato or lettuce. Not like the kebabs you get at home :)

This is your typical breakfast - fetta, tomato, cucumber, devon, egg, olives, cornflakes and bread. One of the guys on the tour joked that no matter where you go and where you stay, you will always get the same breakfast. He said they must have a button that says - Insert Turkish breakfast here... !

Spices at the spice market, beautifully displayed!

Tea and spices at the spice market. The smell is sensational!

This cute man makes these chocolate covered treats - chocolate covered nuts and chocolate covered coffee beans - divine! He sits behind his counter from 7:00am to 11:00pm everyday! He loves giving his customers samples of his tasty treats. I get the impression that he is happy when his customers are happy and he especially loves it when his customers come back more than once :)

This is what you see in every third shop window in Turkey - and there are so many lane ways with so many shops. I am not joking, it's every third shop at least!

a HUGE display of mini cakes, nuts and, of course, some turkish delight!

Cakes, jellies and anything with sugar! You see it everywhere :)

Turkish pudding - just another way to add sugar to your diet!

BAKLAVA!!!!!!!!!!!!! So good!!! I tried a couple pieces, just to see what it was like and I can imagine that it would get very addictive! The bakers do, now and then, give you a little sample to taste, which is really kind of them. I like the chocolate flavoured one the best - it also had pistachios in it. Turks love pistachio in their sweets! Baklava goes great with a good cup of coffee!

This is Turkish coffee. I had to have one in my time in Turkey, even though I would have been quite happy to miss the experience - I had been warned by a few others that Turkish coffee is like drinking mud - and they are absolutely right! It has a really bitter taste; the best way that I can describe it is that it tastes like really old paper - the kind that you get in old books from second hand book shops. It tastes exactly like that smells :) It comes in a really small cup (although that's hard to see in this photo) and you don't drink the whole lot because at the bottom there is a really thick layer of ground coffee. It was so thick that it reminded me of the silt in the Tamar River. Can I offer you a cup?!

Turkish tea. Tea is a real 'thing' in Turkey. The men sit around drinking it all day in these little glass cups - I should have taken a photo of one but I didn't think of it... I reckon the Turkish people drink at least 20 cups a day, it's insane!! When you go into a shop you are often offered a cup of tea. Apparently Turkish hospitality is such that you offer all friends tea when they visit you, especially 'friends' who are spending their money so you can earn a living :)

They also do flavoured tea and my favourite is apple. It's a sweet tea with a crisp flavour, mmmmm. Drinking apple tea at the end of the day with a great bunch of people is the best! Even the most Aussie blokes on the tour got into it :)

Close up of the delicious turkish delights! When you walk around the spice markets or into the little treat shops you are given samples to taste. Lots of fun! Hours of amusement for backpackers that have free time :) The cheap stuff is made from sugar, the more expensive stuff is made from honey. You're looking at prices ranging from $44 - $65 a kilogram! Not a cheap sugar fix :)

Huge slabs of turkish delight - with pistachio inside = DELICIOUS

p.s. sorry about all of the sideways photos. Turkish computers just don't understand me.