If there’s one thing we know about Turkish food in Australia, it’s that wonderful flatbread (pide‚) of theirs.  Remember how it became all the rage in the late 1980s?  Now, small round versions can be found in just about every gourmet sandwich bar and deli throughout the country with all sort of fillings stuffed into their pouches. (I bet the local Turks have watched these developments with some bemusement).

In Turkey, bread is not just the traditional staple, it is also the food of friendship and is treated with such respect that it is kissed and held to the forehead before being thrown away.
Pide‚ - the soft, spongy bread with a slightly crisp crust - is just one of many Turkish flatbreads - archaeologists believe the earliest wheats and the first breads originated around the Tigris and Euphrates, so you can imagine how many varieties have developed.

Traditionally kneaded into large rounds or ovals and sprinkled with fragrant nigella seeds before baking in a hot oven, it is eaten with everything.  Some flatbreads are snowshoe-shaped, some are topped with meat, cheese and vegetables (the original pizza!). Others are ridged, some are folded, some taste of wood smoke and brick.  This is the region of the mezze‚ tradition where small dishes of olives, dips, salads, grilled meats and yoghurt cheese are mopped up with a variety of flatbreads to make a meal.

We’ve been introduced to the mezze‚ tradition here too, but I must admit I had never tasted such fabulously flavourful mezze‚ dishes until I visited Turkey.  Nor had I seen such vibrant red tomatoes, glossy black eggplants or glorious banana capsicums as I did when I stumbled across a local street market in the old part of Istanbul just behind the famous Sancta Sophia mosque.  Like the rugs for which the country is famous, this street stall was a vivid tapestry of colour and tastes and pleasure, expressive of the rich agricultural bounty of the country. It was in this area, known as Sultanahmet,  that I tasted the outstanding mezze‚ at Develi, a restaurant where you can sit on the rooftop surrounded by bougainvillea and look out over the hazy blue Marmara Sea and Bosphorous beyond - fat fava beans in a tomato-based sauce, a warm chickpea puree, spicy hot mincemeat kebabs, grilled peppers with yoghurt, smoked eggplant with yoghurt (you need to acquire a taste for this) and a variety of fresh salads were part of this particular mezze.

You will find this range of fresh tasty food all over the country, but it’s not until you visit Turkey that you begin to appreciate the breadth and depth of the cuisine. During the Ottoman Empire - when chefs at the Topkapi Palace (also near Sancta Sophia) were at their experimental peak and cooking was regarded as an art and a pleasure - all manner of exotic dishes with humorous names were devised.

There were meaty ladies thighs, sweet syrupy ladies‚ navels, Grand Viziers‚ fingers, young girls‚ breasts and sweetheart’s lips - to name just a few!.

It could be claimed in fact that the history of Turkey is that of its cuisine - and when you visit this fertile country, you become increasingly aware of its rich history - and its many and varied Turkish delights!
 



 

Eggplants:
Turkish cooks are engaged in an enduring love-affair with the eggplant. In the street markets, you’ll see all shapes and sizes and there are hundreds of recipes for preparing them, including eggplant jam (which tastes like bananas!) and the famous imam bayildi‚ which is stuffed and served at room temperature.
 
Nigella seeds:  
a common ingredient in Turkish food (you will see them most often on Turkish bread/pide where their fragrance is unmistakable). Available in specialty Indian & Middle Eastern shops (as well as Herbie’s Spices, Rozelle), they look like black sesame seeds and are often called Kolonji, Black Onion Seeds and incorrectly Black Cumin Seeds.
 
Turkish Delight (lokum):
you can’t leave Turkey without sampling one of the many varieties of lokum. Probably the best known is the pink rosewater-flavoured one, but there are many others: some are chewy (due to the addition of mastika), others are full of toasted nuts or coconut or dried fruits.
 
Honey:
believed to sweeten life and ward off sadness, Turkish honey is wonderful. The famous deli bal of Kars, for example, which is extracted from the wild forest and flowers of Eastern Anatolia, gives a fiery kick at the back of the throat. Generous slabs of honeycomb are found on breakfast tables alongside the yoghurt and bread.
 
Lonely Planet series: World Food Turkey ($16.49) - a guide to the food traditions and home cooking of Turkey. As they say, - “Turks are passionate about food - they write love songs to yoghurt, ballads about fish, sandwiches and poems that imagine battles between pastry and pilav.  For the traveller, Turkey is a feast even when you’re not eating; a banquet of plenty expressed in colours, smell and customs.”

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