Few countries can fuse Asian, Middle Eastern, and European cuisine in such a wonderful way, but Turkey does it exceptionally well. Any Turk will tell you, Turkish cuisine is the best in the world. In fact, the Turks love their food so much they even write songs about it -- "Domates, biber, patlican" by Anatolian rock star Baris Manco translates to "Tomatoes, pepper, eggplant."
Here we can only attempt a summary of the most delicious, most popular Turkish foods.
1. Piyaz
Antalya's piyaz salad is one of the Turkish city's most famous dishes -- and its secret ingredient is its beans. They're not just any old butter bean, but a small version known as candir, named after the inland province, where they're grown. Delicate and flavorful, candir are mixed, together with tahini thinned with a little water, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, garlic, flat-leaf parsley, and olive oil. In the very traditional version, a soft-boiled egg is roughly chopped up and mixed through just before serving.
2. Ezogelin corba
According to legend, this dish was dreamed up by an unhappily married woman named Ezo who was trying to win over her mother-in-law via her stomach. She concocted a zesty soup consisting of red lentils, domato salca (tomato paste -- sweet or hot), grated fresh tomatoes and onions, served with dried mint and pul biber (chili flakes) sprinkled on top. There's no proof it actually worked, but just in case, ezogelin (which literally translates to bride Ezo), originating from a small village near Gaziantep, is still the food of choice for brides-to-be.
3. Saksuka
Turkish cuisine incorporates a huge range of vegetable dishes known as zeytinyagli yemegi -- foods cooked in olive oil. The majority are vegetable-based and include green beans, artichokes and of course, eggplants. One of the tastiest eggplant offerings is sasuka. Here silky purple skinned cubes of green flesh are cooked with zucchinis, garlic, tomatoes, and chilli -- how much of the latter depending on where in Turkey it's made.
4. Mercimek kofte
Known to Diyarbakir locals as belluh, mercimek kofte is a vegetarian delight.
Made from red lentils, fine bulgur, salt, finely chopped onion, scallions, tomato and aci biber salca (hot red pepper paste) and crushed cilantro, they come in handy bite-sized servings. Just pop one of these nuggets of flavor onto a lettuce leaf, add a squeeze of lemon juice, roll it up and munch away.
5. Inegol kofte
Meatballs are so much more than just balls of meat in Turkish cuisine. Each style brings its own unique serve of history. One of the best known is Inegol kofte, invented by one Mustafa Efendi. Originally from Bulgaria, he migrated to Inegol in northwest Turkey in the 19th century. Unlike other Turkish kofte his mix uses only ground beef or lamb and breadcrumbs, seasoned with onions.
6. Iskender kebab
Located in northwest Turkey, Bursa is famous for three things -- silk, the ski fields of Uludag and a type of kebab called Iskender. Apparently, a gentleman of the same name first cooked this dish for workers in the city's Kayhan Bazaar back in 1867. Thin slices of doner meat are reverently laid over pieces of plump pide bread, smothered in freshly made tomato sauce, baptized with a dash of sizzling melted butter and served with a portion of tangy yoghurt, grilled tomato, and green peppers.
