Turkish Cuisine - a story told by the best local guide (Istanbul Travel Stories)

Author:WanderStories [WanderStories]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Turkish Cuisine
Publisher: WanderStories
Published: 2014-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

Origins of Turkish Cuisine

Now, let’s discuss the origins of Turkish cuisine. Since ancient times, Turkic tribes were largely nomadic, and their food reflected this. They lived in central Asia, which is still predominantly populated by Turkic peoples. They did not practice agriculture but had domesticated horses and other animals, some specifically for food such as sheep and goats. For this reason, they ate large amounts of meat and milk products, and especially enjoyed a drink called kımız (kumis), which was alcoholic and made from fermented horse’s milk. The horse especially was incredibly important to their way of life, and they became very skillful warriors on horseback. Interestingly enough, although horses were very valuable to the Turkic tribes during this period, horse meat was also consumed.

This way of life lasted for a long time until the tribes began the transition from their nomadic lifestyles. When this happened, they incorporated more of the products of agriculture into their cuisine and began to eat more bread and vegetables. Food such as kavurma: a kind of preserved lamb meat, pekmez: molasses, a thick syrup made from fruit, and ayran: a drink of yogurt and water, that are still very popular today, had already been developed in the 11th century. Indeed, yogurt is an invention of the Turkic peoples.

After the Turkic tribes entered Anatolia, which today is mostly the Asian part of Turkey, and the other surrounding areas, their foods changed again as they came into contact with the people already living in those areas. For example, a dessert you still can eat today in Turkey called tavuk göğsü: a baked pudding made from finely chopped chicken and milk, was adopted by the Turks from the Romans, and in fact, the Turks were the only civilization to have kept this kind of food.

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