Icmeler Online Holiday Forum & Reviews - Turkey

OK, following on from the thread started by Hanedan about the lack of interest in traditional Turkish cooking, it seems quite a few people are a bit wary of trying some dishes because they don't know what they are. So, I thought it would be an idea if people said what their favourite Turkish dishes are - perhaps with a brief description.

Aliral has already mentioned
Hunkar Begendi (dots above u & g) - meaning The Sultan enjoyed it - which consists of stewed lamb in tomatoes,
peppers,onions, touch of chilli, a little salsa (tomato or red pepper puree), served on top of pureed aubergine. Both my daughter and I have had this dish, and it is lovely.

Some people have said they don't know what pide is, so I'll start with that:

Pide - often described as Turkish pizza, but that doesn't really do it justice. It's usually a kind of boat-shaped flatbread dough, which is covered with the topping of your choice and baked in a stone oven. It's lovely - popular toppings include cheese, peppers, spicy minced lamb or sucuk (spicy sausage) or even egg. Pide is a lovely cheap snack - do give it a try if you haven't had it.

blondie wrote:OK, following on from the thread started by Hanedan about the lack of interest in traditional Turkish cooking, it seems quite a few people are a bit wary of trying some dishes because they don't know what they are. So, I thought it would be an idea if people said what their favourite Turkish dishes are - perhaps with a brief description.

Aliral has already mentioned
Hunkar Begendi (dots above u & g) - meaning The Sultan enjoyed it - which consists of stewed lamb in tomatoes,
peppers,onions, touch of chilli, a little salsa (tomato or red pepper puree), served on top of pureed aubergine. Both my daughter and I have had this dish, and it is lovely.

Some people have said they don't know what pide is, so I'll start with that:

Pide - often described as Turkish pizza, but that doesn't really do it justice. It's usually a kind of boat-shaped flatbread dough, which is covered with the topping of your choice and baked in a stone oven. It's lovely - popular toppings include cheese, peppers, spicy minced lamb or sucuk (spicy sausage) or even egg. Pide is a lovely cheap snack - do give it a try if you haven't had it.

I love both of the above, also Lamb shish, Lamb cassarole and of course Baklava!

What a great idea for a thread.
We arrive 6th August and its our first time in Turkey/Icmeler and we intend on trying everything Turkish, so to know what the dishes are in advance is a cracking idea.
One pint of cyber efes on the way to you my friend
Chris

I love all Turk food but my ultimate favourite is icli kofte

My Turk mother in law always made this for me whenever we visited as she knew how much I love it ama I cannot make it (I could ama I don't have the time tbh). I have never seen it on a menu anywhere so I really miss it.
It is a bulgar and lentil pocket stuffed with spiced meat, closed and then fried, totes scrummy!

One of my other favourites is a sote, simple ama very tasty.....nom nom nom

Absolutely love hunkar begendi, though the mashed aubergine has to be just right or it's too "smoky" for me, sac kavurma is a favourite too - lamb, claypot lamb and leg of lamb and finally lamachun for a snack

Have to say that it seems easier to eat traditional "all turkish" in Dalyan than Icmeler and I manage it there every year, lunch and dinner. In Icmeler, there doesn't seem to be the same range of traditional dishes on menus, maybe that's because they are trying to cater for our "British" tastes, or maybe because I get distracted by the range of international cuisine on offer ?!?!

Another favourite (I cant spell it) sucuk ends in something like sucukurmutlu, its like an omelette with the sucuk sausage in it, I love that for breakfast with Turkish bread.

Pan fried beef is to die for with onions, tomatoes and peppers from the love boat . Titanic do the best baklava I've tasted

I love turkish food i just never know the names of anything to order so i would love more examples of turkish meals as i am going out on sunday and i love eating turkish.

the only one i know is sigara borek which is probably because i order them religiously (crispy cheese rolls)

PS) i love stuffed vine leaves, my turkish friend's family always invite us for a meal when we arrive and the way his mum makes it is amazing. Are they just called stuffed vine leaves if i were to ask for them in a restaurant?

Not being a meat eater, I'm not too keen on some turkish food, but I love the Anatolian Testi. It's a kind of stew cooked in an urn shaped clay pot which you have to break open to get the food out. We were given a short, sumarai type sword to crack it with. I had the shrimp one, and it was delicious. I also like Mercimek Corbasi (lentil soup served with lemon) and lovely fresh turkish bread. Great lunch time filler. I love the milk puddings too. Icmeler now has a pudding shop opp Azra jewellers, and I can't walk past it.

cassia wrote:PS) i love stuffed vine leaves, my turkish friend's family always invite us for a meal when we arrive and the way his mum makes it is amazing. Are they just called stuffed vine leaves if i were to ask for them in a restaurant?

am sure they'd know what you mean Cassia, though aren't they called "dolmus"?! someone told me that's how the buses get their name - everyone packed in tight

cassia wrote:PS) i love stuffed vine leaves, my turkish friend's family always invite us for a meal when we arrive and the way his mum makes it is amazing. Are they just called stuffed vine leaves if i were to ask for them in a restaurant?

They are called dolmades cassia, one of my favourites too, nom nom nom.......

The lentil soup is lovely - I also like the Turkish tomato soup and how it is served with a little bowl of cheese to sprinkle on it. Delicious!

janeypoos said one of her favs is a sote and i gotta agree.
first time i had it was in kusadasi and i asked the waiter for the name(i think he said it was et sote)but always have it my first night in turkey.
i love everything about turkey and especially icmeler but i think the food is what stands out most for me.
16 more days........cant wait!

[quote="redmanc78"]janeypoos said one of her favs is a sote and i gotta agree.
first time i had it was in kusadasi and i asked the waiter for the name(i think he said it was et sote)but always have it my first night in turkey.


Et sote would be right, et is meat so could be either lamb, beef or chicken. chicken is my favourite and so easy to make. Might do it in the week actually now I'm thinking about it, lol!

You know how you get people outside and inside shops giving you a sample taste of different things, example sausages,cheese,biscuits and so on,well maybe if they had things like that in Turkey people would eat more Turkish food. I have to be honest,when i look on here and see different things you guys have eaten out there i have to look it up and see what its like and what is in it. Many a time i have seen something that has taken my fancy and i think i will try it when we go next time but i somehow never do. Maybe we should start a new thread just with pics of different food,the name of it and what is in it. I have had a couple of Turkish meals and enjoyed them very much and would like to try more.

jayjay1950 wrote:You know how you get people outside and inside shops giving you a sample taste of different things, example sausages,cheese,biscuits and so on,well maybe if they had things like that in Turkey people would eat more Turkish food. I have to be honest,when i look on here and see different things you guys have eaten out there i have to look it up and see what its like and what is in it. Many a time i have seen something that has taken my fancy and i think i will try it when we go next time but i somehow never do. Maybe we should start a new thread just with pics of different food,the name of it and what is in it. I have had a couple of Turkish meals and enjoyed them very much and would like to try more.

Here here, i was just going to write down the name of some of the different meals , to look them up!!
We to would like to try more Turkish food , 6 weeks and counting.

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/ph ... =1&theater


This is Sini Kebab that I've just got out of the oven.
It's spicy ground beef mince pressed into the dish with a layer of potato slices, a layer of tomatoes and chilli's.

The juices taste gorgeous but it's too hot to tuck in to at the moment, lol!

when we were in icmeler last year i asked sabri what a teste kebab was (i think that what it was called?!)
so he said he would cook it us for dinner that night, it was a lamb stew in a tomato sauce with mashed potato, absolutely lovely, i expected it to be like a kebab in nann bread with it being called a teste kebab also had a lovely turkish dish in wayside, which was lamb and shredded potato in a yogurt&mint sauce? cnt remember what this was called though sorry! x

janeypoos wrote:I love all Turk food but my ultimate favourite is icli kofte

My Turk mother in law always made this for me whenever we visited as she knew how much I love it ama I cannot make it (I could ama I don't have the time tbh). I have never seen it on a menu anywhere so I really miss it.
It is a bulgar and lentil pocket stuffed with spiced meat, closed and then fried, totes scrummy!

One of my other favourites is a sote, simple ama very tasty.....nom nom nom

Janey, they serving this on the starter menu in Home bar and restaurant (across from Blue Rainbow). We had this a few times when we were in. Its like a croquette stuffed with mincemeat, isnt it? So delicious!! They have quite a lot of yummy Turkish dishes on their menu.

My favourtie Turkish dish of the moment, it changes everytime Im out there, is the Iskender kebab. Home made bread with doner meat on top with a spicy tomato sauce and yoghurt. Deeeeeeeeeeelicious