Howcookingworks recently toured through Turkey to explore their local food cuisine and to learn what cooking techniques the Turkish use to express their food.  What is really great about food is there is no end to the diversity.  Any new food or restaurant you go to is an opportunity to learn something about new compositions or techniques.  With that said, we are going to do some analysis on what we've learned and highlight some of the core dishes found in local restaurants.
 

The Turks Have an Awesome Control of Heat:

In Turkey, a lot of restaurants only primarily have a coal grill or oven.  In fact, many kebaps are cooked over a coal oven without a grill!  Cooking with coal is a lot more difficult than using a gas or electric oven.  You have to constantly play with the charcoal to watch the heat and play with positions of the meat to ensure everything cooks evenly.  Just think about the last time you had a bbq over charcoal, and imagine you had to do that everyday.

Now the positive tradeoffs are pretty good.  The Turks don't just use regular charcoal.  They seem to use charcoal with other woods (perhaps maple and such.. I'm not exactly sure).  What happens is the meat and ingredients absorbs a subtle smoky and nicely aromatic flavor from the charcoal and wood.  There is no way you can get that from a gas or an electric oven.

 
Turkish Cuisine Still Remains.. Turkish
In many of the major city centers, you won't find a diversity of ethnic foods such as Asian, Mexican, American, French, etc.  Turkish food probably resembles their food of the past.  There is a lot of meat in their cuisine, especially lamb.  You definitely won't see things like tofu or fish sauce in their cuisine (although it poses interesting fusion scenarios..)


Checkout our video and picture food higlights!

• Pide (Turkish Pizza)
• Kebaps (Known as kebabs also)
• Balik Ekmek (fish in bread)
• Golzeme Turkish Crepes)
• Kofte (Turkish Meatballs)
  
• Büfe (Turkish Sandwich)
• Baklava (Sweet Dessert)