Dear Food Diary #10 🇹🇷 North & West Turkey

Dear Food Diary, We've read some travel articles about Turkish food and some have been amazing, but sadly some were disappointing. It goes with having an expectation: if you read positive things about something, there's a chance you may be disappointed when it doesn't live up to your expectation. There were three things Matt read before coming to Turkey, they were:

• Van city breakfast
• Turkish delights
• Istanbul's fish bread

We tried the delights and fish bread, but didn't visit Van which was in the east. As our travel often included staying with the locals, we didn't have to research much about local cuisines. Everytime they introduced us to a few new things, occasionally preparing traditional meals before we arrive!

Interesting Intestines

We tried this out of curiosity and was somewhat disappointed. The intestines are cooked in a special method and cooked on a rotisserie like kebabs. It was served in a sandwich with chopped up pieces of the intestines. There was no bad smell of the offal and it was flavoured like every Turkish kebab we've had before. It wasn't so chewy as it was cut up into small pieces already.

Food From Family

In Düzce we stayed with a WarmShowers host Alex who was running a fourth-generation family restaurant. During our stay we essentially tried all the dishes. The recipes have remain unchanged since the beginning. We probably gained weights during our stay because the food was so good. At home we learned that Alex cared about the food he ate. He made extra efforts to eat wholegrains bread with mixed seeds, even getting it from another town. Back home we always read through the nutrition information on the back of sliced bread. He kindly gave us a loaf before we left.

Indulging in Istanbul

Here we got to try three new things:

1. Potates
2. Boza
3. Chicken Breast Pudding
4. Fish Bread

Potates

We met Greg through CouchSurfing and he took us to this busy restaurant near Taksim Square. It was like Subway with the set up of bread, toppings and sauce. Instead we had roasted potatoes with the inside mashed together with cheese. The toppings were more middle eastern flavours and sauce limited to mayo and ketchup. It was extremely filling and big so we shared.

Boza

In Istanbul we stayed with a couple we met in Iran Ajay and Alat. Having recently travelled themselves, their hospitality was another level and we had a great time. One morning Ajay took us sightseeing and we cooled down inside a 1876-established bar. They mainly served Boza. The drink was made from wheat and tasted slightly sour. It is full of nutrients and health benefits, especially for athletes and pregnant women.

Chicken Breast Pudding

Our last host was Sheyma who had never hosted before. She offered to host us before we left Istanbul and it was so fun staying with her. One day we went exploring downtown and she took us to her favourite dessert shop. She introduced us to a specialty pudding made from chicken breast. It was sweet, milky and thick. Just from the texture we wouldn't have guessed it was made from chicken breast.

Fish Bread

Matt read about fish bread in Istanbul and wanted to try. Sheyma was concerned about the food standards so kindly researched a restaurant that wouldn't make us sick. The place we went to was bustling. Everyone was packed together eating the same fish sandwich. It had a grilled fillet and some lettuce. Strangely it wasn't seasoned at all and the lemon juice from the bottle was so watered down. We were just glad it didn't make us sick.

Be Best Breakfast

After spending two months in Turkey we've learned to eat like them… at least for breakfast anyway. It didn't require cooking and had energy rich options. At one point we were carrying 5 jars of different toppings to go on the bread, 2 types of cheese and fancy wholegrain bread (from Alex). It's super easy to get bread anywhere and not having to cook saved us a lot of gas.

Turkish Breakfast is something we'll carry on having in our new life in Europe.

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