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 Meze by Maria_75
The meze is accompanied by freshly baked bread and a creamy feta cheese with garlic. Can be used both as appetizers or as a main course. It's a great way of trying different turkish meals without having to order a whole dinner plate and then finding out you don't like it. Turkish loves to drink Raki to their meze, other good choices are wine, beer or water. Leave a Comment
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 "Whirling Dervishes" by deecat
Religious Festivals:
Mevlid-i Nebi [The prophet's birthday] where people read poetry about the birth of the Prophet Mohammed. They also cook special sweet dishes, & children exchange colored eggs.
The Mevlana Festival [Whirling Dervishes perform to honor a great poet who founded the Jalaladin Rumi religious order.
National Festivals:
Cumhuriyet Bayrami [all towns in Turkey have parades & speeches to commemorate the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923].
Victory Day [the day celebrates Turkey's victory over invading Greek forces in the War of Independence .
Seasonal Festivals:
New Year's Day
St Nicholas Festival [celebrations are held in the old church of St. Nicholas, the original Santa Claus in southern Turkey].
Kirkpinar Wresting [in the biggest wrestling competition in Turkey, competitors are covered with oil and wrestle wearing only knee-length calfskin pants.]
Kurdish New Year [although not an official holiday, the large Kurdish population celebrates the year on March 21st]
These festivals have no fixed dates on our modern calendar. For religious purposes, Muslims use an old calendar called the lunar calendar . The events come 11 days earlier in each year of the modern calendar.
This old calendar used to be the only calendar used in Turkey. It was the Ottoman sultans who began to change to the modern calendar. In 1935, weekly holiday was introduced which was to occur from 1 p.m. on Saturday to Monday morning. The concept of a holy day of rest was not a Muslim custom; traditionally, the Muslim day of worship is Friday, not Sunday. Changed from Friday to Sunday to try to bring Turkey into line with other Western countriesbut still, large numbers of Muslims find time for midday prayers in a mosque on Fridays. Leave a Comment
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 Turkish appletea served in
traditional glasses by Maria_75
It's made of leaves from the eastern Blacksea-coast in Turkey, and brewed in a samovar-style. You put the tea in a small pot on top of another pot with boiling water. Usually they add a few cubes of sugar, but normally they never use anything else, like milk or lemon. If you like the tea you can buy both the tea and the small glasses in most places, and they are quite cheap. Leave a Comment
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 turkish cuisine by traveloturc
Its an ocean and I am not promising you to discover all the islands but anyway
I will try to give you some hints about this trip to gastronomie .
I hope that my tips will help you what to order and when to order.
Generally it starts with a soup ( if you dont want to attend a raki night)
With the raki nights you have to start with mezes (cold appetizers)
than it comes the hot appetizers like calamar,muscles,boreks etc
than it come the main dishes which can be meat or fish or both
than it comes the sweets
fruits folows the sweets
tea or coffee is the punch line
Turkish cuisine inherited its Ottoman heritage which could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Jew,Greek, Armenian and Persian cuisines.Turkish cuisine also influenced these cuisines and other neighbouring cuisines, as well as west European cuisines. Taken as a whole, Turkish cuisine is not homogenous thats why its rich!!!
Aside from common Turkish specialities which can be found throughout the country, there are also region-specific specialities. The Black Sea region's cuisine (northern Turkey) is based on corn and anchovies. The southeastUrfa, Gaziantep and Adanais famous for its kebabs, mezes and dough-based desserts such as baklava, kadayif and künefe. Especially in the western parts of Turkey, olive oil is the major type of oil used for cooking.The cuisines of the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean regions display basic characteristics of Mediterranean cuisine as they are rich in vegetables, herbs and fish. Central Anatolia is famous for its pastry specialities such as keskek (kashkak), manti (especially of Kayseri) and gözleme.The name of specialities sometimes includes the name of a city or a region (either in Turkey or outside). For example, the difference between Urfa kebab and Adana kebab is the use of garlic instead of onion and the larger amount of hot pepper that kebab contains.
Have a good trip and bon apetite..... enjoy it
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 my prescious cup of coffee by traveloturc
It is traditionally prepared in a small copper pot called "cezve". It is made by mixing an extremely finely ground coffee with water and sugar. They are all heated together at the same time and when the liquid boils coffee, Kahve is ready to be served. Drinking a little water can help to clean your mouth and prepares you for your coffee
How to prepare
Ingredients for one cup:
2 tea spoon very finely ground coffee
1 cup of water
Levels of sweetness:
no sweet at all (sade)
Mildly sweet 1 teaspoonful sugar (az sekerli)
Medium sweet 2 teaspoonful sugar (orta sekerli)
Sweet 3 teaspoonful Sugar (sekerli)
1) Pour cold water in the coffee pot, called cezve in Turkish. Use one cup of cold water for each serving cup. Add two teaspoonful of the ground Turkish coffee per cup into the cold water. If you prefer sweet coffee, add the sugar to the pot and stir. Use appropriate size of the pot and do not fill it too much. (There are various different sizes of coffee pots in the market)
2) Place the pot over very low heat and watch while heating as it may overflow very easily when the coffee begins to foam. Carefully stir the coffee to keep the foam thick.
3) When the coffee begins to bubble, remove the pot from the heat source. Pour some (not all) of the coffee equally among the cups (about a quarter) so that all the cups share the foam. Please note a good Turkish coffee should have thick foam which is not the case in arabic countries
4) Replace the pot on the heat again, for a second bubbling then pour the rest of the coffee among the cups.
Perhaps you will find someone who will read your future from the coffee grounds. This is very popular in Turkey and sometimes you may be surprised by the things told by somebody who has no info about you. "Dont believe fortune telling but dont be left without fortune telling." is one of the favorite statements!!!
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 Park bench by MalenaNLeave a Comment
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Tipping is standard practice in bars and restaurants, although not obligatory. Generally 10% is an acceptable rate, but even if service is included, a small token is excepted. On the other hand, there is no need to tip taxi drivers, unless some special service has been provided. For hairdressers, barbers and hotel staff tipping is again the norm, but entirely discretionary. The most demanding destination in terms of tips is the Turkish bath (hamam), where you should except to distribute around 30% to the various staff that have attended you.
Bargaining is very much an integral part of Turkish culture, a ritual that is generally excepted of the customer and enjoyed. Obviously, though, this is not true of the modern stores where price tickets are non-negoitable. The process itself may be lengthy and involve intense courting on the part of the shop-keeper, often in the form of apple tea. It is always best to work out your top price beforehand and start well below with a view to meeting in the middle. Good humour will score points in your favour, but it is considered very bad form to go though the whole process, conclude a deal and then walk away empty-handed.So be patient and try to enjoy yourself ...have good time
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 meze by traveloturc
Antakya/hatay is one of turkish city near the syrian borders when I use to travel to this city the meal use to start with 40 different ( I am not kidding))) mezes served in small plates
you dont have to eat or taste all of them but they are there !!!
My list is just a small example of mezes...
White cheese (Beyaz Peynir) and mellon ( kavun)
Olives (Zeytin), black and green ,stuffed with sardines etc
Aubergine (Begendi),
stuffed grape leaves ( yalanci dolma)
Stuffed green peppers (biber dolmasi),
Stuffed tomatoes (Domates dolmasi),
Stuffed cabbage (Lahana Dolmasi),
Chopped cucumbers with yogurt and garlic (Cacik),
Aubergines with parsley (Imam bayildi / "Imam fainted),
Mussels cooked with olive oil and served cold (Midye Pilakisi).
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 Ata Tuerk by nepalgoodsLeave a Comment
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 by Pinat
Actually when you go to a hamam, you'll see more or less the same thing in any of them:
You will enter the dry heat of a sweating area. Afterwards, you will begin to perspire heavily because of a wet steam. Your skin is then washed with soap and warm water and the muscles massaged. After being scoured and washed, your body temperature will return to normal from swimming in cold water.
Before going to a hamam, knowing some of the hamam vocabulary may be useful as well:
Pestemal (pesh-te-mahl): A large towel fringed at both ends and wrapped around the torso, from below the armpits to about mid-thigh. The pestemal would be striped or checked, a colored mixture of silk and cotton, or pure cotton, or even pure silk.
Kurna: The marble basin.
Tas: The bowl for pouring water over the body. Tas is always of metal (silver, tinned copper or brass).
Kese: Rough cloth mitt carried in the soap case, not only scoured the dirt out of the pores, but served to deliver a bracing massage.
Hamam is truly a perfect way to relax and generally you feel like you have lost 10 kilos when you get out. Leave a Comment
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