Like many of you, we are a little alienated from our meats. We don’t slaughter our food, and we’re pretty sure we never would. But living in Istanbul has brought us into much closer contact with the animals we eat, as these pictures taken on the street will show. We’ve eaten more meat here than anywhere else in the world, except Argentina. There’s still a lot for us to learn (experientially as always!), but here’s what we know so far.
What’s for Dinner? (Hint: It’s Probably Beef)
The Turks eat a lot of beef, and also some lamb; we’ve also seen veal and and many different kinds of organ meats. Not a lot of chicken, though: Turks seem to view it as a distinct second choice, suitable for when you are saving money. The main thing you will not find is pork, except rarely, in tourist restaurants. (Muslims do not eat pork.) We’ve discovered that most restaurants in Istanbul focus on a small number of foods. So, for instance, you would not get a steak in a tripe soup place, or stuffed meat dumplings in an et ve mangal (=grilled meat restaurant). Cooks specialise in two or three things, and do them all day long. This means our American habit of going to a restaurant and then figuring out what to eat has gone by the wayside. But it also makes it a lot simpler to choose.
How the Meats are Sliced (so to speak)
These mostly-beef dishes, however, are still rich in variety. There are kebabs, kofta, steaks, and about a dozen other things. Here’s what we’ve eaten so far:
- Döner kebab: this is the classic big pile of meat (beef, lamb, or chicken, in descending popularity) on a rotating stick, grilled over a charcoal flame. The cook then shaves the meat off with a special knife. That can be the whole meal, served on pide with the meat’s juices dripping all over it. But it often comes with tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, red onions, and yogurt or tahini sauce. This is what in other parts of the world you’d call shwarma or gyro. The Platonic form of this dish is the Iskender kebab, which originated in Bursa. It is a higher quality cut of (thyme-fed) lamb, and this means it is sometimes dry. So they compensate by pouring butter on top.
- Şiş kebab: pieces of meat grilled on a stick, usually removed from the stick before you eat them. Also often served with sides and on pide. Our favourite variety is beef with eggplant, because we love us some eggplant!
- Also – and we don’t know exactly how these divisions play with the ones just noted: Adana kebab differs from Urfa kebab in that the former is spicy. Experts talk about other differences, as in how much fat is used and how old the animal is. We don’t know from that. They’re both delicious.
- Köfte: these are meatballs, beef or lamb or both, but they are often more like patties (in the picture below, they are the things that look a bit like steak). The meat is ground fine, beautifully spiced, and grilled. Every grocery store and spice stall has its own blend of spices, but salt, pepper, cumin, thyme, and hot pepper seem to form the basis of most of what we’ve eaten.
- There are also tons of more familiar things: lamb chops, steaks, chicken wings, etc. We’ve concentrated on the ones unique to this part of the world.
This is really only the beginning, those meals which feature meat as the main or only ingredient. (That said, every one we’ve eaten comes with grilled tomatoes and peppers, and sometimes also a gorgeous green salad). Istanbullus, in our experience, eat meat in all kinds of other dishes as well.
