Turkish Food Culture: When Eating Becomes a Ceremony – Istanbul

Turkish food culture – when eating becomes a ceremony

In Turkey people rarely eat just to fill their stomachs. A meal is encounter, hospitality and ritual all at once. Those who know the rules quickly go from guest to friend at the table.

Kahvaltı – breakfast as a feast

The Turkish breakfast (kahvaltı) is a spread of many small plates: white cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, honey with kaymak (clotted cream), jams, eggs or menemen and fresh bread or simit. At weekends a family breakfast can easily last two hours. And the tea flows endlessly.

Çay – tea as the language of hospitality

Black tea in a tulip-shaped glass is drunk all day long – in shops, at the barber's, in the office. An offered tea is a gesture of welcome. When you have had enough, you lay the small spoon across the glass.

Bread is sacred

Bread (ekmek) is regarded as a gift from God and is not thrown away. Old bread is left in bags on walls or fences for animals. If a piece falls on the floor, many Turks pick it up, kiss it and put it in a raised place.

Meze and rakı – the table of long evenings

In the meyhanes, the traditional taverns, the evening begins with many cold and warm starters: ezme, haydari, stuffed vine leaves, aubergines, seafood. With them you drink rakı diluted with water, which turns it milky white – “lion's milk”. A rakı evening is not a drinking binge but conversation, music and patience.

Gestures and words at the table

• “Afiyet olsun!” – Enjoy your meal, said even when passing people who are eating.
• “Elinize sağlık!” – “Health to your hands!”: the finest compliment to a host or cook.
• Dishes are shared. Whoever orders usually orders for the whole table.
• The guest's plate is refilled again and again. A small leftover on the plate signals: I am full.
• Blowing your nose at the table is considered impolite – better to get up briefly.

The fasting month of Ramadan and iftar

During Ramadan, families gather at sunset to break the fast (iftar). With the call of the muezzin, the meal begins with a date and water, followed by soup and a rich meal. Many municipalities set up public iftar tents – guests are welcome. Restaurants are also open during the day, and tourists eat and drink quite normally. But people eat discreetly.

Turkish coffee to finish

After the meal, a Turkish mocha is often served, always with a glass of water. Afterwards the cup is turned upside down, and with a bit of luck someone reads the future from the coffee grounds. A Turkish proverb says: “One cup of coffee commits you to forty years of friendship.”

Try it yourself

The best way to get to know Turkish cuisine is with all your senses – among simit sellers, fish sandwiches on the Golden Horn and small lokantas. On our private street food tour between Eminönü and Karaköy you taste Istanbul the way the locals eat it.

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