Growing up in rural America Jale (Ja-lay) enjoyed creating all sorts of culinary delights. After school she began traveling and broadened her cooking repertoire as she cooked alongside locals in Central America, Europe and Asia. Upon her first trip to Gaziantep, Turkey in 2001, she grew to love the warm hospitable culture and amazing cuisine Turks have to offer. Returning to America she started a catering business offering a wide variety of home-town cookin’ and international dishes. Her heart drew her back to Turkey in 2012 where she made her home in Istanbul and began to learn the language and culture with fervor. She continues to enjoy learning how to prepare Turkish food and desires to make that knowledge available to you through this site so that you can enjoy creating and tasting Turkish cuisine in your own home.
Turks believe that a stranger on one’s doorstep may be God’s guest, thus treat them royally. This is a real treat for those of us foreigners who are privileged to live here. An invitation to a Turk’s home isn’t a simple affair. A guest is greeted with slippers, several kisses, and often sprinkled with kolonya to refresh their hands and face before being offered a seat. In order to honor the guest and show that they aren’t in a rush for you to leave, the meal doesn’t begin right away. After lots of chatting the courses begin. A complete Turkish meal includes soup, a assortment of meze (appetizers) and fresh bread or pide before the first course is served. The main course may include a variety of dishes often with at least one meat along with rice or bulgur. A Turkish host sees it as very important to feed her guest well thus preparing a royal feast and always saying afiyet olsun (bon appetit). The polite response is ellerinize sağlık which means “health to your hands.” The visit will continue after the meal ends as you are served countless cups of çay (black tea). Throughout the evening hosts will often continue to serve plates of sweets, bowls of nuts, fresh or dried fruit, etc. If you are lucky they will make Turkish coffee which will be served to you in a very small decorative cup and is meant to be sipped slowly as the grounds settle. Alongside the coffee you will be served a small glass of water and another sweet such as Turkish Delight.Turkish cuisine is an essential part of everyday life and pride for each person within its borders. While there are many common dishes that can be found throughout the country, there is great variety within each of the 7 regions. Often the same dishes will be prepared in a vastly different way in another province. Climate, culture and ingredients vary throughout country thus affecting the cuisine. The recipes listed here represent a large variety of what can be found throughout all of the provinces.
