This summer I decided to do something different, it was the first time that I travelled alone in some country. Even if most of my friends do it, for me it was quite new and really enjoyable.
I visited Turkey and managed to have a good view of their local foods. In this trip other than visiting places like Ayia Sofia, the Blue Mosque and Basilica Cistern I was really happy to see that there are no main differences between the Greek food and Turkish food. To be honest, I didn’t have to travel all the way to Istanbul to learn that, but it was nice to see it and taste it myself.
The funny thing in those kinds of situations is that always there will be people fighting about who made it first in order to claim the originality of the recipe. For example, how to you call that kind of coffee, Greek Coffee or Turkish coffee? To be honest I don’t know…it looks exactly the same to me and they are made exactly the same way.
Running around in Sultanhmed I managed to see a lot of restaurants that were serving exactly the same foods like my mother used to make me. So both Greeks and Turkish know what Papoutsakia is and both Greeks and Turkish knowwhat baklava and Loukoumi is. Maybe they change the name a little bit from time to time but everything else remains the same.
If you look up a little bit the history of those two countries you will realize that they had…and still have a lot of common things. They are like two people that they love to hate each other…but they are almost similar. I think that’s why all the Turkish people were calling me “bacanak” (=brother in law) when I was telling them that I was Greek … 😀
On with the food…
Greek Food Vs Turkish Food
Well, one of the best ideas came from my father when he told me that I should go and eat fresh Fish in Galata. I managed to find the Galata Bridge and eat one huge beautiful and tasty Sea Bream, together salad and big bottle of wine. The food was excellent and the view of Bosporus magic. Nothing fancy there in terms of cooking, simple grilled sea bream with lemon and olive oil. All that you need in order to enjoy the fish…
In Turkey also they are really well known for their kebabs. Another good friend of mine suggested to me to eat at Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi Selim. That restaurant exists since 1920 and does exclusively…(yeap you guessed it…kebabs). What really caught my eye was that there menu was really small. They have the same menu since 1920 without adding or removing anything.
So you don’t have many choices…but those choices really worth it., It was by far one of the tastiest kebaps that I have ever eaten.
They had big beans salad, pilaf (plain rice..more soaked) and of course grilled meat balls which you can find also in Greece with small differences in the recipe.
One of the things that I really enjoyed in the last days of my trip was the famous “Kazan Dibi”. You can find it inTurkey and the Northern parts of Greece. Basically, it’s a really –really tasty desert that looks so easy to make it but (as my dear mom said) it’s so difficult. The ingredients are: butter, rice flour, milk, corn starch, sugar and flavouring.
My father, who always says the best stories, explained to me how it was created… According to the legend, the personal cook of the Sultan wanted to make a dessert for his master and had that idea. He created the cream and he was giving the burned side of the cream from the Kettle to the servants of the Sultan. However, one day the Sultan saw what his servants were eating and decided that it was much better. So Kazan Dibi was created, which means bottom of the kettle. That’s why it is served with the “burned” side up. The burnt side of the kettle is caramelized collecting the sugar and making it …heaven…
There are so many more foods that I should have tried but simply didn’t had the time. The only general difference that I could find between Greek and Turkish cooking is that Turkish food is a little bit spicier. Despite that, my stomach never had any problem with that,
The site is called “the greek food” but I am guessing if there is a blog similar to this in turkey…they would have more or less the same recipes J
Well I agree more or less, our cuisine is similar but Turkey is not the only country that our dishes look alike. Our cuisine is also influenced by Italy, former Yougoslavia, Egypt, Livanon and very much from Israel (that’s a thing that has to do with our religion).. All national cuisines are influenced by neighbour countries that’ s a thing that goes back in history..
I actually believe that all the Balkan region has been strongly influenced by the Ottoman/Turkish cuisine.
Well I believe That Turkey did influence Greek cuisine Just like Italy Because they all are close Being a Greek very deeply Proud to be Greek! : ) I also believe that Greek cuisine also influence Turkish cuisine as well And the word Meze meaning snack a “Turkish” word is actually not at all Turkish It in indeed Persian And Turkish cuisine is heavily influenced by Persian cuisine So…… We all influence each other
Greek foods are just Turkish foods with dumb names which Turks stole from Arab cuisine in the first place… True Story… =)
Greeks and Turks have similar food, which is also similar to arab food too. It’s all TOO similar, you can see the influences clearly, and the best place to see it is in Cypriot food (occupated by both Greece and Turkey, right next to Middle east/Lebanon too. In greek cuisine stuffed vine leaves are koubebia (phonetic spelling!) but in middle east it’s dolma. Not to mention Baklava is all over the regions Ive mentioned. Things like bamya (lamb, okra and chopped tomatoes) is all across. It is literally nearly the same food, sometimes its just different spices that differ the whole lot.
source: half cypriot with iraqi fiancé
Well, there are many shared recipes, but why we have so many of the same has much more to do with what happened in 1922. When you break Greek food and Turkish food down by region, you will see the differences vs similarities.
For one, Aegean Turkey/Istanbul’s traditional cuisine from the area was always closer to Greek and Balkan dishes. This is because of the vast amount of Greeks that lived there (and the Greeks who assimilated into Turks over the last 600 years), and the general climate and range of ingredients (many of which entered the Turkish language and cuisine through the local Greeks)
Foods like spicy kebabs, pilafs, etc come from other parts of Turkey- mainly the south east central of Turkey – which has more ‘exotic’ food for us Greeks, and is also quite tasty.
While many Greek desserts have a tradition from the Ottoman days or Greek refugees from Turkey, a good amount of our traditional cuisine is just not the same. They don’t eat bread, wine, pastas, greens, sausages, olives, salads, seafood and tomato-sauce dishes quite like we do.
The difference in cuisine from Ezerum/Adana/Urfa versus what you’ll find in Kerasun/Trabzon (in a household, not a restaurant) are going to be very different than what you find in Kalamata or Volos for example.
Overall I’m a fan of Turkish food and been there many times, but to me a lot of it is similar (especially olive oil dishes), yet still quite foreign, so I don’t think it’s any way appropriate for people to call it “the same food” – it really isn’t. Also, Istanbul’s best tavernas or meyhanes used to be Greek owned back in the day 😉
Sorry let’s get some important facts straight.
Why did the greeks develop the musical notation system? or the first
world language, made understandable for everyone, with development of
typography, first astroglobe, to amazing architecture that is used all
over the world? 53.000 words in the world is greek of origin, to even
showers, vending machines, olympic games,first cookbook, catapults,
phychology, anthropology, and much more, And people think that turks
gave greek DOLMA’s? even though greeks have been using wine and grapes
for over 6000 years of recorded history??? Don’t make me laugh.
Wake
up and do your research. There is nothing turkish about many greek
recipes and ingredients. It is in fact the other way around
-Greece is the FIRST wineculture in the world and historical evidences go well beyond 6000 years ago. Where do you get dolma from? from wine leaves. Turks come from mongolia and there is no winegrapes to befound at all. IF somebody stole the wineleaves for dolma, then it’s the turks from the greeks.
-Pizza? Did anyone know that it was the greeks who taught the romans how to cook? and that the first cookbook IN the world was made by the greek “Archestratos” 320b.c. Greek bakers where also hired by romans to teach the romans how to bake, bread and other things. (source wiki)
-Halva? Origin of halva is on the land that is turkey NOW, but before the turks even entered turkey.
The earliest recipie found is rooted in byzantium times in constantinople from 600 AD. Turks entered turkey only 1300 AD (700 years later),
-Who’s the first culture with olive oil? Greeks as well. So how can it be that some claim that greek food is “blabla turkish” while forgetting that practically everything that turks eat, can ONLY be found in mediterranean region and NOT in mongolia. no wine, no grapes, no delicasies. no herbs, no legumes, no mastik, no olive oil and olives.
– Where do you think the names and origins of oregano, basilicum, thyme, koriander and lots more herbs come from? From Greece. You think that turks in mongolia have herbs like these? No. Mongolia is graslands.
My point is. It’s easy to say that turks and italians and other civilisations influenced eachother, but the mother of all influences is greece. French? italians? michelin cooks? turks? the foundation of all these cuisines all lead to greece.
So influences from turkey have been there, but influences from greeks have been amongst all countries.
-But didnt turks enter Turkey 700 years ago?(1300AD)
-And didnt turks come from mongolia 700 years ago?
-And does mongolia have wine? grapes? olives? oilive oil? legumes? pizza? bread? oregano/thyme/koriander/rosema rin? Mastik?
-Then
how can turks claim all these “so-called turkish” recipes stolen by
greeks, when MOST of turkish recipes are based on ingredients that you
can ONLY find in MEDITERANEAN REGION and NOT MONGOLIA.
-Who taught the italians how to make bread and pizza again? Yes the greeks.
-Then where does the first cookbook in the world originate from? from Greece.
Then WHY is greek cuisine
noted as the mother of the mediteranean cuisine? I tell you why.
Because Greece was the FIRST wine culture in the world, and harvested
olive trees, legumes, herbs, wheat etc already 11.000 years ago.
Turkish cuisine originated FROM Greek cuisine.
The only reason why turks CLAIM greek recipes as turkish, is because they tried to destroy greek influences and make it their own.
EXAMPLE: Santa Claus? Turkish braindead people say Santa claus comes from turkey. YES CORRECT.
But
what turks DONT tell you is that santa clause is a greek bischop from
300 AD who lives in the greek city or Myra 1000 years before turks even entered what is now “Turkey”.
I’m Turkish and currently I’m visiting Greece. Beginning with Athens and continues with Santorini and do you know I have exactly the same conclusion tha you. The Turkish food and Greek food are really similaire. My feeling is quiet different, I don’t think so that some one stole something from other. The Ottoman heritage is created with the mix of both culture a Greek culture which help the Turks to adapt the asiatic heritage to local people. I hope one days the Turkish people and Greek people will understanding this point.
Best regards,
Saba
People just don’t know that Greece was a part of Ottoman Empire for more than 100 years and they were adopted to Ottoman Culture and Ottoman food. More than 6 million Greek people lived in Turkey before the big exchange of Turkish and Greek people after World War 1. It pisses me off how Greek people come to the US and present Ottoman Empire’s food and coffee as Greek. Bullshit !!! ???
As a turkish guy who loves to hate Greeks, I think we got foods and many other things from each other. Mostly stolen but not really stolen. Here I go.
The first thing is cacık… or u call it cacıki… come on at least change its name… Whatever. This thing is made with yogurt as a main ingredient… Completely, purely a Turkish food and a Turkish word which is verified by even phlologist. Found even before Ottomans. When we were still in ccentral Asia, neigbouring to China and still didnt kick out u guys from anatolia… Hahaha. Even before we have met with u Greeks u see… So how can u claim cacık to be Greekeven the main ingredient is Turkish…. Funny.
For imam bayıldı… Sorry but eggplant is a signature ingredient for Ottoman couisine and in fact it may be even a hybrid of French and Otto cousine…
Dolma sarması… U dont even change its name and yet again still purely Turkish words… Just like cacık… Come on what s wrong with u. At least change its name.
Gyros… Hahaha… The very first time it s cooked was in Otto lan. This is complete theft. Well at that times, its name was not doner but called İskender… U see same name with Alexander… Not gonna call him great. Hahaha. U were whining about it we were callin it as Alexander… And FYI, the original recipe wasnt made by minced meat.
Lokum, another theft with same Turkish words…
Baklava… It was cooked first time in Philistine which was otto again… So u suck at most of foods. And the list goes on like this.
Well the things we have common are all belong to Ottoman Cousine. But the funny things is there is nothing such as a couisine belong to Turkey… It uses Ottoman couisine just like Greek… Today there is no country such as Otto, we cant say we have a couisine our own so we use Otto couisine such as u. So I cant say we have our very own Turkish couisine, but we have the remnants of Otto couisine, It is a fact that there is no genuine a Greek couisine… The namings are very proof… Just like English has poor vocabulary for foods and have to use original names for foods cause their cuisine are poor and suck…. It s the very same with urs… Hahaha… Namings are quite proof here. Sucks to be you.
hello my friend onur has some things to teach you concerning UI and turkish cuisine he is happy to offer his services for just a small sum of €2,000. smoke?
lol …UI?…yes, sure. Smoke
Interesting article. I was pondering the same on a visit recently to Greece. I guess the main difference is in Muslim culture pork would not generally be on the menu. I do find it amusing that despite the article being about what’s the same or different, humans find a reason to argue!
This cuisine is NOT only Turkisch or Greek. There are many common dishes in a bunch of countries (Southeastern Europe, Northwestern Africa, Middle East). They emphasize the similirity between Greek/Turkish cuisine like they were the only ones