The Food..

The Food..

Yeah..back to the memory lane. Among the biggest shock for me when i came to istanbul was the food. Just compare this:

Malaysia; Breakfast - can be anything from salty things like roti canai (something like ketmer in turkey) to sweet things like pengat or bingkang (pls dont ask me to explain) to heavy breakfast like nasi lemak (rice cooked in cocunut milk) with various types of topping-chicken,octopus,fish..u name it. The drinks? anything from tea to coffee to teh tarik. But my family in Malaysia usually prefer iced milo. (equavalent to nesquick in turkey)

Turkey; breakfast - the basic breakfast would be black/green olives, sliced fresh tomatos and white cheese.BUT ..yeah of course there is a but heheheh...if not there is no point writing a blog isnt it?..where was i? oh yeah...next to the basic breakfast, You may have all other sorts of food to go with the basic breakfast. For example, Turkish breakfast table can have like sooooooooo many types of cheese...kasar peynir,dill peynir,eski kasar,orgu peynir...i have been told that there are at least 130 types (pls correct me if i am wrong) of cheese in turkey.That is just the cheese. You may also find salam (salami),pastirma (pastrami),sucuk and sosis (hot dog) right there on the table. And there are also soooooooo many types of omelette that can be cooked for breakfast. Honey, kaymak (clotted cream) and jam can also be found. DonT ForGET the BREAD..freshly cooked (sometimes still hot) bread cooked using wood (pls note..NOT oven)at the bread shop...is enough to tempt anyone for breakfast... (this is among the many reason i AM FAT as i am)..The drinks? TEa..always Brewed TEA and tea for breakfast.

Malaysia: dinner; The staple food is rice.Rice will always be there for every meal. The rice is cooked in a rice cooker with water. No salt or oil or butter is added. Like the turks would say ..*lapa pilav* Hey!! Malaysians stay healthier that way!! What do we accompany the rice with? hmm..depends on you really..Malaysia is a melting pot country..Malays,Chinese,Indians, the three main racial groups provides an enchantment of various types of cooking. That i didnt mention the sub groups...they too have their own cooking specialty. Ok OK back to topic. At home at least my mom loves to cook masak lemak cili padi (meat or chicken cooked in tumeric and coconut milk),sambal ayam (chicken cooked in blended red chilli sauce),sayur campur (mixed vegetables), curry sometimes...depending on her mood. But the general idea of whatever she cooks is that at least one cooking should be with gravy...i suppose to enhance the taste of the rice. ..very spicy...very hot.At least that is how i remember it.

Turkey: dinner- there are several courses. First course is usually where soup is served.Then the main dish. Usually rice/pasta is served with a hot dish. (rice is cooked with salt and butter/oil). And on the table, there are cold dishes like dolma (stuffed rice in for example vine leaves),zeytinyagli (vegetables cooked in olive oil),salad..etc..etc...all the cold dishes.. And yes!! the bread is always on the table since it is the staple food of turkey.The last course is the dessert. The famous ones among many are baklava,revani, keskul,and tulumba. I am explaining as simple as i can of the differences..but trust me my biggest shock was the change from a life of hot and spicy..chilli all around to all TOMATOES!!! It was the biggest adjustment of my life. I remember in the early days, at one point i came home and VOMiTTED because i felt that i had enough of food with tomatoes..i mean..at every meal there was definitely tomato in at least a dish.... i was saying to myself..*enoughhhhhhhhhhhhh....help me..no more tomatoessssssss* it is true though. tomatoes and turkish food go hand in hand. Now i am used to t0 it now..and every week i always ask mistik to buy me (depending on the price) 2 or 3 kilograms of tomatoes from pazar...tomatoes i cannot do without now...and chillies? Yes. I do yearn for it but my capability to eat too hot chilli is long lost. poor me...