Post by yenilira on Jan 24, 2012 0:52:35 GMT 1
...is more than just a starter......
A Meze is an integral part of the Turkish dining experience, and it could be said that it is many peoples' favourite part of a meal, and it's also difficult to describe.
There's no equivalent in British cuisine and therefore no literal translation in the English language.
As a result, on English menus throughout Turkey, the wonders that are meze dishes are grouped under the simple titles “Cold Starters” and “Hot Starters”.
This does it an injustice because the Meze is much more than that.
Eating meze is a social activity. It's chatting with friends around the table for hours on end, and helping yourself to the occasional spoonful of Antep Ezmesi, aubergine salad or spicy pickled beetroot, tearing off chunks of fresh Turkish bread and dipping it into the pickled or olive oil dressings.
It's drinking Raki together, sharing meze to complement the aniseed flavours of the raki.
It's going out to listen to live Saz music, nibbling, dipping, savouring.
It's an experience.
You may find it impossible to go to a Turkish restaurant without looking at the variety of dishes in the long glass fridges – don't bother with the menu – go to the fridges.
Sometimes you're tempted by too many choices and skip the main meal altogether, preferring instead to have a feast of meze plates laid on your table: and why not?
It's so easy to just keep pointing 'We'll have some of that, one of that, ...oh go on then, some of that too.
What's that one? What is that? A bit of that, then. Right, how many have we got? OK, shall we have one more?'
And what can you have? The choice is so wide-ranging and appetising-looking, it is easy to lose track of how many you've picked: spicy pickled beetroot, Haydari (minted garlic Turkish yoghurt), and the old favourite Antep Ezmesi, (a spicy tomato salad) with which no Meze is complete without.
Somehow over the evening you can get through a meze, with two, three baskets of bread, Lamb Tandir, and a barbecue of Köfte (meatballs) and Lamb Pirzola (cutlets).
There is also Geren (samphire in spicy, garlic yoghurt, baby sardines in garlic, lemon and olive oil preserve,
Piyaz (bean salad), Beyaz peynir (white cheese), Kavun (sliced ripe melon), Acýlý Ezme (hot pepper paste often with walnuts), Patlýcan Salatasý (cold aubergine salad), Kalamar (calamari or squid), Enginar (artichokes), Caçik(yoghurt with cucumber and garlic), Pilaki (various foods cooked in a special sauce), Dolma or Sarma (rice-stuffed vine leaves or other stuffed vegetables, such as bell peppers), and Yaprak Dolmasi or Stuffed Grape Leaves, Humus, ColdStuffed Green Peppers (Biber Dolmasi), and Lamacun, the Turkish 'Pizza'.
and this is just a small portion of the myriad of dishes one can have in a Meze.
The choice is yours - Afiyet Olsun!
A Meze is an integral part of the Turkish dining experience, and it could be said that it is many peoples' favourite part of a meal, and it's also difficult to describe.
There's no equivalent in British cuisine and therefore no literal translation in the English language.
As a result, on English menus throughout Turkey, the wonders that are meze dishes are grouped under the simple titles “Cold Starters” and “Hot Starters”.
This does it an injustice because the Meze is much more than that.
Eating meze is a social activity. It's chatting with friends around the table for hours on end, and helping yourself to the occasional spoonful of Antep Ezmesi, aubergine salad or spicy pickled beetroot, tearing off chunks of fresh Turkish bread and dipping it into the pickled or olive oil dressings.
It's drinking Raki together, sharing meze to complement the aniseed flavours of the raki.
It's going out to listen to live Saz music, nibbling, dipping, savouring.
It's an experience.
You may find it impossible to go to a Turkish restaurant without looking at the variety of dishes in the long glass fridges – don't bother with the menu – go to the fridges.
Sometimes you're tempted by too many choices and skip the main meal altogether, preferring instead to have a feast of meze plates laid on your table: and why not?
It's so easy to just keep pointing 'We'll have some of that, one of that, ...oh go on then, some of that too.
What's that one? What is that? A bit of that, then. Right, how many have we got? OK, shall we have one more?'
And what can you have? The choice is so wide-ranging and appetising-looking, it is easy to lose track of how many you've picked: spicy pickled beetroot, Haydari (minted garlic Turkish yoghurt), and the old favourite Antep Ezmesi, (a spicy tomato salad) with which no Meze is complete without.
Somehow over the evening you can get through a meze, with two, three baskets of bread, Lamb Tandir, and a barbecue of Köfte (meatballs) and Lamb Pirzola (cutlets).
There is also Geren (samphire in spicy, garlic yoghurt, baby sardines in garlic, lemon and olive oil preserve,
Piyaz (bean salad), Beyaz peynir (white cheese), Kavun (sliced ripe melon), Acýlý Ezme (hot pepper paste often with walnuts), Patlýcan Salatasý (cold aubergine salad), Kalamar (calamari or squid), Enginar (artichokes), Caçik(yoghurt with cucumber and garlic), Pilaki (various foods cooked in a special sauce), Dolma or Sarma (rice-stuffed vine leaves or other stuffed vegetables, such as bell peppers), and Yaprak Dolmasi or Stuffed Grape Leaves, Humus, ColdStuffed Green Peppers (Biber Dolmasi), and Lamacun, the Turkish 'Pizza'.
and this is just a small portion of the myriad of dishes one can have in a Meze.
The choice is yours - Afiyet Olsun!