SALADS

Turkish cuisine has a large variety across the country.

The cooking of the Aegean region inherits many elements of Ottoman cuisine and Greek, as well. In the western parts of Turkey olive trees grow abundantly so olive oil is the major type of oil used for cooking. The cuisines of the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean regions are rich in vegetables, herbs, and fish  Seafood is generally preferred to meat in these areas.

The cuisine of the Black Sea Region mainly uses fish, especially the Black Sea anchovy (hamsi) because the Black Sea was influenced by Balkan and Slavic cuisine.

The cuisine of the southeast part of Turkey is very famous for its kebabs, appetizers and dough-based desserts such as baklava  and künefe (kanafeh). A specialty's name sometimes includes that of a city or region in Turkey and, may refer to the specific technique or ingredients used in that area. For example, the difference between "urfa kebab" and "adana kebab" is the thickness of the skewer and the amount of hot pepper that kebab contains. "Urfa kebab" is less spicy and thicker than "Adana kebab".

Central Anatolia is famous with their traditional and special food called as keşkek (kashkak),  mantı (especially from Kayseri) and gözleme.

The salads, pickles, appetizers, cacık, and some greens do not only add variety to the main dishes but they are also complimentary to them. The vegetables, spices and green salads or tomato salad are eaten along with  meat dishes because it is thought that they will help the digestion of the body for balancing the heaviness of meat in the main course.

Some of these dishes rarely appear as main dishes in Turkish culture so it is eaten with bread if there is no main course served with the salad. This is a cultural habit coming from the war years which people had suffered a lot of famine in the first world war and the second world war. The people were consuming a lot of bread with any kind of food because they could only find bread but not enough meat or vegetables. Bread was the only food compliment for a long time and it came all the way to the present time.

Although the various appetizers, salads and pickles take place in the neighbours' cuisines their flavors in Turkish cuisine are different from most of them. For example there is a large variety of regional styles of pickles in Turkey because of their preserving styles or ingredients put inside. For example some of the preserved pickles have salt and water in them and the others have vinegar and some water in them. They are not sweet like European pickles. The pickles in Turkey taste salty and sour a bit.  The vegetables placed in the jars to make pickles have vary from region to region but the most common vegetables used are baby cucumbers, carrots, red or green tomatoes, hot green peppers and cabbage. Pickles are the main side dish for especially, the traditional white bean and rice pilaf.

There are a large variety of salads in Turkish cuisine such as, mixed green salad, tomato salad called 'shepperd's salad', potato salad, purslane salad, eggplant salad and so on.

In addition to a large number of salads, there are special ones eaten specially for some food such as  "piyaz". This salad is made of white beans, onions and tomatoes. The white bean salad called is a traditional one and eaten specially with meatballs. I do not know why but it goes well with the meatballs.   The other special one called "ezme" which tastes like salsa is classifed in the salad group and it comes from the southeast of Turkey. It has a lot of hot spices and peppers in it but it tastes so good. It is the typical salad or appetizer for the tables which is set for eating and drinking "Turkish rakı".

After eating so many different types of salads in Turkey I felt a bit difficult to find a nice hand made salad in the restaurants or at the dinners of my friends which I was invited. In America the packaged greens are placed in a bowl and are flavoured by different types of dressings sold in the sotres but I could not enjoy eating them. Whenever I needed to eat out I try not to eat salad because I know that they come right from the packet in from of me and with my choice of the dressing.

I generally make my own salads. I am willing to spend more time to make a tasty and delicious salad because I appreciate all the different tones of greens and other vegetables I put inside my salad. While eating my mixed salad I am amazed at God's greatness for creating so many colourful vegetables for us. My contribution to this amazing beauty of colours is biringing them together in a bowl with my own hands and enjoy them as much as I can while making my salad from them and enjoying to eat it.

May you all have colourful lives full of different and joyful experiences like in the mixed salad!