Arguably one of Turkey's most well-known street snacks is simit. Think crunchy sesame bagel. Meh. But I will choose it any day over the tavuk göğsü—chicken and milk pudding! This pudding was apparently one of the most famous delicacies served to the sultans in the Topkapı Palace, and is considered a 'signature' dish of Turkey. Blech! And don't get me started about their drink of choice: Ayran. It's a mix of yogurt and water and salt. Similar to buttermilk, and downright awful IMHO.
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| Simit = fast food bread. (And often eaten as a breakfast food with jam or yogurt.) |
As Americans, we can purchase all sorts of food stuffs from shops and kiosks at our local malls. Pretzels, ice cream, candy. Here, you can get most of that as well—plus corn. Yep, cups of golden niblets to snack on while you're walking around shopping! Topping choices range from Mexican chili to curry, sour cream and onion to BBQ, lemon to tom yom. Weird, right?!
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| Magic corn. With your choice of random toppings. |
On the streets, instead of NYC-style dirt water dogs, you can buy ears of roasted corn. Good ol' maize is definitely a popular snack food in Turkey. I will say it's unfortunate then that their love of corn doesn't translate into good movie-going buckets of popcorn. Instead, their cinema 'corns are dry-as-a-bone airpopped with no 'fake butter' dispenser in sight. Very disappointing.
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| Roasted corn on İstiklâl Caddesi. |
They're also big on baked potato kiosks. And waffle kiosks. (Both with strange-to-us topping choices.) All of this food shock makes me long for a simple Auntie Anne's buttery pretzel and large lemonade! xx
p.s. It was pointed out that I didn't mention the apparently delicious roasted chestnuts. That's because I haven't eaten them. But I can report that chestnut ice cream doesn't come close to being as tasty as the pistachio!
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