Eurasia Mega Tour 2026 - Türkiye Foodie Post #1

 Well it's time to see what the Eldership away team has been eating while they've been in Mahmutlar.

 First Meal

The first full day after we arrived, we were pretty beat but we wanted to take a walk and went to our first Doner Kebab place which I posted about here. 

 Our first real restaurant, was just across the street from us. It had good ratings and an eclectic menu such as you often find in tourist destinations. But there were a number of Turkish specialties. As is often the case when we are new some place and we are both hungry and curious, we over ordered.

A mezze plate (appetizers) came as part of the meal

 

 We ordered a salad and a shrimp cocktail as starters. We were a bit worried about the salad given our last big experience in Türkiye in 2018 on the West Coast, we nearly had an international incident when Wife revolted after having every single salad she ordered massively covered in tomatoes (Wife does not like tomatoes).

However, the salad was greens, cucumbers, red bell pepper, and some (not many) cut very finely. They were dressed with oil and lemon juice. There was also some herbs that were quite distinct. We both enjoyed it (though I somehow didn't get a picture of it).

I also had a shrimp cocktail

 

The shrimp were sweet and they were covered in the sauce like it was a glaze. It was on the same salad.

For our mains, we had two versions of braised lamb. One came in more sauce with cheese, the other was drier. 

And here was the accompaniments for the first dish

 

 There was enough food that we took the leftovers home and had another meal

As it is often when we have long stays, we are cooking for ourself a lot. With all the markets at our fingertips, that is quite easy.

Here I've made Wife a traditional Turkish breakfast of fresh corn-on-the-cob

 

 (Actually, we'd been to a street market, bought corn, and decided to just cook it up then as we hadn't really eaten yet)

While at the market we saw a few vendors making Gõzleme, a thin, unleavened pancake with a variety of fillings. We got one with herbs and cheese.

 

 The vendor wouldn't let us pay for it!

 

It was big enough to give both Wife and I full portions. 

Wife enjoying cucumbers in the #3 style (minus butter spray)

 

Wife had a hankering for Pide, a kind of stuffed dough. So we went to a place specializing in that

 She ordered a variety of fillings

 

 I wanted Lamachun (sometimes called Turkish Pizza), the thin flat bread again with a tomato and meat layer

 

 We had this with salad, which was the same as last time so it must be the way it is in this region. You will notice there are a bunch of lemons to the left, and a plate of herbs to the right. The waiter told us you tore a piece off, squeezed lemon on it, put herbs in it, then folded and ate. Different. Tasty. They really like the herbs in this part of Türkiye

 

 The meal came with Çay at the end

 

 Our last meal out so far was to another kebap place but one that feature Iskander Kebap. Wife wanted to try it. It has the kebap meat on a bed of bread with a spicy tomato sauce on it and a yogurt sauce. Here is a picture of just the meat since I forgot to photo the whole plate before eating. Wife kind of forgot that she HATES soggy bread, like the layer of bread, and doesn't like yogurt (the yogurt was a big blob to the side, not a sauce). So we ended up changing plates. It came with what we now recognize as the familiar salad and pickles. I had a big glass of Ayran, a sour, salty yogurt drink (which I would not have ordered if I had know I was getting the yogurt with the meal.

So there is the status of Mahmutlar gastronomy through our week and a half