Essentials

We called this book Anatolia because that word best conveys the history and diversity of a land that only started using the term Türkiye (Land of the Turks) in the eleventh century, and only became the Turkish Republic in 1923. The word Anatolia is used to show that our book includes the delicious Arab, Armenian, Assyrian, Balkan, Greek, Jewish, Kurdish and Romany contributions to the way Turks eat.

Turkish people have a passion for eating well. While they’re enjoying breakfast, they’re planning dinner. They cook a lot at home, but everyone has a favourite kebap shop, a favourite lunch lokanta, a favourite source of baklava, and a favourite street stall for sobering up with stuffed intestines after a long night drinking rakı in a meyhane. There is no time of day when you can’t get interesting food, so instead of dividing this book into conventional chapters such as starters, mains, desserts and party food, we’ve arranged the chapters in the form of a typical Turkish eating day.