There is a fine food and cuisine culture in Turkey, going back to the hundreds of years to the royal Turkish kitchens. Dinners with family and close friends are special and it’s considered very poor thing for individual family members to fix themselves a food meal separate from the rest of the family.
Turkish mezze platters are perfect for social gatherings & are basically designed to promote talking through their casual, and shared eating. Mezze is a low quantity served at the start of a meal. They are usually cold & the emphasis is on fresh, healthy food ingredients. Also, mezze are usually vegetarian! Turkey has a rich heritage & rich traditions around liquor.
Your mezze platter should be accompanied by wine, an anise-flavored liquor called as “lion’s milk”. It’s usual to dilute raki by adding little water to it, upon which it will turn into cloudy form. Most Turkish people choose raki as their accompaniment rather than that of wine.
Types of Turkish Mezze Platters
There are many varieties of mezze to choose from. Generally, there will be vegetable-based dips, some marinated vegetables, salads & breads. It is all very social with the food plates being placed in the center of the table for guests to help themselves.
Turkish Mezze platters are a great way to start any meal & healthy to boot! Today’s Turkish mezze platter menu has 5 mezzes to select from and it is a lovely contrast of rich tastes and colors.
It’s also quite authentic – most of the food and cuisine recipes came directly from common people of Turkey. In Turkey, meze platter consist of beyaz peynir (which is “white cheese”), kavun (that is sliced ripe melon), patlıcan salatası (which is cold eggplant salad), beyin salatası (that is brain salad),
midye dolma and midye tava (stuffed or fried mussels), enginar (which is artichokes), cacık (yogurt with cucumber & garlic), dolma or sarma (that is rice-stuffed vine leaves or other stuffed vegetables, like bell peppers), octopus salad, & çiğ köfte (raw meatballs with the delicious bulgur).
Best Turkish Mezze Platters
The best quality mezze in Turkey is freshly made and showcases the fabulous seasonal produce available in the country. Turkish meze platters makes an impressive & healthy lunch or appetizer, it’s also extremely light to keep the bikini-body in check & appeals to vegans, vegetarians & meat-lovers alike – Turkish mezze platter is certainly a “must-try” food in Turkey!
Some types of Turkish mezzes are based on pure vegetables with lots of herbs & olive oil, while some are based on yoghurt, and some on meat, and there are also seafood mezzes as well.
Some typical mezes platter that you can encounter in a Turkish meal are white cheese and melon, goat cheese & butter and flat bread, Hummus, Saksuka (fried eggplant cubes with yogurt & tomato sauce),
asparagus, with small kofte (meatballs), Haydari (which is a thick yogurt with dill & garlic), carrots with yogurt, and lamb brain salad, fresh Cacik with chopped cucumber & yogurt. Also, Tarama (fish roe dip), Kisir (bulgur wheat salad, small Lahmacun, Muhammara which is a (red pepper walnut dip), Borek pastry,
pickles, Russian salad, marinated sweet red peppers, fava beans puree, artichoke in olive oil, pickled red cabbage, lentil pate, grilled octopus, stuffed, pickled sardines, fish meatballs, & many more.
