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SEAFOOD
Four seas (The Black Sea, The Sea of Marmara, The Aegean, and The
Mediterranean) surround the Turkish landscape.
Residents of the coastal are experts in preparing fish. However, the
best of the day’s catch is immediately transported to Ankara,where
some of the finest fish restaurants are located. Winter is the
premium season for eating fish. That is the time when many species
of fish migrate from the Black Sea to warmer waters and when most
fish reach their mature size. So, the lack of summer vegetables is
compensated by the abundance of fish at this time. Every month has
its own preferred catch, along with certain vegetables which
complement the taste. For example, the best bonito is eaten with
garlic and red onions, blue fish with lettuce, and turbot with cos
lettuce. Large bonito may be poached with celery root. Mackerel is
stuffed with chopped onion before grilling, and summer fish, which
are younger and drier, will be poached with tomatoes and green
peppers, or fried. Bay leaves always accompany both poached and
grilled fish.
Grilling fis over charcoal, where the fish juices hit the embers and
envelope the fish with the smoke, is perhaps the most delicious way
of eating mature fish, since this method brings out the delicate
flavor. This is also why the grilled fish sold by vendors right on
their boats is so tasty.
“Hamsi” is the prince of all fish known to Turks: The Black Sea
people know forty-one ways of making hamsi including hamsi börek,
hamsi pilaf and hamsi dessert!
Another common seafood is the mussel, eaten deep-fried, poached, or
as a mussel dolma and mussel pilaf. Along the Aegean, octopus and
squid are added to the meze spread.
The places to taste fish are fish restaurants and taverns. Not all
taverns are fish restaurants, but most fish restaurants are taverns
and these are usually found on the harbors overlooking the sea. The
Bosphorus is famous for its fisherman’s taverns, large and small,
from Rumeli Kavağı to Kumkapı. The modest ones are small with wooden
tables and rickety wooden chairs, nevertheless they offer delicious
grilled fish. Then there are the eleborate, fashionable ones in
Tarabya and Bebek. Fish restaurants always have an open-air setion
right by the sea. The waiters run back and forth between the
kitchen, perhaps located in the restaurants across the street, and
the tables on the seaside. After being seated, it is customary to
visit the kitchen or the display to pick your fish and discuss the
way you want it to be prepared. The price of the fish is also
disclosed at this time. Then you swing by the meze display and order
the ones you want. So the evening begins, sipping rakı in between
sampling of meze, watching the sunset, and slowly setting the pace
for conversation that will continue for hours into the night.
Drinking is never a hurried, loud, boisterous, or lonely affair. It
is a communal, gently festive and cultured way of entertainment. In
these fish restaurants, a couple of families may spend an evening
with their children running around the restaurant after they are
fed, while the teenagers sit at the table patiently listening to the
conversation and occasionally participating, when the topic is
soccer or rock music. |
