Turkey

Antalya.

Coffee: The Suddcoffee chain, Cozy Coffee House, Schiller Kaffeerösterei. Schiller also has a delicious caramel cheesecake and a good pizza.

Sushi – Kokoyaki Sushi. Little rice, lots of fish, everything is fresh. Here I liked sushi more than any other Antalya sushi.

Rokka-cafe with pizza, falafel and sandwiches. I highly recommend hummus with walnuts and babaganush here.

Şehr-i Künefe is a cafe specializing in the Turkish sweet knafe (pictured). It’s something like baklava, only with melted goat cheese or cottage cheese. A calorie bomb, but very tasty! I recommend taking half or a quarter of the standard dose of syrup.

Çağlarsoy, Macrocenter – nice supermarket chains of premium class, with a diverse assortment. The prices are almost the same as in all other stores.

By the way, there is a Macro center not only in Antalya, but also in many other cities of Turkey.

Marmaris.

Dr. Gelato-well, very tasty ice cream. Pistachio, sesame, chocolate and cherry with chocolate-mast!

Other cities.

Konak is a chain of establishments with ice cream and organic healthy food products. Some places also offer pastries and bread. They are located in different cities of Turkey, you can see the entire list here.

LÉONE Patisserie & Boulangerie is a chain of French bakeries with desserts. It’s definitely a piece of France in Turkey. I’m absolutely thrilled!

What products to buy in Turkey

Each country has some unique interesting products or dishes that are definitely worth trying. Below I will give a list of products that I really liked in terms of composition and taste. Just make a reservation that there are much more specialties in Turkey, just not everything is to my taste;) And some of them I haven’t had a chance to try yet.

So, what do I recommend to buy in stores in Turkey:

1. Nut / seed pastes. I choose those that contain only a nut, or massimum, with a little salt added. Nothing else.

FitNut Fıstık Ezmesi (I bought it with an orange and blue lid).

It’s peanut butter. Orange-smooth, blue-with pieces of nuts.

Ladin Organics.

A variety of nut pastes with an ideal composition.

Koska.

A very popular and large company in Turkey. Even when I was in Moscow on Ozon, I ordered their tahini, pekmez and the most delicious is a mix of tahini and pekmez.

Pekmez is the condensed juice of berries/fruits. In this case, no added sugar. It should be without added sugar, but many manufacturers sin.

And this is a super healthy nutella in Turkish. Tahini+hazelnut paste+pekmez = very tasty!

2. Young brine cheese (from cow’s, goat’s, sheep’s milk or their mix).

I liked these:

Tahsildaroğlu Ezine Peyniri (this is goat, very tasty) Altınkılıç Ezine Tam Yağlı Inek Peyniri (this is cow, also good) Doğruluk Truva Ezine Koyun Peyniri (mmm, sheep)

There was another very delicious cheese, but I forgot to take a picture of it, and I didn’t remember the name by heart. It was sold in the store A101, in a package with a black design, and it was written something like VIP or elite))

3. Thick Greek type yogurt.

Yörükoğlu Süzme Yoğurt

4. Tea! In Turkey, just awesome black tea. Not all of it, of course, but overall the quality is super. When I first tried it, I realized that I had already forgotten what a regular black tea should taste like…

I liked Doğuş Filiz Çayı the most

5. Pomegranate sauce (condensed pomegranate juice, should be without sugar!)

is good – Fersan %100 Nar Ekşisi. This brand of apple cider vinegar is still super!

6. Hummus Tat Humus

Probably, this is the only ready-made hummus, which does not contain any preservatives and incomprehensible additives. Even lemon juice, as it should be, and not citric acid, as it is usually put. 7. Sarı Leblebi-chickpea crunches.

A very cool non-harmful snack, it is made by many different companies. It happens without additives and with salt. You can take any manufacturer, I did not notice the difference.

8. Cantire Organik Yulaf Ezmesi

Delicious long-cooked oatmeal.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that I specify both the brand and the variety of a particular product, plus I attach a photo so that you do not make a mistake and buy exactly what I mean;)

Grilled corn in Istanbul

Istanbul fast food is very common, but in a distinctive Turkish flavour. This and the fish sandwiches near the Galata bridge, and mussels with rice at every step, Shawarma, pastries, roasted chestnuts and other national dishes. But I most of all this diversity, like sweet corn on the grill. Just corn and fire. No butter for you, no additives. Even salt is not needed, so delicious!

Pomegranate juice and other fresh juices in Turkey

I highly recommend to enjoy fresh juices and aromatic ripe fruit and vegetables in Istanbul. The only negative – juice shops don’t accept cards, but it is in principle nonsense.

PS Another delicious pomegranate juice I drank in Israel;)

Tadında Anadolu, Istanbul, Turkey

Very good food court in the airport of Istanbul. The space is divided into zones: kebabs and other meat dishes, fusion cooking with local cuisine, dishes from the oven, sweets and drinks. You can take in each place what you like, sit down and comfortably wait for their flight (there is a scoreboard to monitor the flight). And the food is delicious, by the way.

This place on Foursquare: Tadında Anadolu

Hafız Mustafa, Istanbul, Turkey

Another absolute Turkish must try!

In general, I am against sugar and rarely eat it (mainly for the sake of tasting desserts in restaurants), but these oriental sweets with fresh fragrant nuts, drowning in honey syrup, turned off my consciousness.

By the way, they pack their products very coolly for easy transportation.

If you love baklava, you definitely need this store;)

One of the chain stores on Foursquare: Hafız Mustafa