Learn Türkiye before you go

10 phrases to learn

In Turkish. Capital letters show the stressed part. Tap the heart to practise a phrase later.

At the table

• If you are invited to a Turkish home, bring a small gift such as flowers or sweets. Avoid wine unless you know your hosts drink, as many Turks do not drink alcohol.
• Tea is offered everywhere: at home, in offices and even while you bargain in the bazaar. It is served in small tulip-shaped glasses, and accepting one is polite.
• People say 'afiyet olsun', may it be good for you, to anyone who is eating, much like 'enjoy your meal'.
• Take off your shoes just outside or inside the door when you enter a Turkish home, unless your hosts tell you to keep them on.
• Blowing your nose or picking your teeth at the table is considered very rude; step away from the table instead.
• Older people are served first and treated with great respect. During Ramadan, families and neighbours break the fast together at sunset with a meal called iftar.

Local tips

Dishes to try

• Meze: A spread of small dishes to share at the start of a meal: white cheese, melon, yoghurt with garlic and cucumber (cacık), smoky aubergine purée, stuffed vine leaves, spicy tomato dip, and vegetables cooked in olive oil. In a meyhane, a traditional tavern, meze can last all evening.
• Red lentil soup (Mercimek çorbası): A smooth, golden soup of red lentils, onion and carrot, finished with butter and red pepper and served with a wedge of lemon. It is found in almost every Turkish home and in simple restaurants called lokanta, and some people even eat it for breakfast.
• Menemen: Eggs scrambled into a soft mixture of tomatoes, green peppers and olive oil, cooked and served in a small two-handled pan with plenty of bread for dipping. It is a favourite breakfast, and some cooks add sucuk, a spicy sausage, or white cheese.
• Simit: A ring of bread dipped in water and molasses and covered in sesame seeds, then baked until crisp and golden outside and soft inside. Street sellers carry piles of simit on trays on their heads or sell them from trolleys, and many people eat one with tea and white cheese for breakfast.
• Pide: Flatbread baked at a high heat, traditionally in a wood-fired oven, usually long, with the edges folded in around a filling of minced meat, cheese, egg or sucuk sausage. The Black Sea version, Karadeniz pidesi, is famous all over the country. The person who makes it is a pideci.
• Lahmacun: A very thin round of dough spread with minced meat, onion, tomato, pepper and herbs, baked in a very hot oven for a few minutes. It has no cheese. You squeeze lemon over it, add parsley and onion, roll it up and eat it with your hands.
• Adana kebab (Adana kebabı): Lamb minced by hand with tail fat and red pepper, pressed onto a wide flat iron skewer and grilled over charcoal. It is served with flatbread, grilled tomatoes and peppers, and onions with sumac. Kebabs vary greatly from region to region, and many cities are proud of their own.
• İskender kebab (İskender kebap): Thin slices of meat grilled on a vertical spit, laid over pieces of flatbread, covered with hot tomato sauce and sizzling melted butter, and served with thick yoghurt on the side.

Cities to see

• Istanbul: Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, The Grand Bazaar.
• Ankara (capital): Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum, The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara Castle.
• İzmir: The Kordon seafront promenade, The Kemeraltı bazaar, The clock tower on Konak Square.
• Bursa: İskender kebab, The Green Mosque and Green Tomb, Skiing on Mount Uludağ.
• Antalya: The old town of Kaleiçi, Hadrian's Gate, Beaches and resorts.
• Konya: The Mevlâna Museum, Whirling dervish ceremonies, Seljuk mosques and schools.

Landmarks and the city map are on the Türkiye trip