Turkish Food
Istanbul - and Turkey in general - is a good destination for tasty, inexpensive food. Turkey's place on the spice route and the heart of a former great empire means that its food culture encompasses a wide range of eclectic influences. In times past there was a tradition of intricate court cooking to match anything in France - although these days the visitor will be more likely to encounter earthier fare. In general the food is fully flavoured, with good use of spices and garlic - although usually not too fiery. While some dishes put meat to the fore, vegetarians should have little problem in obtaining a varied diet by grazing on the many cheese and vegetable dishes on offer. Turkey also shares the mezzes tradition found elsewhere in the rest of the Middle East, of meals made up of multiple small dishes. Many 'starter-sized' traditional dishes are available. Some things to look out for include:
Breads and Cakes. A wide variety of delicious baked goods are on offer. One of these is pide, a large flat bread, cooked to order and available with various toppings. Yumurtali pide (eggs) and paynirli pide (cheese) are both popular breakfast dishes. A popular Turkish snack is simit, a pretzel-like loaf and tahinipitta - like a Chelsea Bun, only with sesame paste - is a particularly delicious sweet treat. Many gooey, nut-filled variations on baklava are found, as are all manner of custardy confections.
Kebabs and Grilled Meat. These are not limited to the doner that we all know and love. It is a generic term for all manner of grilled meat, sometimes whole, sometimes minced. Not all are served with bread. For the carnivorous, no visit would be complete without thorough investigation of the Kebabci (kebab restaurant). Look out also for Izgara which is mixed, grilled meat.
Börek (small pies) are often served as mezzes or snack food. They come in all shapes and sizes, deep-fried or baked and with fillings of cheese, vegetables, meat or fish.
Vegetable dishes abound. Many tasty cooked dishes and salads can be found. The Turks have a thousand uses for aubergines (patlican); the most famous is Imam Bayildi a grilled aubergine stuffed with rice, tomatoes and various other vegetables and seasonings, served cold. Its name means 'the Imam fainted' - it was so delicious that he swooned with pleasure. The generic term for stuffed vegetables (eg peppers tomatoes, cabbage, vine leaves) is dolma (simply 'stuffed'

6.
Soups and Stews - Many delicious soups and stews are available. Their generic name is çorba. Common varieties incorporate lentils, rice, burghul wheat or noodles and yoghurt. A popular tradition is Piyale Iskembe Çorbasi - a hearty tripe stew, traditionally eaten at going home time in the early hours following a night on the tiles.
Fish - Istanbulites are fond of good quality, fresh fish. The many high-quality, inexpensive restaurants along the Bosphorus are a city institution. Here freshly-caught mackerel, sardines, bonito and many more can be purchased by weight and eaten grilled over charcoal. Stuffed mussels also feature as mezze.
Alcohol - Although most Turks are Muslim, alcohol is widely consumed. Two good brands of beer are made, Efes Pilsen and Tüborg (brewed under licence from Denmark), and Turkish wine is surprisingly decent. The liquorice-flavoured spirit raki is not for the fainthearted. It is drunk with water which turns it a cloudy white, hence its nickname aslan sutlusu - lion's milk. Many Turks are teetotal, however. It is a salutary experience to find oneself watching football in a Turkish cafe and realise that everyone else is drinking orange juice.
Non-alcoholic drinks - if you are not in the mood for alcohol, there are plenty of non-alcoholic alternatives. Thick, strong Turkish coffee (kahve) served in small cups is famous. It is traditionally served in coffee-houses which remain a male preserve - although in modern, cosmopolitan Istanbul there are many cafes where the sexes mingle freely. Tea (çai) is also consumed at every opportunity, served without milk in small glasses. Apple tea and other fruit flavours are also very popular - but note that these are sweet, artificially-flavoured concoctions. Herb teas, on the other hand, such as sage (ada çai) are delicious. Turks are extremely sociable and will automatically offer visitors tea - a delightful custom. If you are offered tea or coffee in a cafe, it is polite to ask for tea as coffee is more expensive (not that the sociable Turks will think any less of you). Another interesting drink to try is salep - a hot drink made from the dried, ground roots of a type of orchid. For a refreshing and delicious alternative, try ayran - a savoury yoghurt drink.
The Turkish Language
Turkish is a relatively easy language to learn. The alphabet is familiar to English speakers, if the pronunciation is not; and the speech is lilted and melodic, a pleasure to hear.
The best thing about learning Turkish is the lack of gender in the language - so the nightmare of learning the der, die, das of German is avoided. There are, however, eight vowels: a, e, i, i without the dot (pronounced 'uh'

, o, ö (pronounced 'errr'

, u and ü (pronounced like the French 'u'

7. There are some variations to the consonants also: in addition to the familiar 's', the Turks have an 's' with a cedilla, pronounced 'sh'. The plain 'c' is pronounced like a 'j' while the ç (with a cedilla) is pronounced like the 'ch' in the English word 'church'.
A taster of useful Turkish words:
guzel (guzelle) - nice, lovely, sweet/tasty. (often accompanied by a dish of something tasty waved under your nose or a drool, making you feel rather under-dressed).
merhaba (mare hubba) - hello
nasilsiniz (narsill sin is) - how do you do
iyiyi, tesekkur ederim, ya siz? (Eeeeh, teshekkurr eh derim, ya sez?) - very well thank you, and you?
evet (evet) - yes
hayir (higher) - no
otur (otoor) - sit
bilmiyorum (bill me *your* room) - I don't know
gel, or gelmek (with a hard g) - come
simdi (shimdy) - now
haydi! (high - dee) - come along!
dikkat! (dikk cat) - watch out!
imdat! (im dat) - help!
yavas (yavash) - slow down, or slowly, take it easy
insallah (inshallah) - God willing, please God, I hope.
lütfen (lutfen) - please
tesekkur ederim (teshekkurr ederim) - thank you
pardon (parrdonn) - sorry
elinize saglik (eller knees eh sarg look) - Bless your hands (to the person who has prepared your food)
tuvalet (too va let) - toilet
Anlamiyorum (ann la mee your room) - I don't understand
Allaha ismarladik (Alla smar laduk) - goodbye (said by the person departing)
güle güle (guleh guleh) - goodbye (response by the person staying)
and the most useful phrase may well be:
Ingilizce konusur musunuz? (engeliz che cone oosoor moose oonooz?) do you speak English?
Other Things Turkish
Turkish Baths
At one of these traditional establishments, known as a hamam, you will find bathing, sweat rooms, abrasive scrubbing and massages at a reasonable price. The most famous hamams are probably Çemberlitas Hamami and Cagaloglu Hamami. Many luxury hotels also have a hamam. Many of the best hamams are hundreds of years old. Visitors are expected to strip completely, and then cover themselves with the provided cloth wrap known as a pestamal. This is a great way of passing an hour and ridding yourself of the grime of a hard day's bazaar shopping! But be warned that some of the masseurs can be a trifle vigorous, so be sure to ask them to go easy.
Turkish Delight
This gooey sweetmeat is not to everyone's taste, being intensely sweet, but the stuff you get in Turkey is far better than imitations in other countries. Known locally as lokum, it comes in all sorts of different flavours, the most common being rosewater. Some lokum have pieces of nut such as pistachio added. You'll find Turkish Delight on sale everywhere, but Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir's shop in Eminonu has been selling it for more than 230 years.
Turkish Carpets
Turkish carpets have been famous for centuries, and you can still buy them in Istanbul. Carpets seem to have originated in Central Asia in the Altai region. As the Turks migrated westward, they brought carpet-making with them, and the craft first came to Europe and the western world through Turkey. The highest quality Hereke carpets can have up to 60 knots per centimetre if made from wool, or up to 100 per centimetre if made from silk.
Turkish Prisons
On a more sobering note, Turkish prisons have a bad reputation. Anyone who has seen the 1978 film Midnight Express will know about the inhuman treatment prisoners receive. Admittedly the man in question was a heroin trafficker, and his treatment might be considered a Hollywood fiction. On the other hand, it is true that Turkey's application to join the European Union was turned down, and one of the reasons was its poor track record on human rights. So be careful on your visit to Turkey. Don't take photographs of military installations, and don't make fun of the Turkish government or Kemal Atatürk, the man who ousted the sultans and set up the republic.
Conclusion
Prisons aside, there's plenty to see and do in this historic city, with its unique blend of east and west. Whether it's Roman ruins, Turkish palaces or just plain coffee and sweet cakes you're interested in, there are very few places that can rival Istanbul.
1 It has to be said, however, that the distinction between Europe and Asia is a pretty arbitrary one, devised by the Ancient Greeks without any reference to the modern idea of a continent.
2 There was in fact a bridge across the Golden Horn at Blachernae as early as 1204, but it wasn't there when the Turks invaded in 1453, and the Golden Horn wasn't bridged again until the 19th Century.
3 This is thought to be a corruption of the Greek phrase eis ten polin meaning 'in the city'. They heard Greeks using this phrase and thought it was the name of the city.
4 Turkish treats the letter i with a dot as a different letter from an i without a dot. Topkapi should technically not have a dot on the i, but this would prevent this entry from displaying correctly in some browsers.
5 Literally 'born in the purple'. The laws of succession of Byzantine emperors were complicated, but normally heirs were born in the Purple Room in the palace.
6 A dolmus is a public transport minibus - stuffed with people.
7 Unfortunately, lack of standardisation among browsers prevents some of these displaying correctly on some machines.
Alıntı:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A13664027&clip=1