Greek & Turkish Foodfare

Greek Culinary Delights

1. Greek Salad
A bed of onions, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce drenched with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper with a slab of feta cheese on top. Just like a regular salad but the feta cheese makes all the difference. Tweak the taste to your fancy with the bottles of olive oil and vinegar that accompanies every meal.

2. Greek Yoghurt

A serving of fresh original yoghurt with condiments on the side. Best if taken with pure greek honey and walnuts if available.
Depends where you are, they might have preserved fruits in syrup which also tastes oh-so-heavenly.

3. Stuffed items

Clock wise from top , bread, greek salad, fava beans and stuffed vine leaves.

Stuffed tomatoes
Clockwise from left: Stuffed onions, greek salad, stuffed tomatoes, stuffed mushrooms.

Ooooh, their stuffed vegetables are grrrrrrrreat. Make sure you try some fava beans, and vine leaves!

4. Seafood

Seafood spaghetti

Ah.... a country by the sea and not have it's seafood? Cardinal sin!!! However, on a personal note, I prefer the chinese way of cooking seafood. Shh. Secret. Don't tell the Greeks.

Turkish Gastronomic Wonders

1. Kebab

Aubergine Kebab
Iskendar Kebab

None of the oily, greasy british kebabs you get here, but kebabs bursting with flavour and winning hands down with its presentation!

2. Pide
Which actually means Turkish Pizza. Gives Pizza Hut a run for its money.

3. Mussels stuffed with rice
Sold by the roadside on a barrow by the river, it really is: Mussels and rice, loaded with ground pepper that gives it a smashing spicy taste. 1 lyra for 2, I can literally stand there and eat the same thing the whole day.

3. Fish Burger
Baguette slapped on with slices of fresh fish, grilled on the spot. Squirt on some lemon juice and sprinkle a dash of salt - tastes fantabulous!
Look out for the rocking boats though, it's amazing how the fish manages to stay on the grill, and the cook manages to stay on the boat.


4. Baklava
OH MY GOODNESS. Ever tasted something SO GOOD that is just indescribable? Welcome to the world of Baklava. Absolutely gorgeous for the sweet tooth and irresistible even to the most hardcore bitter-lover, this baby is a sure one way ticket to Diabetes-Dom.

5. Apple Tea
Funny how I was told to sample their to-die-for apple tea, but what the locals really drink is regular tea. A tiny cup like that intensely flavoured (be it apple or regular tea) with 2 blocks of sugar and no milk (NO MILK please, God Forbid), is actually tipping my my preference of the English tea to the Turkish one.

And what every young person needs, a good dose of alcohol in the system. Presenting:
Oozo (left), and Raki(right).
Sitting at a folding table, by the side of the street of Monastiraki in Greece, not quite unlike Chee Cheong Kai in KL, we sampled what was true Greek alcohol (so said by the barman).

Oozo tasted like Hacks, the old-man sweet you take when you cough, and Raki - supposed to be downed as ice cold shots - like petrol. And then again, which hard liquor doesn't taste like petrol? And Raki is supposed to be wine.

Raki shots.

Oozo 'Hacks' drink.

Instead of taking Hacks, you now have Oozo. The true medication for the cough, it gives you a kick to the brain too.

Turkey's an Islamic country, don't ask.