Customer Reviews

Eat Smart in Turkey: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure (Eat Smart Series , No 2)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The authors have written a series of Eat Smart books that no traveler to foreign countries should be without. Each book covers a separate country--Eat Smart in Turkey, Eat Smart in Brazil, Eat Smart in Indonesia and Eat Smart in Mexico--and is chock full of information that you won't find elsewhere within the covers of one easy-to-carry paperback. Individual chapters cover such topics as the history of the country's cuisine, regional foods, how to shop in the local markets, mail-order sources for suppliers of ingredients, and a collection of recipes for typical dishes found in that country. Especially useful is each book's extensive menu guide, listing menu terms alphabetically in the language of the foreign country, with a description of the dish in English. That section is followed by a chapter titled "Foods & Flavors"--listing the foreign terms for foods, spices, kitchen utensils and cooking techniques, with an English translation/description. These books are well researched, accurate and very informative. Highly recommended. --Sharon Hudgins, editor, Chile Pepper magazine

Like armies, tourists travel on their stomachs, and nowhere are the prospects for culinary delight better than in Turkey. So don't leave home without this compact but very complete guide to what's on the menu, what's in the market, what's on your plate and what you can ask for as you travel. The book starts with a short summary of the history of Turkish cuisine, then embarks on a food-tour of the country's seven regions. There are recipes to cook at home before departure, useful foodie phrases ("Where can I see this being made?"), and an extensive listing of translated menu entries.

Robert Arndt, editor, Aramco World

The long title of this book does not even say it all. It's undoubtedly the best guide to Turkish cuisine *by far*.

I've written best-selling guidebooks on Turkey for nearly 40 years (first for Frommer's, then for Lonely Planet for 20 years), traveled (and eaten) in Turkey almost every year since 1967, and Peterson's book still taught me lots of new and interesting things about Turkish cuisine. I'm still learning from it.

This was not a contract job done on assignment for a big publisher in a hurry. The authors are obviously heart-and-soul foodies who started publishing their own culinary guides because they couldn't help but do it. It shows.

And they're not gourmands, but gourmets: they are truly fascinated by the subtleties in the art of delighting the palate. To most writers, food is necessary and fun. To the authors of this guide, food is tradition, art, innovation, achievement, delight.

And Turkey is a great place to be a foodie. Once the center of a vast, agriculturally rich empire home to hundreds of peoples and cultures, it developed an elaborate and subtle cuisine based on careful preparation of fresh ingredients. It's the perfect country to travel through with a food guide, and this is the guide to take.

One of the world's best kept travel secrets unfolds in this pioneering guide to the cuisine of Turkey. The Petersons present regional classics and national favorites for the reader to try out at home or by following in the authors' footsteps across Turkey. Stunning photographs, information on history and culture, and a treasury of culinary surprises are enhanced by language tips for navigating menu and market. Culinary delights are at the heart of good friendship and this book offers more than a guide to good eating.

Professor Sarah G. M. Atis, University of Wisconsin Middle East Studies Program

This book was sooo helpful for our week stay in Istanbul.

I could see some other jealous tourists on other tables, they'd kind of be trying to see what book I was furiously pondering over when I had our menu in front of us as they sat on their table wondering what the heck they should order. I did mention the book to a few other people and am happy to give it a 5 star rating here.

The book was a perfect size for us because the pages of the book are a decent size so the book is thinner (rather than being small pages and a thick book). It fit easily into one of our bags and didn't bulk it up. Very light and easy to carry around on our travels.

If you're going to Turkey, buy this book. Not a lot of menus are in english and many servers don't speak english so this book will at least get you most if not all the way in figuring out exactly or close to what you're ordering.

Eat Smart in Turkey by Joan Peterson and illustrated by S.V. Medaris is another of the author's excellent taste tours of various countries. Joan loves traveling and believes that through the various flavors of national favorite foods one gains the true flavor of the country and its people. Mingling in market places and traditional restaurants is a great way to enjoy the local atmosphere and truly experience being there, instead of just taking photos and moving uninspired through a place to say you have seen it. With this excellent guide Peterson tells how to decipher the menus, know market foods, and embark on a tasting adventure. She gives the history of Turkey and how its cuisine and eating customs changed as the various conquerors took over in each region. With the favorite recipes of Turkish foods Peterson encourages the traveler to try the dishes before leaving home so as to know what you prefer to order and what the ingredients are (so no food allergies or upset stomachs are encountered to ruin your trip.) Then the author guides you through the fascinating market (pazar) experience, where you can mingle with locals and immerse yourself in the sights, smells, colors, noise of real life in this fascinating country. She even gives you phrases to help you navigate a market or restaurant. Most helpful for tourists is the Menu Guide, which gives the Turkish names and detailed descriptions of the foods you may wish to order or avoid. In the Foods and Flavors Guide you will know just what your tastebuds can expect. The book is a great cultural study and a wonderful help for traveling to Turkey or preparing authentic cuisine.

This is a fine look at turkish cuisine and culture. It goes into the history and the different regions and includes a selection of recipes that can be tried at home. The turkish language section is particularly useful as an aid to learning appropriate words and phrases to be able to order food and drinks in restaurants, bars and markets.

I find when I travel that trying local and regional food is one of the highlights of the trip. This book will be an invaluable aid to my next trip. Strongly recommended

I really wanted to like this book as my favorite part of traveling is eating, but I honestly did not find it helpful at all. It's advertised to help you with market foods, but there are no pictures. I had Rick Steves' Istanbul guidebook with me, and I found his description of Turkish food, food phrases, and eating habits more helpful than this book.

I bought this book partly because I know that Turkish food features a lot of meat, and I'll be visiting with my wife who is a vegetarian. Can you believe that a book that is *ALL* about food, does not even mention vegetarianism, nor when they list "handy phrases for restaurants" do they list any phrases that deal with the topic? For that matter, they don't deal with any topic having to deal with food allergies, being on a diet, etc. Essentially this is a book about helping people make smart choices when eating in Turkey, but the only people they want to help are people who will eat anything. I should have saved my money.