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

~ (Author), David Peterson (Author), S. V. Medaris (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Joan and David Peterson have their priorities straight: in Turkey as in most places, it's food that comes first. A dictionary of menus and market foods of Turkey, this book is also a paean to Turkish cuisine. The history and culture involved in kebabs and yogurt is fascinating and the food glossary is a great help. Finally, the recipes are a delightful bonus because it's impossible to take an eating tour of Turkey without wanting to sample the goods again and again without having to fly half way around the world every time you crave sirkeli patlican.

Review

“Eat Smart in Turkey is a one-of-a-kind find: introduction to Turkish cuisine, travel guide, and cookbook all in one. I read it before a recent trip to Istanbul, I carried it with me everywhere I went, and now I use it in my kitchen. Needless to say, it is pretty worn out.”—Connie McCabe, associate editor, Saveur magazine

“An impressive achievement. Eat Smart in Turkey not only helps travelers enjoy Turkish food, it gives an in-depth look at the people and events that shaped one of the world’s great cuisines.”—Tom Brosnahan, author of Lonely Planet’s Turkey

“A most unusual book, highly useful on two levels. It gives even the timid diner courage to try out new foods, and it gives the gustatorially adventuresome an opportunity to know in advance just what lies on the plate.”—Phyllis Zauner, International Travel News

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Ginkgo Press; illustrated edition edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964116820
• ISBN-13: 978-0964116825
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,464,078 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #36 in

  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Turkish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No traveler should be without an EAT SMART guide., February 5, 1999

By A Customer

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

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't leave home without this guide., December 21, 1998

By A Customer

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

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best culinary guide to Turkey--period., November 17, 2004

By	Thomas F. Brosnahan "Tom Brosnahan" (Concord, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.