Turkish Cuisine

Many of the flavors in the Turkish cuisine have emerged from a synthesis of the culinary cultures of all the peoples who, at various times, have made their home in Anatolia, from the Hittites to the Romans and Greeks, and including the people who came from the three continents over which the Ottoman Empire ruled during its 700 year history.
The climatic, cultural, and ethnic diversity of Anatolia have deeply influenced the nomadic Turkish cuisine. This diversity is reflected in an unusually wide range of ingredients - both meat and seafood, olive oil and grains, and much more.
This combination reflects the very fragmented nature of the ethnic structure in Asia Minor and the Middle East, with regard to how these ingredi¬ents could be obtained and the variety of ways in which delicious flavors could be produced from the combination. Thus have the different culinaiy styles and methods among nomads of the mountains and steppes, the settled villagers on the fertile plains, and the city-dwellers with their rich, historical heritage made their contributions to the richness of Turkish cuisine.