Foods I miss in Turkey

After recently reading a blog  about Making Cheesecake in Turkey from TastyTraveling, she reminded me how much I miss some foods when I am in Turkey. She was discussing a recipe for a cheesecake and I also made cheesecake during the summer but forgot that it is not easy to get fresh cream in Turkey. In Ireland the fresh cream is delicioussss and it is great for desserts. In Turkey however you have two options which just aren’t the same. There is krema as you can see below.

I find this stuff really sugary. After using it in a recipe during the summer I realised there is a certain point in the whipping process of this stuff that you can’t pass because it turns out gritty. It is basically UHT cream so it isn’t like fresh cream at all. They also sell this stuff in powder form. Then there is kaymak which is kinda like fresh cream..but it is not. Turkish people tend to use kaymak for eating with jam/honey. Anyway I never realised how much I missed cream until I was in Turkey because I use it for soups and desserts a lot.

2. Milk

Ok so quite a few of my missed foods come from the dairy section. It must be the Irish grass that makes our produce so yummy lol. Anywhere I go I never like the milk so it didn’t surprise me that I didn’t like Turkish milk. This was so hard because I drink milk all the time in Ireland and when I moved to Turkey to study for a year I felt stressed thinking of the dip in my calcium levels! However I was so happy after trying different brands of milk that I found one that I could deal with. It is from the company Sek and you can buy it in glass bottles or cartons.

3. Cheese

Ok so I did say there was going to be a lot of dairy! Well in Ireland we lack a cheese culture so this is partly my own fault because I grew up on cheddar cheese. For cheese lovers Turkey is amazing because you have so much choice. I do miss cheddar a lot though and this stuff is expensive in Turkey. You generally can’t get cheddar in places like BIM, Sok or any of the smaller chains of supermarkets. I have seen one packet of cheddar cheese in BIM but really it is not the fresh stuff…its has that plastic texture. If you go to the bigger Carrefours or Migros you will find it but you will pay way more than in Ireland. My solution? I bring a lot of cheese with me when I travel to Turkey. Last time I brought 2kg of cheddar so I was sorted for the summer! I also bring soft cheeses like Mascorpone and Philadelphia because they freeze well. So when you get visitors from home or if you travel regularly, stock up on your cheese.

4. Baked Beans

Aw I just love some baked beans on the side with my mash. I have never seen any batchelors/heinz beans in Turkey unfortunately. The nearest thing to it is kuru fasulye. It takes getting used to if you are used to baked beans but I love kuru fasulye now. Here is a pic below.

5. Mushy Peas

Mushy peas are like an Irish staple on a Sunday. Truly I do miss them in Turkey.

6. Corned Beef

I don’t even know how to explain this to Turkish people but I showed a picture of it to my partners family and they didn’t know what it was.

7. Cooking Apples

Has anyone ever come across cooking apples in Turkey like the large Bramley ones? Love these in apple pie. Although I know normal apples do the job too.

8. Hamburgers

Ok I know that you can make your own hamburgers from scratch but what is the deal when you go to a restaurant in Turkey and you order a hamburger? I was shocked the first time I did it and received this skinny little plastic meat between bread buns. Even the frozen hamburgers in Ireland are more decent! I would like to expect something a bit more meaty like this:

Then there are other foods which you can buy in Turkey but you don’t because they are too expensive like avocado’s and Kellog’s cornflakes. During the summer I was hsopping in Carrefour and the price of one avocado was 4 lira’s!! That’s crazy stuff.

Then there are foods which you can find easily but if you live with a Turkish family then you will realise they don’t eat a lot of it like brown bread. Everywhere I go in Turkey its white bread on offer at the table…so annoying when you are trying to be healthy and white bread is so not healthy. And of course I saved the best for last..Mashed Potatoes!! Turkish people seem to think this is baby food and find it strange that Irish people eat so much of it…I just can’t imagine why you wouldn’t love it.

Hopefully in another post I will write about Turkish foods I love though, because of course they lack in some areas but excel in others 🙂

So which foods do you miss when you are in Turkey? And are there any substitutes which you have found?