Mediterranean cuisine, which has been extremely popular and much talked about during the last decade, is based on a way of cooking that has developed over thousands of years. Uniting Asia, Europe and Africa, the Mediterranean Basin is a privileged region in terms of cultural and trade relations as well as political conflicts, and at the same time has served as the source and meeting point for many different civilizations. Dominated by the Aegean and Egyptian civilizations, followed by the Phoenicians and the Greeks, and finally from the 9th century on, the Islamic world, trade in the Mediterranean has in every period concentrated on grain, wine and olive oil.

With its climate, geography, flora and rich past, Mediterranean culture has spread throughout the world, and Mediterranean cuisine is one of the most important parts of this culture. The foods that grow in the Mediterranean region form a common point which unites its peoples and cultures. To put it another way, to find the roots of the familiarity between the culinary traditions which developed in the Mediterranean area, one needs look no further than the common foodstuffs used in the region.

These common points bring us to the “Traditional Mediterranean Nutrition System” or the “Optimal Mediterranean Diet.” This model is based chiefly upon grains, olive oil, vegetables and fruits, fish, milk and dairy products, spices and wine.

When we examine how each of these features has been reflected in Turkish cuisine, we witness the immense variety of the Anatolian social structures which both contain and have developed upon the Mediterranean diet.

Wheat

The creation of wheat, which is the basic staple of Mediterranean cuisine and been a part of the Anatolian cultural complex for thousands of years, was described in a myth related to me by an Anatolian villager:  “God first created Adam and Eve. While they were in paradise, Satan persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve then offered the forbidden fruit to Adam. After both had eaten this forbidden fruit, it was impossible for them to stay in paradise any longer. God punished Adam and Eve, and sent both of them to two opposite ends of the world. After they begged God for years, they were finally reunited. For the first time, they felt hunger. God sent them to Gabriel. In Gabriel’s hand was a grain of wheat, and he taught Adam to till the earth, sow the seed, and when the grain ripened, to collect it and turn it into flour. He kneaded dough on a stone, cooked it and gave it to Adam and Eve.” Thus Adam and Eve’s first food came to be Anatolia’s oldest and most sacred staple.

Historical sources inform us that wheat cultivation began 5,000 years B.C. in the north of today’s Turkey and in the south Caucasus, and from there, spread via Egypt and Mesopotamia to Europe and Asia. Holding as important a place in the ancient Mediterranean peoples’ trade relations as their nourishment, wheat was turned into bread, which became imbued with sacred significance. Bread is the indispensable produce in the traditional food of Anatolia, Central Asia and the Near East. The extreme variety of breads and other flour and dough-based foods in Turkish cooking is striking. To give even a limited list of the first such foods to come to mind, wheat products such as bulgur, dövme (hulled wheat), yarma(cracked wheat), firik (dried green wheat) and düğürcük (bulgur flour) are still commonly used in all of our regions, especially in Southern Anatolia and the Mediterranean. Wheat is extremely sacred, whether in the field, harvested as grain, or especially in the form of flour and bread. Wheat is the basic ingredient in aşure, a food based on the Noah’s Ark myth, which is made throughout Anatolia in the religiously important month of Muharrem. Uhut, as sweet made by sprouting and crushing wheat and boiling the juice with no added sugar, continues to be made as a symbolic product of an agricultural society. Today, soup made from various combinations of wheat, legumes and vegetables, and other dishes made from wheat, vegetables and meat, are extremely common.

Olive Oil

Olives, which form the second important facet of the traditional Mediterranean diet, have been cultivated in the region since extreme antiquity. Growing and bearing abundantly in the relatively hard and alkaline soils around the Mediterranean, are included in the oldest known cookbook, by the Roman author Apicius. Historical sources inform us that olive culture was born and developed in the Mesopotamian, Mediterranean and Aegean regions. The Koran says that the olive tree came from Mt. Sinai, that oil was obtained from its fruits, and this oil was used to add flavor to food.

The best-known myth concerning the olive is that of the dove which returned to the ark carrying an olive branch, a sign that the waters that had covered the face of the earth were receding. Since then, the olive branch has been a symbol of peace and, possibly because when an olive tree dies, a new tree emerges from its base, of immortality.

Still very much alive in Turkey, the olive and olive oil culture has a 4000-year history. The traditional method of separating the olive oil with hot water and collecting it by hand from the surface by hand is still practiced in rural areas. Olive oil obtained in this way is used both in meat and vegetable dishes as well as for health purposes. In the Aegean and Mediterranean regions especially, olive oil is flavored with herbs such as mint and thyme, sometimes with the addition of salted strained yogurt or various types of cheese and served as a unique breakfast dish. Olive oil is also used to produce a smooth, shiny surface in variousçöreks (egg breads) and some breads baked in the tandır or pit oven.

The long-lasting fruits of the olive tree can be eaten for two years. The pulp left behind from the pressing is used for fuel, and the dry leaves can be burned or used as animal feed. The rot-resistant branches are used to line underground grain bins. Olive oil has always been used by folk doctors both in the medical sense as well as in various rituals.

Turkish cuisine includes a special category of dishes known as Zeytinyağlı (Olive Oil Dishes). Vegetable dishes made with high-quality olive oil and served either cold or room temperature, they are a favorite compliment to the main dish.

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables constitute another important aspect of the Mediterranean diet. With its mild winters and hot, generally dry summers, the Mediterranean climate is favorable for the cultivation of citrus fruits which arrived via Arabia as well as various fruits and vegetables from the Middle East and across Atlantic Ocean which have adapted to our own tastes.

Just as today, onions, leeks and garlic were mainstays of the Mediterranean diet in ancient times as well. Beets and rutabagas hailing from the Mediterranean region, as well as eggplant, originally from India and used in scores of dishes, are just a few of the vegetables eaten in the Mediterranean region.

Today these vegetables, blended with meat and grain and simmered, constitute the most important area of Turkish cooking but also the least known abroad. These dishes, consisting of vegetables alone or mostly vegetables, show even more variety under the influence of regional and cultural differences. A look at their names, such as Yahni (cooked with onions),Bastı (pressed), Kalye (squash or eggplant cooked with meat), Boranı (sauteed vegetables topped with yogurt), Kızartma (fried), Dolma (stuffed vegetables), Sarma (literally “wrapped” such as vine or cabbage leaves), Silkme (tossed together) and Yoğurtlama (topped/mixed with yogurt),  will give a good idea of the various types and methods which have come to symbolize our culinary tradition from past to present: 

We also see a variety of uses for the leaves and roots of wild herbs, mushrooms and various wild fruits. This is most evident in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions but we can also still witness extensive use of natural foods in other regions as well.

Fruit is cooked in various ways as a sweet, but when used in a main dish, it is especially combined with meat. Delicately flavored fruits including apples, plums, loquats, apricots, grapes, quince constitute the main ingredient of such dishes.

Fish and Seafood

Another characteristic feature of the Mediterranean diet is that it relies heavily on fish, especially salt water fish and seafood. With the exception of certain regions and especially the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, the Mediterranean is not an extremely productive sea, and fishing areas are gradually diminishing.

Accounts of fishing in the Orkhon inscriptions as well as accounts of fishing in our fairy tales show that the Turks did know of fresh water fishing before they reached Anatolia. When we look at Anatolian cuisine as a peninsular cuisine, the percentage of fish and seafood consumption is low; naturally it increases in the coastal regions. In the Black Sea, seafood consumption is mostly centered around hamsi, a small type of anchovy which migrates in large numbers along its shores. Seafood has generally been adapted to the characteristic local cooking methods. For example while delicious fish soups are common in the Marmara and Black Sea regions, in the East Mediterranean region we see the meat of large fish being pounded together with bulgur and spiced for a type of köfte. A bulgur pilaf is also made with grey mullet, and various hot and/or sour fish dishes include such ingredients as onion, sour sumac syrup, olive oil and peppers.

Dairy Products

Because of the hot Mediterranean climate, milk is consumed more in the form of cheese and yogurt than fresh. Such products are made into dishes in and of themselves or accompany other dishes. Because of the geographical conditions, meat production and consumption is limited in the Mediterranean diet.

The most-consumed dairy products in Turkish cuisine are cheese and yogurt. The flavor and techniques used in cooked yogurt dishes are especially interesting.

Spices

Another characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, the use of spices and aromatic herbs, came in to the Mediterranean basin in antiquity via Syria and the Near and Middle East. Although the spices generally used in our cuisine are few in number, we see an increase in that number in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern regions, as a result of Arab and Iranian influence. We use cinnamon, rose water, gum mastic, rose geranium, bay leaves and even sometimes black pepper in our sweets, while the main spices in meat and other dishes include black pepper, cumin, pine nuts and water mint or spearmint, with regional variations.

Wine

Grapes, another important part of the Mediterranean diet, have roots extending into antiquity. Grape culture covers a vast cultural area in the Anatolian and Mediterranean regions, and was part of the rituals of the Hittites as well as the Greek Dionysian rituals.

As we look at grapes and wine in traditional Turkish coking, we see that wine is less consumed than other grape products, but this gap is filled by our traditional anisette, rakı. Our traditional cuisine includes a seemingly inexhaustible variety of grape products, each with their own characteristic flavors, including pekmez (grape molasses), şira (grape juice, sometimes spiced), ekşi (a sourıng agent made by boiling unripe grapes), pestil (fruit leather),muska (“amulets” of fruit leather filled with crushed walnuts and sugar), sherbet (fruit drink),sucuk (strings of walnuts dipped into grape juice or molasses thickened with starch) andşurup (fruit juices boiled into a thick syrup, which is later mixed with water to make a sweet drink).

Conclusion

The main characteristics of the Mediterranean culinary tradition are:

• a wide variety of fresh vegetables, especially tomatoes, eggplant, onions and garlic;
• olive oil, which has been an indispensable part of rituals from antiquity;
• grapes, one of the most valuable foods in our region, sometimes made into molasses, sometimes into wine;
• countless fruits, some varieties of which grow only in Turkey, including figs, mulberries;
• herbs and spices which change according to natural or religious seasons;
• wheat, one of the most important staffs of life throughout human history,
• and the joy of eating, always together as a family, in an atmosphere of sharing.

In our modern age, as the link between health and a sound diet becomes clearer and concepts such as quality of life and healthy aging are appearing, scientific studies point to the Mediterranean diet. As we speak of Turkish cuisine, we must go beyond kebab, sweets and grains, and include a less-known side of our culinary culture as well, the Mediterranean diet.