The international community may believe that Turkish food has a single
national 'character'. And the ever-polite home-grown Turk might even
defer to that judgment, in public. But in private, he/she acknowledges
at least thirty-eight distinctive, regional varieties of native food
-- referring to them as mutfaklar (kitchens). These distinctive
'kitchens' represent the Turkish mainland provinces of Adana, Agri,
Amasya, Antakya (Hatay), Antep, Artvin, Bingöl, Bolu, Burdur,
Bursa, Çorum, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Hakkari,
Istanbul, Izmir, Kars, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Konya, Malatya, Maras,
Mersin (Içel), Mugla, Mus, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sivas, Sinop,
Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Urfa, Usak, and Yozgat.Let's have a brief
look at them one at a time, shall we...?The Turkish 'Food Kitchen' of
adanathis southern Mediterranean coastal province is not just famous
for its 'food kitchen', of course. It's also notable as one of
Turkey's more prosperous regions -- deriving its wealth naturally from
the agricultural produce of the Çukurova Plain. And, its
namesake capital is Turkey's fourth largest city, at just over a
million in population.Nestled neatly on the banks of the Seyhan River,
Adana is surrounded by gardens and citrus groves -- that give it a
relaxed country in the city feeling. An ancient legend says that
Adanos, son of the god Uranus, founded it originally. But another
(more 'historically verifiable') source identifies it with the Hittite
king Asitawadda, sometime around 1000 BC. And if you doubt such an
early origin, there's always the stone bridge south of the main
boulevard that was built over the Seyhan River during the reign of the
Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) -- which is still in use.Much more
recently, Adana province has been host to the NATO air-base at
İncirlik -- which began appearing so frequently in the news
during the 1st and 2nd wars in Iraq.adrian, a true stoic, once
advised, check impulse, suppress appetite. But that idea gets short
shrift in the modern-day Adana 'food kitchen' -- which feeds its
populace generously on meat, grain, and milk-based products. On the
one hand, that means plenty of beef, chicken, and bulgur wheat dishes.
On the other, it means lots of yogurt, ayran, cheese, and milk
itself.The people of this region have a passion for spicy hot food. By
far its best-known dish is the namesake Adana Kebab -- a spicy hot,
grilled meat specialty. And when the cooking of it begins, guests
gather round the Mangal (BBQ) grill to engage in pleasant
conversation.[Click following to access an illustrated HTML-version of
The Regional 'Food Kitchens' of Turkey -- which contains a scrumptious
recipe for Adana Kebab.]Next: The Turkish 'Food Kitchen' of Izmir
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