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Travelers allergic to peanuts do
not usually have too difficult a time
in Turkey because peanut is not a common
ingredient in Turkish cuisine. Tree
nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts,
almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, etc.)
are more common, but the dishes in
which they appear
are usually readily identifiable. (But
here's
a first-hand account of a bad
incident.)
Peanuts (yer
fıstığı, YEHR fuhs-tuh-uh) are
not actually nuts, they're legumes,
pulses.
Peanuts are eaten in Turkey,
but almost always as a snack;
and there are so many other good
natural
snacks in Turkey such as hazelnuts,
walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower
seeds, dried fruits, chick peas, etc.
that
peanuts are not often preferred.
So they're uncommon, and usually
not found in Turkish cooking at
all. (My daughter went to Turkey during
her peanut-allergy-threat period,
and I was rarely concerned in restaurants.)
Cooking oil is most
often sunflower or olive
oil,
both of which Turkey produces in abundance.
This doesn't mean there can't be peanut
oil, but it would not be as common
as peanut oil is in, say, the USA.
Tree nuts are used
in a few restaurant dishes, but except
for pine nuts, (çam
fıstığı) they are uncommon. You
find them mostly as snacks, and in
some desserts (sweets).
Innovative chefs intent on breaking
with tradition
may use nuts in dishes which traditionally
do not include them.
Walnuts (ceviz, jeh-VEEZ)
are used in Çerkez Tavuğu (chehr-KEHZ
tah-voo-oo, "Circassian Chicken"),
chicken with a walnut sauce, and in
baklava.
Turkey produces half the world's
supply of hazelnuts (filberts, fındık),
so they may appear in some innovative
dishes, or in restaurants in the Black
Sea region, where the nuts grow.
Pistachios (Şam
fıstığı, SHAHM fuss-tuh-uh) grow
in the southeast. They, too, are
mostly
a snack, or
used in desserts (such as baklava and burma kadayıf) and
confections (such as lokum:
Turkish delight),
but may be used in some stuffed vegetables,
pilavs
and even kebaps.
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Snacks and
desserts may contain nuts—like
these macaroons, each with an
almond on top. |
Almonds (badem,
bah-DEHM) are
often eaten fresh, in season, as a
snack, served on a block of ice to
cool them. You'll also find them dried,
again as a snack, rarely in restaurant
dishes.
Pecans (pekan)
and cashews are
not native to Turkey, and are not
normally used in Turkish cuisine.
In general, simple restaurants making
the common, traditional Turkish dishes
may use fewer or no nuts. Innovative,
more expensive restaurants may use
more.
The Turkish phrase for "I'm
allergic to nuts" would
be Çekirdeklere
alerjim var (CHEK-ehr-DEK-lehr-EH
ah-lehr-ZHEEM vahr), but the word
used here is "seeds" rather
than "nuts."
Unfortunately, Turkish
doesn't have a single-word designating
tree nuts, as English does. If your
allergy is to a particular sort of
nut, you'd say:
[Name of nut] alerjim
var.
For example, Yer fıstığı
alerjim var (YEHR
fuhs-tuh-uh ah-lehr-ZHEEM vahr)
for peanuts: "I'm
allergic to peanuts."
If you want to avoid all nuts, seeds
and their oils, say:
Çekirdeklere,
fıstık - fındık ve yağlarına alerjilerim
var.
(CHEK-eer-DEK-leh-reh, fuhs-tuhk
fuhn-duhk veh YAH-lahr-uh-NAH ah-lehr-zhee-leh-REEM
vahr)
I can eat no nuts or seeds, or their
oils:
Hiç çekirdek, fıstık fındık
veya yağlarını yiyemem!
(HEECH chek-eer-DEK fuhss-TUHK fuhn-DUHK
veh-yah YAH-lahr-uh-nuh yee-YEH-mehm)
If your allergy is not mentioned here
and you don't know the word for it,
contact
me and I'll find it for you.
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