Turkish vs Tunisian food & cuisine

Unlike in Southern Europe, Turkish breakfast is a real social custom of family gathering that sometimes goes beyond a dinner. Fresh bread is at the center, followed by cheeses, olives, eggs, jams, sometimes sausages, and dried cured beef pastirma.

Lunch is often the main cooked meal of the day, consisting of a starter such as a lentil or yogurt-based soup, followed by bean dishes with bulgur or rice pilaf, fresh bread, stews, and salad. It is common to prepare a few staple dishes in bulk to be on hand at home for family meals.

In the afternoon, it’s usual to have a small snack, with tea or coffee, which, interestingly, both are integral to Turkish culture. This black sweet tea is served in small tulip-shaped glasses, consumed throughout the day, and is a part of Turkish hospitality. Turkish coffee is strong, finely ground, and brewed with water and sugar in a special pot called a cezve.

Dinner is also an extensive meal in Turkey; it consists of meze – small appetizer dishes meant for sharing, grilled vegetables or meat, casseroles, pilafs, yogurt dishes, and bread. Meals often end with sweet desserts.

Mint tea and coffee are enjoyed throughout the day. Mint tea can include pine nuts. Alcohol is available, and Tunisia produces local wines.

For thousands of years of traditions, bread has been the most repetitive component of every meal – eaten even if not particularly suited for the meal. Turkish people eat the most bread in the world, 199.6 kilo per person per year (source).  Somun ekmek (fluffy and golden loaf bread), bazlama ekmek (leavened circular bread), yufka ekmek (phyllo bread), pide (pita bread with rich toppings), lavas (flatbread, thicker than yufka, but thinner than pide), misir ekmegi (cornbread), simit (circular bread encrusted with sesame seeds, quintessential street food) are prevailing types of bread.

Chewy, nutty bulgur is the most-eaten wheat product in Turkey’s mainland, commonly used to make pilaf, added to soups, or mixed with meat for dolma (stuffed) and sarma (filled) veggies.

The Eastern part of Turkey near the Black Sea is not so well suited for wheat due to heavy rains. This led to corn and cornflower meals, known as mısır in Turkish. While corn is not native to Turkey and wasn’t part of traditional cuisine, it has been integrated into bread, pilafs (mısır pilavı), soups (mısır çorbası), puddings (mısır helvası). 

Rice is a primary companion in stuffed meat and vegetable dishes. Still, most frequently, it is served in the form of pilaf, for which people have very high standards. While making a Turkish pilaf, use medium to long grain rice, sauté in butter or oil with onion and garlic, spice with cumin, cinnamon, and allspice, and then cook with broth. Pilafs often come plain as a side but can also be enriched with chickpeas, nuts, dried fruits, and sometimes meat for a standalone dish.

Bread accompanies most meals. Bread starts with tabouna, a round clay-oven bread with a crisp crust; mlawi, a flaky fried flatbread; barley bread khobz ch3ir; chapati Tunisien with herb or meat fillings; and kesra made from semolina and whole wheat. Fricassé, a stuffed fried dough, serves as a popular street snack, and of course, the French baguettes are on every corner.

Tunisian love for pasta is among the highest in the world! About 17 kg per person is consumed yearly, second only to Italy. Pasta dishes have thicker, spicier sauces with tomato paste, garlic, spices, and harissa.

Turkish specialty is stuffed vegetables:  dolma or sarma. Both stuffed with a mix of rice, minced meat, herbs, and spices. Dolma is more generic and refers to any stuffed vegetable – bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, or tomatoes. Sarma, specifically, is a roll of grapevine leaves. All sarma can be considered dolma, but not all dolma are sarma.

Artichokes, broad beans, and eggplants are extremely popular. Salads vary from the simplistic watercress in yogurt to a salad of garlic-infused smoked eggplant. Grilled sivri biber – long, green pepper of mild heat will likely add a smoky flavor to kebabs and grilled meats. It is common to meet grilled sivri biber and sumac-flavored onions on the same kebab plate.

Tursu – pickled vegetables in garlicky brine is a traditional appetizer. In some families, no meal is considered complete without a bowl of tursu on the table (source).

Potatoes are indeed used in Turkish cuisine, but they are not as central as bread, rice, and bulgur. Turkish cuisine loves stuffed vegetables, so it comes as no surprise that the famous potato dish also comes stuffed – kumpir, baked potatoes with toppings. While in Western countries, it is expected to have boiled, fried, or baked potatoes as a side dish, it is not as common here. Turkish cooks creatively incorporate potatoes in a salad (with olive oil and lemon or vinegar-based dressing and includes pickles, red peppers, and parsley), mashed and in combination with eggplant in dishes like hünkar beğendi (eggplant puree with mashed potatoes) or musakka (sliced potatoes, layered with eggplant, ground meat, and a tomato-based sauce).

Fruits are local, plentiful, and cheap, eaten after meals to refresh the palate (cubes of watermelon, for instance) and as a dessert.  What differs in fruit consumption from Western cuisines is that Turkish cuisine generously incorporates dried apricots, figs, grapes, dates, mulberries into everyday diet. During weddings, engagements, or religious celebrations, offering guests various dried fruits is a must. Also, during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, dates, a natural nutritious sweet, are often consumed to break the fast. Dried fruits feature savory dishes, like ayva dolması – stuffed quince, çağla aşi – a fresh almond dish with lamb, fruit, yogurt, garlic, yeni dünya kebab – lamb stuffed loquat fruit.

As a Mediterranean country, Turkey produces lots of grapes, and they are either eaten fresh, dried to raisins or made into Turkish special grape molasses, called pekmez. Before sugar became widely available, honey and pekmez were used to sweeten the traditional Turkish ration.

Potatoes are a relatively recent addition to Tunisian cuisine, which turned into convenience food in the form of French fries. In rural areas, potatoes are still considered a side.

Mashed salads are also common. Mechouia, one of the most popular dishes, combines grilled peppers, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, and garlic, all mixed with olive oil and lemon juice. It can be topped with tuna, eggs, olives, or capers.

Fresh figs, pomegranates, dates, and oranges are popular snacks. Dates and figs may be stuffed with nuts. Preserved lemons are widely used for a distinctive flavor that fresh lemons don’t provide. Dried fruits also appear in savory dishes, pairing well with lamb or chicken.

Kebabs are quintessential, especially when there is an open flame to grill the meat, and if there is none, Turkish people will find a way to get it done. Over time, different regions within Turkey developed their unique styles of kebabs. Kebabs refer to a food group of well-seasoned, marinated, grilled, or roasted meat served on skewers with vegetables and bread. Traditionally, kebabs would have been done with lamb, but with evolving tastes and regionalities, meats have extended to beef, chicken, offals, fish, and vegetables. The serving may also differ – on a plate, in a sandwich, or in lavash. There are close to a hundred varieties of kebabs, for the most widespread in Turkey, visit our iconic dishes section.

Other than kebabs, koftes are also popular; it refers to seasoned patties or meatballs from minced or ground meat, mixed with onions, garlic, and herbs; shaped into balls, patties, or elongated forms and can be cooked in different ways, including grilling, frying, or baking.

Offals have a special place in Turkish cuisine as they are cheaper than other animal parts and also very nutritious. Most offal dishes have thyme, chili, and garlic flavoring and are served with bread as a rich and hearty meal. Offal dishes in Turkey include brain salad, fried brains, grilled spleen, liver, kidney, sheep intestines, tripe soup, trotter soup, etc. – there are even restaurants that specialize in serving these dishes!

The coastline areas, though, do have their beloved underwater ingredients: the Black Sea areas are famous for their anchovies, which are a beloved fried; horse mackerel is caught from the Marmara Sea; sardines of the Dardanelles and sea bream from the Aegean Sea are preferred fishes. Fish preparations will most frequently be grilled fish balık, seafood mezes, and stuffed mussels midye dolma. Balık ekmek, a grilled fish sandwich, is a popular street food along the coasts.

Canned tuna is a major staple:  they put it on bowls of stew, dollop it on top of pasta, stuff it in brik, and toss it on the grilled salat, arrange tuna in a decorative pattern along with a quartered hard-boiled egg and olives. Pizza in Tunisia arrives with a handful of canned tuna in the middle, even if it’s pizza Margherita!

Turkish yogurt is rich, creamy, usually plain, strained yogurt (straining is a process when whey is removed from yogurt, resulting in a creamy and dense texture). Strained Turkish yogurt and strained Greek yogurt are pretty similar, both are known for thick and creamy textures. However, the straining duration and methods may vary, leading to slight differences in texture. Some people claim that Turkish yogurt has a milder taste compared to its Greek counterpart. The taste may vary based on the specific bacterial cultures used and the source of the milk.

Cheese in Turkish daily practice is not as popular as in Greek, Italian, or Spanish cuisines. Distinctively from Western tradition, Turks like to add herbs and other flavorings to the cheese. Some local Turkish cheeses include beyaz peynir, white brined, crumbly cheese, kaşar, semi-hard, similar to cheddar, used in borek, pide, tulum cheese, a unique variety aged in animal skin, giving it a distinctive flavor, otlu peynir, herbed cheese.

Lots of vegetable oils are used in Turkish cooking. Olive oil is a major component of many dishes in the western part of the country, where olive trees grow. There is actually a whole group of foods in Turkish cuisine named zeytinyağlılar, which translates to olive oil dishes.

Clarified and fermented butters, made from goat, sheep, or cow’s milk, are staples. Smen, or rancid fermented butter, is a heritage product, made by mixing butter with salt and sometimes spices. Heated water is used to clarify the butter, and after removing excess water, the butter is stored in jars for at least six months to ferment.

A defining feature is the layering of textures. From the crisp phyllo dough of baklava to the delicate, chewy strands of kadayıf, Turkish sweets often play on the contrast between crunchy exteriors and soft fillings. Cheese, especially in desserts like künefe, adds a savory layer and a unique salty-sweet experience. Spices and aromatics – rosewater, orange blossom, mastic –  give Turkish desserts a floral and fragrant dimension rarely seen in European desserts.

Tunisia is a land of olives, and olive oil is entrenched in culture. Tunisia is the fourth biggest olive oil producer worldwide.

Tunisian desserts share many traits with Moroccan, Algerian, and Libyan sweets. They rely on rich sweetness, dates, honey, delicate pastries, semolina bases, and floral waters. At the same time, Tunisian treats more often highlight local fruits, olive oil, and spices like aniseed. Many come in doughnut-like shapes, fried, then dipped in syrup or coated with sugar.