Rather than being a recent imported Western tradition, restaurants are an old and central feature of Turkish life. We have always loved to dine out. Men of all classes typically gather nightly with friends in restaurants to while the evening away with endless meze (appetizers), and raki (our national drink, that is anisette and grapes distilled with 45 percent alcohol, thus it is 90 proof)

Eating out in our culture, for most cases is not just to feed ourselves, yet it is a social occasion and pretty much a ritual to be enjoyed.

Act 1: Anatolian Cuisine: Lamb & Beef & Kebabs

Day 1: Meet your guide and vehicle at Adana Airport. Transfer to Antiochus and visit the world famous Antiochus Mosaics Museum. Lunch at a local restaurant. Afternoon lecture about Turkish & Ottoman cuisine. Dinner at a local kebab house.

Day 2: Drive to Cappadocia via Adana stopping en route for lunch to try the famous Adana Kebab. Discuss the influence of Middle Eastern and Arabian cultures on Turkish Cuisine. Visit Gumusluk Monastery at Nigde. Arrive at Cappadocia for dinner at a local restaurant. Try the famous pot kebab.

Day 3: Spend the morning visiting Zelve & Goreme Open Air Museums. Lunch at Avanos Village. Afternoon lecture about the influence of Ottoman, Armenian & Greek Cuisine on each other. Home cooked dinner with a variety of Armenian, Greek & Ottoman cuisine from an Armenian cook.

Day 4: Visit Kaymakli Underground City and Soganli Valley in the morning. Home cooked lunch at the Old Greek House. Late afternoon visits to a local winery. Dinner at the local grill bar.

Day 5: Leave Cappadocia for Konya and visit the whirling dervishes museum. Lunch at a local restaurant sampling a variety of central Anatolian dishes including the tandir and the meat bread. Drive on to Antalya for a fish dinner in the South Coast.

Act 2: The Coastal Areas: The Fish & The Olive Oil

Day 6: Explore Perge & Aspendos in the morning. Then drive to the highlands of Antalya to explore a mountain village and the nomadic cuisine. Overnight: Antalya.

Day 7: Drive further West to the town of Kas, exploring en route the ancient site of Myra and the Church of St Nicholas. Lunch on board a glass bottomed boat while exploring the Sunken City at Kekova. Arrive in Kas late afternoon hours and visit a local fish restaurant witnessing the preparation of swordfish for grill. Overnight: Kas.

Day 8: Drive to Kusadasi visiting en route the sites of Didyma and Prienne. Visit the local fish market on arrival.

Day 9: Visit Ephesus in the morning and take the afternoon flight to Istanbul.

Act 3: Istanbul: As cosmopolitan as it gets.

Day 9: Land Istanbul in the afternoon hours and spend the rest of the day at leisure. Transfer to Grand Rue de Pera for a walk and visit Inci, the exclusive profiterole maker since the 1920s. Drinks at the famous American Bar of Pera Palace Hotel and dinner at Nebizade St.

Day 10: Visit the Old Quarter of Istanbul, (The Blue Mosque, St Sophia and a general introduction to Topkapi Palace) then lunch at Aslan Lokantasi. Afternoon lecture about Turkish Cuisine and the reasons for its diversity. Dinner at Kumkapi.

Day 11: Walk the Ottoman way, visiting masterpieces of Sinan the Great Architect (Sokullu Mehmet Pasa Mosque, The Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, and then visit the Spice Bazaar having lunch at the Pandeli. Return to the old quarter and spend the afternoon as you wish. Gala dinner at Korfez.

Day 12: Transfer to the airport and fly home.