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Simit can be as mentioned, baked as bread, or cooked, which
makes it even crunchier and tasty. It can also be covered with
cheese or in a modern version, with ham. Simit is also often made in
corner bakeries, and sold afterwards in kiosks in front. You will
notice people selling them, very easily; they either have simit on a
tray, or around their hand, like a bracelet.
People who come to Turkey for the first time love to watch
these salesmen, because their working day often becomes a
performance. They take simit and throw it around, dance with it, and
often receive an applause, and ovation. They are also one of
Istanbul’s most photographed sites, by tourists of course.
Once you see a simit, you will probably think that it is a
sweet, but it is not. Turkish people actually rarely eat sweet food,
and if they do, it is mostly as snacks. Simit tastes like a very
fine pastry, like a better version of bread, for instance.
Simit is originally traditional food, and the recipe is very
old, and was in the past kept secret. That is why it was prestigious
to make it “the original way”, and Safranbolu and Kastamonu bakeries
were famous for doing it properly. When you make this food, you must
follow certain rules and recipes, like Galata bakeries, and ones in
Samatya and Beylerbeyi. They know the right way of making a perfect
simit, with excellent combination of water, milk, yeast, sugar and
of course – flour. Once the dough rises, you make rings out of it,
and then patiently dip them one by one, into grape molasses and
(always) into seeds of sesame. Like the old bakers say, simit needs
to be baked, until it gets a perfect gold colour, and all sesame
seeds turn light brown.
As we mentioned, simit is a huge part of Turkish tradition.
Simit is even mentioned in memoires of Evliya Celebi who stated in
his famous book, that Turkey had 70 simit bakeries in Istanbul solo,
where almost 300 bakers worked on producing this fantastic deli. All
these bakeries (all 70) become part of new association “Bread and
Pastry Bakers” formed in 1910.
Ugur Koktas, famous Turkish researcher, stated in his book
about history of Turkey and lifestyle of Turks, that in the past
simit sellers usually bought freshly prepared pastry in these
bakeries, and took them to different further parts of city to sell
them there (because these districts didn’t have their own simit
bakeries nearby).
In the afternoon, when people were getting home
from work, simit sellers were carrying their food on a long stick,
with a lantern in the end, trying to draw customers to their selling
stations. Of course, hungry workers always gladly bought simit, even
after a long day, because it was so tasty you could eat it few times
a day, easily.
Even today, in a modern Turkey, people often don’t have
enough time for breakfast in the morning, and they buy fresh simit
on their way to work. When you stroll around the city, you will
notice how many passers buy eat simits, and drink yoghurt as a
perfect addition to this tasty pastry. With new municipal laws,
sellers who deliver food, have the obligation to stor it under a
glass tray, so you will rarely see a real simit seller who carries
them around on an open trey on their head, or as a bracelet.
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