Greek cuisine Greek cuisine Greek cuisine (, "Elliniki kouzina") is a Mediterranean cuisine. Contemporary Greek cookery makes wide use of vegetables, olive oil, grains, fish, wine (white and red), and meat (including lamb, poultry, veal, beef, rabbit and pork). Other important ingredients include olives, pasta (especially hyllopites, a kind of pasta similar to tagliatelle), cheese, lemon juice, herbs, bread and yoghurt. The most commonly used grain is wheat; barley is also used. Common dessert ingredients include nuts, honey, fruits, and filo pastry. It is strongly influenced by Ottoman cuisine and thus, especially cuisine of anatolian Greeks shares foods such as baklava, tzatziki,
Turkish cuisine For example, "komposto" (compote) or "hoşaf" (from Persian "khosh âb", literally meaning "nice water") are among the main side dishes to meat or pilav. "Dolma" and pilaf usually contain currants or raisins. "Etli yaprak sarma" (vine leaves stuffed with meat and rice) used to be cooked with sour plums in Ottoman cuisine. Turkish desserts do not normally contain fresh fruit, but may contain dried varieties. Eggplant () has a special place in the Turkish cuisine. In some regions, meat, which was mostly eaten only at wedding ceremonies or during the "Kurban Bayramı" ("Eid ul-Adha") as "etli pilav" (pilaf with meat),