Three Turkish soups: which one, and when?
In Turkey the day starts with soup and often ends with it too. Soup is starter, breakfast, midnight meal and medicine all at once, and a proper grill without soup on the menu is unthinkable. Our soup is ready from opening at 9 a.m., as in Turkey: in the morning, you have soup. We have three, from light to hearty.
Mercimek: red lentil soup
The soup to start with at a Turkish restaurant if you have never ordered anything before. Red lentils, onion and carrot, cooked soft and blended smooth, orange in colour. It comes with a wedge of lemon and you squeeze it over the top; that is not a garnish but half the flavour. If you like, sprinkle dried pepper flakes over it. Our mercimek is made without meat stock, so vegetarians can simply order it. With bread it is a light lunch on its own.
Tavuk çorbası: chicken soup
Chicken soup in Turkey is what it is everywhere: what you eat when you have a cold, when it rains, or when you simply want something warm that is not complicated. Chicken, rice or vermicelli, a light broth, lemon on the side. More filling than the lentil soup, milder than the lamb soup.
Paça incik: lamb shank soup
The heaviest on the menu, and the soup that needs the most explaining. Incik is the lamb shank, bone in; it is simmered for hours until the meat falls off the bone and the broth is rich and substantial. It is a meal rather than a starter: the meat is in it, bread on the side, done. In Turkey this is the soup of the late night and of the early morning after a long one. With us it fits the opening hours exactly.
Which soup when?
- In the morning, as breakfast: mercimek or chicken soup, with bread.
- Before the grill, as a starter: mercimek. Light, and it leaves room.
- A cold, or just tired: chicken soup.
- Late at night, properly hungry: paça incik with plenty of bread.
- Vegetarian: mercimek, made without meat stock.
Practical: where and how
Tuana Grill is at Bos en Lommerweg 313 in Amsterdam-West, open seven days a week from 9 a.m. In the morning there is soup and a few daily stews; from 12 noon the full menu is on, from the grill to lahmacun. We are open until 1 a.m. on weekdays and until 3 a.m. at the weekend; the kitchen closes half an hour earlier. You can eat in or take away, and delivery is available through Thuisbezorgd, Uber Eats or directly through our own ordering page.
All three soups are on the menu page under "Soups". Soup travels well as a take-away too; ask for the lemon on the side.