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Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 351 Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 2470 TURKISH CHEESE COMPANION T he Turkish Cultural Foundation says cheese is an indispensible ingredient on Turkish tables and is eaten throughout the day, from breakfast until bedtime. The country has more than 100 types of cheese, with many regional favorites. Here are a handful of popular varieties. Erzincan tulumu: strong, white, buttery, mostly sheep's milk cheese produced in mountainous regions of Erzincan; often served as an appetizer, crumbled and eaten with walnuts and bread Izmir tulumu: Aegean sheep's or mixed-milk cheese made with salt water, resulting in a slightly salty, hard cheese dotted with tiny holes; a versatile cheese that can be sliced for sandwiches or cooked with sauces and other foods Kars gravyeri: high-fat cow's milk made in Anatolia, similar to Gruyere and often eaten with bread, particularly thick Turkish bread Kaşar: made from sheep's milk, produced in large wheels, and can be aged for six months; a popular cheese for breakfast but also eaten on toast, grated on pizza, and more Van otlu peyniri: sheep's milk cheese made in spring and flavored with wild herbs; often eaten with breakfast on the street corners of large American cities, and soon to join them in greater abundance may be one of Turkey's other popular snacks: simit, a doughnut-shaped bread dipped in molasses, thinned with water, and coated in sesame seeds that some compare to an oversized bagel. An Istanbul-born entrepreneur, Gokhan Cakmak, is the president of Simit + Smith, a new chain of shops in New York and New Jersey offering the baked good. Made without preservatives or chemicals and hand-rolled, simit is baked until crusty on the outside and soft within. "We are making exactly Istanbul street-style simit," Cakmak asserts. Simit + Smith's first branch opened in New York City in 2012, SPRING 2014 73 cuisineSpotlight_turkey.indd 73 3/17/14 9:21 AM