[Sca-cooks] Street food?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I suppose it also kind of depends on what is considered "street food".

In the Ottoman capital of Kostantiniyye (Contantinople) barely 6 per cent of homes had kitchens, so much of the population bought ready-cooked food, since the cost of kitchen ware and especially of fuel would be too much for the average person to bear: an unskilled laborer earned 4 to 7 akce [ahk-jeh] per day, a master artisan between 8 and 12.

There were quite a few food booths and wandering vendors. Sheep's heads and feet were popular: one head in vinegar sauce with four feet and some bread sold for 1 akce.

A borek sold for 1 akce and weighed 1-1/4 lb. (576 g). It was made of 11-1/4 oz. (320 g) bread dough, 8 oz. (224 g) meat and more than 1 oz (32 g) onions. This was enough to feed a family, and not much like delicate modern borek made with flakey phyllo.

There were also kebabs - chunks of meat - cooked in a variety of ways. And there were soups, which are a basic Turkic food item.

There were also ambulatory vendors selling cooked sweets: helva with almonds, with grapes, and "homemade helva" (hanegi) the composition of which is unknown - helva were often made of sugar, butter, and wheat starch cooked together, although there were other kinds as well.

I am not certain if they were around before 1601, but by the 17th c there were also ambulatory vendors of water and of sherbet (fruit syrup beverages).

During the festivals held for the circumcisions of the sultans' sons, the palace distributed food to the populace and presented parades of life-size sculptures of sugar, which were later left to the populace to pillage.

Urtatim