One day after Sveta and I had spent the day exploring the centre of Ankara up to our arses in snow in mid winter, we found ourselves cold, tired and hungry and in urgent need of a seat, a heat and an eat. We were in the old part of the city, right at the top of the hill near the fort, where all the tourists go and where all the carpet and brass shops are. We figured we could find somewhere quickly which served something veggie, but no, that wasn't to be the case. It was doner kebab everywhere, except for one helpful guy who offered to knock up an omlette.
After a while we gave in and opted for two out of three - a seat and a heat. We ordered tea and tried to ignore the smell of charred flesh from the grill. While waiting for the tea, I noticed a waiter carrying a small portion of what looked like yoghurt and I caught his attention and asked what it was. 'Cacik' he said. Well, actually he said, 'Jajik', but in Turkish you spell it 'cacik'. After a few minutes of wrestling with my dodgy Turkish, I managed to establish that it was indeed yoghurt, with sliced cucumbers, garlic and mint in it.
In the end we enjoyed a very good lunch. We had a portion of cacik each, with fresh hot bread and a handful of salty black olives which the waiter ran off to fetch from somewhere down the street.
Peel the cucumbers and the garlic. Slice the cucumbers in quarters lengthwise, then slice the resulting pieces thinly. Chop the garlic and mint finely and mix all the ingredients together.
As a snack, try serving cacik as I had it in Ankara, with fresh crusty bread and black olives or, for something more substantial, how about with tomato pilau and stewed green beans.
Also, check out my raita recipes which are similar dishes with an Indian slant.