The rules of Turkish cuisine, as noticed by me

- add salt to everything. Everything needs more salt.

- yogurt makes everything better. Pasta, rice, meat, soup... yogurt is also an elixir that has the power to solve any and all health problems.

- drinking while you are eating a meal is optional. One glass of water is more than enough to last an entire meal.

- you can drink tea with anything. While I was in Norway at a pizza restaurant, my host brother drank tea. With pizza.

- on that note, tea is always available. Much like the fact that many workplaces have coffee pots in America, teakettles are pretty much ubiquitous.

- if you are my host brother and you are drinking something hot, add 3-5 sugar cubes. I've seen him add sugar to hot chocolate.

- if you buy something from the canteen at school, offer to share it with anyone who passes by, no matter what it may be. If they don't want any, insist.

- if someone offers you food and you don't wish to accept, patting your hand on your stomach a few times is an acceptable refusal.

- everything at the school canteen is made by Ülker.

- ayran (yogurt + water + salt) is delicious.

- so is kokoreç (lamb intestines).

- it seems like you drink Coke and/or Fanta more often than water.

- everybody loves American fast food: McDonalds and Burger King are the favorites, but Pizza Hut, Dominos and Dunkin' Donuts (in Istanbul) are also liked. Starbucks is nice, but expensive.

- real coffee is hard to find. People drink instant coffee, usually pre-sweetened. Turkish coffee isn't drunk all that regularly.

- ketchup and mayonnaise are the main condiments, used not only on fries, but also on pizza and pasta.

- eggs are always a little runny.

- white bread is delicious and should accompany all meals.

- a salad is topped with olive oil and lemon juice, maybe vinegar. Sometimes nar eksısı, which translates as... pomegranate vinegar?

- simit is the ultimate "grab and go" food, and you can buy it on the street for 50 kuruş. (Simit is a round type of bread covered with sesame seeds. Wiki it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simit)

- people love to extol the virtues of rakı, fish, and white cheese when consumed ensemble.

- dinner (at least in my house) always has soup.

- there are dozens of restaurants, yet they all serve the exact same thing. You can walk past a row of dönerciler (döner restaurants), all of which have exactly the same menu.

- (non-Turkish) ethnic food does not exist. (Italian pasta is an exception. I've heard Mexican food also exits, although I've yet to see any.) Turkish food tends to be simple, some might even say bland. People don't mix tastes - if something is spicy, it's spicy, and if something is sweet, it's sweet. Rice tastes like rice. Pasta tastes like pasta.

- the word "pasta" means "cake", while "kek" can also mean "cake", and "makarana" means not only macaroni, but all types of pasta.

- no pork.