This document provides suggestions for food and drink pairings with rakı in various cuisines. It begins by explaining how mezes, or small portion appetizers, easily adapt to different cuisines and are well-suited to accompany rakı. The document then provides lists of starter, salad, main dish, and dessert suggestions from Austrian and Turkish cuisines to inspire new rakı pairing experiences. Dishes include olives, cacık, grilled meats, schnitzel, goulash, strudel, baklava, and others. The goal is to showcase how rakı can enhance meals and bring harmony to global cuisines.

1. Funda Inansal
rakı harmony in global cuisine
Austria
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2. Funda Güzelmeriç Inansal
Funda Güzelmeriç Inansal founded her own business with the advertising sector experience she gained in
Ajans Ultra during her university years in 1990. Her company was active in glass production and export for
10 years in Turkey. Simultaneously she marketed her products internationally with her important partner
active in foreign trade in Hong Kong. She took place in the founding period of Konya Cam as founding
shareholder. In addition to her other business activities, in 1995 she entered the food & beverage sector
and she took the first steps by franchising international restaurant chains in this area which she was
interested in. She opened the restaurants such as Chez Bouvier, Santa Lucia and Belgo in Turkey.
She has had his expertise in food and beverage sector by the trainings she got abroad and she has been
still transferring her expertise to the sector with her consultancy firm, Dude Table which is very different
from traditional consultancy firms by creating its own creative gastronomy projects such as Restaurant
Week for the companies as a solution partner. She has been aiming to take Turkish cuisine to higher levels
on the international platform by her “LocalisBeautiful” project.
Funda Güzelmeriç Inansal, who has been taking part in a lot of social responsibility projects in education
and creative thinking, is one of the founders of Creative Children Association and board of trustees
member of Cappadocia Vocational School of Higher Education.

3. OfferingYeniRakıtoyourguestsisanopportunitytointroducethem
not only to the pleasure of the drink, but also to a new experience of
established rituals, presentation and gastronomy. Easily spawning
its own gastronomy within different cuisines, rakı is the ideal
accompaniment to an enjoyable meal, sharing, conversation and
entertainment.
The main reason why mezes, the basis for rakı gastronomy, adapt so readily to all cuisines, is that they
are snack foods and starters served in small portions, and consumed with different rituals. These small
portioned dishes accompanying spirits have different names in different countries depending on their
lifestyle and food rituals, such as ‘tapas’ in Spain, but all these names correspond to the concept of ‘meze’.
Themanydifferentflavoursinsnackfoodsor“appetisers,”coldstartersandhotstarterscaneachbecome
a perfect meze when served in small portions. Rakı will inspire you based on the basic harmony principles
detailed in the guide. Regardless of how the rakı will be drunk – as an aperitif or an accompaniment to a
long and enjoyable dinner – the pleasant times will start with the one and only constant: mezes.
Keep in mind that the technical aspects are not the only criteria in rakı-food harmony; the culinary
customs and rituals of different countries encourage you to discover the best harmony. In thıs guide,
which provides basic rules for the pairing of foods with rakı, you will find, in addition to traditional national
dishes, examples of new dishes based on local tradition, fusion between national cusines, and complex
dishes from the menus of Michelin-star chefs.
The dishes in this guide have been selected as suggestions in order to inspire you to explore rakı
gastronomy even further. Together with the mezes that you will prepare thanks to the experience and
creativity of your chefs and suggestions from your service team, Yeni Rakı can also assist you in creating
new experiences.
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4. Starters
• Liptauer – creamy soft cheese with red pepper and herbs
• Breaded and fried celeriac
• Knödel – potato dumpling
• Meat pie
• Sacher Eck – onion quiche
• Sacher Tafelspitz aspic – beef with lamb’s lettuce
• Original Sacher goose-liver cake
• Egg dumplings
• Fried cheese dumplings
• Leberkäse – speciality baked meat loaf
• Krautrouladen – stuffed cabbage with beef and potatoes
• Saure Nieren – kidneys cooked in tart sauce
• Tiroler Kalbsleber – calf’s liver, Tyrolean style
• White asparagus with brown butter sauce
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6. Turkish Starters
• Olives
• Cacık – mint yoghurt with garlic and chopped cucumber
• Közde Patlıcan – grilled aubergine
• Yaprak Sarma – vine leaves stuffed with a meat and rice filling
• Acılı Antep Ezmesi – spicy purée of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers
• Şakşuka – grilled marinated aubergines and chillis in tomato sauce
• Fava – creamed broad beans seasoned with dill & olive oil
• İmam Bayıldı – aubergine with caramelised onions cooked in olive oil
• Grilled aubergines and Charleston chilli served with a yoghurt and garlic sauce
• Lahmacun (Turkish pizza) – a thin crust topped with minced lamb, tomatoes, onions & parsley
• Sucuk Izgara – lightly spiced Turkish sausage, grilled and served with grilled tomatoes
• Sigara Borek – filo pastry delicately rolled and stuffed with feta cheese and parsley
• Chicke n liver – sautéed chicken liver, caramelised onions
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7. Salad
• Viennese herring salad
• Porcini and potato fritters with lamb’s lettuce
• Cucumber salad
• Viennese red cabbage salad
• Viennese veal – asparagus salad
• Endive salad with potatoes
• Traditional Turkish Çoban salad – fresh diced tomatoes, diced cucumber, onions, fresh parsley, fresh
lemon, dressed with olive oil
Main Dishes
• Wiener schnitzel – fried and breaded veal escalope
• Backhendl schnitzel – fried and breaded chicken
• Paprikahendl – roast chicken with sweet red pepper
• Tafelspitz – boiled veal
• Fried veal liver, Viennese style
• Viennese Salon Beuschel – ragout made with heart and lungs
• Rindsrouladen – beef roulade
• Zwiebelrostbraten – steak with crispy onions
• Selchfleisch – smoked, cooked meat with sauerkraut and dumplings.
• Vanillerostbraten – Vanilla roast beef cutlet with garlic, salt, pepper, butter, and onions
• Sirloin à la Esterházy – beef sirloin à la Esterházy, sliced finely in strips with onion, bacon and vegetables
• Venison with rowanberries and chestnuts with pears
• Sirloin with onions, fried potatoes and gherkin mustard
• Sacher-style Reisfleisch (meat with rice)
• Trout Quartet – with freshwater trout, noodles, spinach and trout caviar
• Goulash – meat stew with vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices.
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8. • Fish Goulash – fish stew with vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices
• Sautéed fish with sauerkraut
• Roast lamb potato fritter
• Offal stew (beef liver, spleen, sweetbread, heart, lungs)
• Braised veal shanks
• Braised veal and rice
• Veal ragout
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10. Turkish Main Dishes
• Ala Nazik – tender lamb and aubergine purée with browned flour
• Beef moussaka – layers of aubergine, minced beef & tomatoes
• Minced meat & rice wrapped in vine leaves
• Grilled spicy beef shish kebabs with grilled vegetables
• Grilled shish meatballs & grilled onion, tomatoes
• Shish kebab – cubes of lamb on a skewer, cooked over charcoal and served with rice and salad
• Kebabs with mashed potato – sautéed, diced lamb cubes with peppers tomatoes and herbs served on
a bed of mashed potato
• Iskender kebabs – vertically roasted lamb slices with yoghurt & tomato sauce
• Spiced slow-roasted shoulder of lamb seasoned with wild thyme
•Seafoodcasserole–kingprawns,monkfish,scallops&shrimpssimmeredwithMediterraneanvegetables
and herbs in a regional tomato sauce served with bulgur
Dessert
• Strudel with cottage cheese filling
• Palatschinken – thin crêpes
• Funkenküchlein – deep-fried dough with sugar and cinnamon
• Marillenknödel – apricot dumplings
• Palatschinken – pancakes with fruit sauce
• Kaiserschmarrn – thick pancake with raisins
• Powidltascherl – plum jam turnovers
• Topfenknödel – curd cheese dumplings with fruits
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11. Turkish Desserts
• Kunefe – shredded wheat, fresh unsalted white cheese, pistachios, honey syrup
• Su muhallebisi – cubes of milk pudding & rose syrup with berries & nuts
- Kadayıf – shredded wheat with pistachios and syrup served with clotted cream
• Kazandibi – upside-down milk pudding with a caramelised top and cinnamon powder
• Baklava – a rich, sweet pastry filled with chopped pistachios and sweetened with syrup
• Sütlaç – a rich creamed rice pudding
• Halva – warm semolina dessert
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