Turkish pizza

Weird question, maybe, but is Turkish pizza a thing in America?
It might be called lahmacun there. Wood oven-cooked flatbread with a thin shmear of spicy meat paste.
Over here, we usually get it rolled up like a pancake in a tin-foil wrapper (bad, baaaad, choice). In fact, I don't know of any other way to get it, but the websites I've checked always show it, uhm... unfurled, if you will.

So, what do you call it and how do you eat it?

 

I'm not a foodie, so I don't know how qualified I am to answer, but I've never heard if. Flatbread dishes and gyros are well known though.

 

I don't think you need to be a foodie for this. Not in the Netherlands, anyway. As far as I know it counts as a snack. I get it at a snackbar, which in usually not where we get "foodie" stuff.
For the record, I'm not a foodie either. I just stick stuff in my face and inhale.

 

I've 77 years old and I grew up in the pizza capital of the northeastern United States. We have Italian pizza, Greek Pizza, Chicago deep dish pizza -- but I have never heard or Turkish pizza. I'm going to say the answer to your question is, "No."

And I have never encountered anything such as you describe under a name other than pizza.

 

In that case I think it's safe to say I'm gonna have to change the character's order.

 

You may not have to, depending on the scene. If it's clear that they went to a Mediterranean style restaurant and the character says "I'd like the Turkish pizza" I think most readers will not be bothered by it. I'd see what your beta readers say, assuming you have some American ones lined up.

 

Meh. It's no big issue. It's more of a food truck situation and what they order isn't really important, but for some reason I can't think of a different food truck food I'd like them to eat.
If this is the peak of the problems I will have with my story, I'm quite fine with it.

 

There's also Turkish pide (pee-day) which is similar to pizza:

 

I wouldn't expect to find that sort of thing in an ordinary food truck. Whether you could find it in a restaurant is a different question. I would be scratching my head if someone called it pizza though. I know what pizza is supposed to look like.

 

My wife and I went to a Turkish place and had pide on our first date. I've at least heard of lahmacun too. So I wouldn't think it was too weird but I live in a big city.

 

Then how have you not choked to death?

I think anyone who calls themself a "foodie" needs to reassess. Its like me calling myself an "oxygeny"

 

I respectfully disagree. Since this area has innumerable restaurants for the Greek, Mediterranean, and Middle eastern varieties and I have never encountered even a passing mention of something called either "Turkish pizza" or lahmacun (and my friend's wife, who is Turkish, has never mentioned it), I'm going to suggest that having a character ask for Turkish pizza is going to cause a minor "?????" moment for the reader.

Never heard of that, either -- but I note that someone has.

 

That's why I said to see what beta readers say. I'd just skip over it and assume it's some type of obscure food I've never seen before.

 

I've never heard of it, and I'm an extremely adventurous eater. I've also performed in a bunch of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurants and have never seen it on the menu, so it's a pretty obscure reference.

That said, if I ran across it in a book, I'd just google it quickly and appreciate being introduced to a dish I'd not heard of before. One of the many reasons I read is to learn new things, so it wouldn't bother me at all.

 

You can get lahmacun in Los Angeles at a number of restaurants. At least one of them lists it under the heading 'pide' on the menu. I don't see a reason to change the character's order if he/she is in the appropriate type of restaurant.

 

It's oddly amusing, this whole Turkish pizza thing. Most I expected in replies was a yes or a no and "now get off my forum!"
What seems to be considered 'exotic' overseas is basically just something you stuff in your face when you stumble drunk out of the pub at 4am over here.

I kinda expected LA, yeah. I understand they even have some Dutch specialties. Whoever figured they could hock a broodje hagelslag at a premium is a friggin' genius.
Anyway, the place I get my Turkish pizzas also offers stuff on pide bread.

Not one single bit. It's a real stupid thing, this. I thought about tacos first, but I know you can't eat those without making a mess. Now, at no point I would have to reference the way they eat it since there's a conversation going on, but I just couldn't go with tacos. Reader may not care, but I will know. I will know, man!
Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with anything better. As soon as you let "I will know" become a thing, you suddenly get a lot of idiotic reasons not to go with a certain food.
Ham sandwiches, for example, don't seem like something that would make one go "But they have the best ham sandwiches around."

We do get those rolled up, because those are exactly the things I'm talking about. So we've figured out they made it to London. ;o)

 

Ate that all the time as a kid. Either hagelslag or muisjes. You can also get bitterballen in Los Angeles.

 

I'm not a particular connoisseur of Dutch food, but the increasingly widespread availability of stroopwafel I've noticed here in the States has been one of the bright spots of the last 5-10 years.

 

Dude, they come dipped in chocolate too now. It's like, they invented stroopwafels and then God said, "I think we can do better. Hold my beer."

 

Those are the soft little cracker waffles with caramel sauce between them, right? Import food shops have them.

 

One of the higher-end department stores in the city has an excellent cheese section in its supermarket area (all department stores have supermarkets. I dunno). 'Cept the prices are ridonkulously high, like $40/lb for a very nice Wisconsin cheddar. I asked the dude what was up and he said that their international distributor was in Europe, so the American cheeses first go across the pond, then get imported farther and farther eastwards until they hit the west coast of the Pacific Ocean.