The above photo is of “Yunus Et Market“. In English this means: “Dolphin Meat Market”. Unlike most butchers in Turkey, this butcher in Silifke specialises in dolphin meat.
The dolphin meat is a by-product of the tuna trawlers in the Adriatic. The butcher receives the meat at a discount price as it cannot be sold in the EU or EU member countries. With Turkey beginning official membership talks with the EU there is strong pressure for the trade to be made illegal, drastically affecting Yunus Et Market and other dolphin meat distributors.
I’ve never knowingly tasted dolphin meat so I can’t give a first-hand account. People have said the taste is a cross between game and red meat.
Although not official, I’ve heard one of the main uses for dolphin meat is as a filler for lamb and chicken doner stacks. Apparently the meat is very good for holding the doner stacks together and the flavour does not differ enough from either chicken or lamb to be greatly noticeable.
When you next have a doner in southern Turkey you may want to ask the restaurant if it contains dolphin meat.
Wow. I had no idea. I just assumed places like this called themselves “Yunus et” because they liked the name.
Denizden babam ciksa yerim.
Means ” I eat anything out of the sea”. Nothing wrog with the Dolphins 🙂
Oz and Anonymous – fooled you both 🙂
‘Yunus Et Market’ doesn’t actually sell dolphin meat. I though I may spin a yarn and see if I got a response. Could you imagine a random, standard butcher in Australia named ‘Dolphin Meat Market’? I don’t think so.
That should read ‘I thought I may spin a yarn…’
Actually if we translate it to English,it would be :
dolphin – meat market
and also yunus is a boy name in turkey 🙂