Turkish cuisine is diverse and delicious, featuring a wide variety of dishes that blend Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Mediterranean influences. From hearty stews to flaky pastries, the flavors of Turkey reflect its location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Here’s an overview of some of the most popular and iconic foods in Turkish cuisine.
Typical Turkish Meals
A typical meal starts with soup (especially in wintertime), followed by a dish made of vegetables (olive oil or with ground meat), meat or legumes boiled in a pot (typically with meat or minced meat), often with or before Turkish pilav, pasta or bulgur pilav accompanied by a salad or cacık (diluted cold yogurt dish)
Turks usually prefer a rich breakfast with dishes like menemen (scrambled eggs), sucuk (spicy Turkish sausage), pastries like borek and gozleme, olives, cheeses, honey, kaymak (clotted cream), fruit preserves, honey, butter, kaymak, sucuk, and more. Tea is usually served Turkish style – strong and hot in small tulip-shaped glasses.
Lunch is usually the main meal of the day, with a variety of hot and cold dishes Dinner is often lighter, with leftovers, salads, and soups Snacks like simit (sesame rings), roasted chestnuts or corn, dried fruits and nuts are commonly sold by street vendors.
Popular Turkish Dishes
Meze (Appetizers)
- Hummus
- Tarama salad (fish roe dip)
- Dolma (stuffed vine leaves)
- Sigara boregi (fried cheese rolls)
Breads & Pastries
- Simit (sesame ring bread)
- Pide (Turkish flatbread)
- Borek (savory phyllo pastry)
- Poğaça (soft breakfast rolls)
Soups & Stews
- Mercimek (lentil)
- Ezogelin (red lentil)
- İşkembe (tripe)
- Kelle paça (sheep’s head)
- İşkembe çorbası (tripe soup)
Veggie Dishes
- Imam bayildi (stuffed eggplant)
- Fasulye (green beans)
- Bamya (okra)
- Karnıyarık (stuffed eggplant)
Meat Dishes
- İskender kebap
- Köfte (meatballs)
- Lahmacun (Turkish pizza)
- Islak burger (wet burger)
Seafood
- Hamsi (anchovies)
- Levrek (sea bass)
- Çipura (sea bream)
- Midye dolma (stuffed mussels)
Desserts
- Baklava
- Künefe
- Lokma
- Katmer
- Dondurma (Turkish ice cream)
Drinks
- Turkish tea (çay)
- Türk kahvesi (Turkish coffee)
- Ayran (salty yogurt drink)
- Şerbet (sweet fruit drink)
Street Foods
Street food is an integral part of Turkish food culture. Some popular street eats include:
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Kokoreç – Seasoned lamb or goat intestines wrapped around a skewer and grilled
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Midye dolma – Mussels stuffed with spiced rice.
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Islak hamburger – A wet hamburger topped with tomato salsa and yogurt.
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Balık ekmek – Grilled fish sandwiches served with onions and lemon.
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Gözleme – Savory stuffed flatbread, either sealed or open.
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Simit – Round bread rings covered in sesame seeds.
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Döner kebab – Thin slices of rotating meat served in bread with veggies.
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Simid – Bagels served with cheese or meat fillings.
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Boza – A thick, sweet fermented wheat drink.
Regional Variations
Turkish cuisine has many regional specialties and differences:
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Southeastern Turkish cuisine features baklava, lahmacun, kebabs, vegetables.
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Central Anatolian cuisine includes etli ekmek (meaty bread), höşmerim, ayran.
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Aegean cuisine features olive oil, vegetables, herbs, fish. Dishes like deniz börülcesi (sea beans) are popular.
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Black Sea cuisine uses fish like hamsi (anchovies), corn flour, cabbage dishes.
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Eastern Turkish cuisine influenced by Arabic cuisines, dishes like çiğ köfte (bulgur patties) are common.
No matter where you travel in Turkey, you’ll find delicious specialties that showcase both local and national flavors. The Turkish people are proud of their cuisine and generous hosts. So grab a table, order an array of meze, and dive into the incredible diversity of Turkish food!
Dessert, coffee, and tea
One cant really talk about Turkish cuisine without touching upon the famous coffee, tea, and sweets. Turkish coffee isnt so much a type of coffee as it is a style of preparation that involves finely grinding the beans, boiling them with sugar, and serving it in a small, concentrated cup, grounds and all. (The grounds are not ingested.) But dont think that Turks are drinking this every morning on their way to work: regular coffee and espresso drinks are equally popular, so when Turkish people drink Türk khavesi, its often savored after a meal.
Far more ubiquitous is Turkish tea, or çay (chai). Youre offered tea when browsing at a shop, when sitting down to a meal, when grabbing a seat at a streetside cafe — just about anywhere. Never say yes to the apple tea version (its completely artificial and designed to appeal to tourists only!) and reach for the black tea instead. The best versions will be smooth and flavorful, so pleasant that no sugar is necessary. (Milk is out of the question!)
Candy shops and bakeries are everywhere, just in case youre in the mood for a sugary snack. I tried many versions of baklava, and I have to say that most of them were not as fresh as Id hoped, even at stores that were purported to be the best in town. But I was delighted by the sheer variations of phyllo, nut, and honey pastries everywhere: round, square, triangular, stuffed with walnuts, topped with pistachio.
I was surprised to learn how many people have never heard of Turkish delight, or lokum, in the States, because its such a popular treat in the UK. These gummy gelées — available in flavors like pistachio, rose, lemon, and bergamot — are made with starch and sugar, cubed, and then dusted with powdered sugar (shown above at the far left). But we also saw lokum (pronounced “loh-KOOM”) prepared the Ottoman way: sweetened with honey, formed into long logs with corners, rolled in pistachios and other nuts, and sliced off as needed, like a loaf of country bread.
Now that Ive made myself sufficiently hungry, Im going to go hunt down a sweet snack. Im pretty sure I still have some lokum saved especially for this occasion.
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