Traditional Turkish Food

  • Kokorec

    Kokoreç is one of the most distinctive and polarizing dishes in Turkish street food culture: lamb or goat intestines wrapped around skewered offal —… Continue reading

  • Sutlac

    There is something almost meditative about a bowl of sütlaç — the Turkish rice pudding whose simplicity belies its extraordinary depth of tradition. Continue reading

  • Patlican Musakka

    Patlıcan musakka — Turkish eggplant moussaka — is the Turkish interpretation of a dish that appears, in various forms, across the entire former Ottoman… Continue reading

  • Midye Dolma

    Midye dolma — stuffed mussels — is one of Istanbul’s most iconic street foods: large black-shelled mussels stuffed with a fragrant mixture of spiced… Continue reading

  • Kazandibi

    Kazandibi — literally “the bottom of the cauldron” — is one of the most distinctively Turkish of all the country’s many milk puddings, and one of the… Continue reading

  • Sulu Kofte

    Sulu köfte — broth meatballs — represents the gentlest and most comforting end of the Turkish köfte spectrum: small, soft meatballs of minced lamb or… Continue reading

  • Kumpir

    Kumpir is Turkey’s magnificent answer to the baked potato — and it is anything but modest. Continue reading

  • Tavuk Gogsu

    Tavuk göğsü — chicken breast pudding — is perhaps the most surprising dessert in the Turkish repertoire: a smooth, silky milk pudding containing… Continue reading

  • Yayla Corbasi

    Yayla çorbası — highland or plateau soup — takes its evocative name from the high summer pastures of the Anatolian mountains, where shepherds have… Continue reading

  • Karalahana Sarmasi

    Karalahana sarması — Black Sea cabbage rolls — is the Black Sea coast’s magnificent contribution to the great Turkish sarma tradition: dark, wrinkled… Continue reading