Popular Turkish Food Guide and Authentic Turkish Dishes
Popular Turkish food can easily beat London, Paris, Milan, or New York for delicious tastes and flavours. From international fine dining establishments to traditional food from street vendors, Turks are passionate and proud of their culinary heritage. The various influences and flavours draw tastes and textures from this beautiful country and other areas that the Ottoman Empire conquered in history.
Additionally, Turkish food is world-renowned! Since Ottoman times, chefs have made the best dishes for sultans, and now, the traditional cuisine expanded into other countries. Although you can eat it anywhere, a trip to Turkey will convince you that Turks are culinary masters—the offerings are so delicious that you will return.
Several options suit every taste and preference, from seemingly endless breakfasts to wonderful stuffed vegetables, the vast array of different types of kebabs, and tasty meze platters. So, we have put together this guide to start you on your culinary journey. Let’s learn about the popular dishes and how the cuisine varies from region to region.
Guide to Popular Turkish Food
1. Kahvaltı or Turkish Breakfast
Turkish breakfast is more of an experience and traditional family gathering. There is no need to gather food on plates; everyone shares from the middle. Fresh fruit, cucumber, tomatoes, green and black olives, preserves, eggs, two or three varieties of cheese, and tons of fresh bread or börek are served in tiny dishes. Share the spread with good company while dipping it into dishes between sips of cay (tea).
A tradition of turks at the weekends is a true Köy kaval (village breakfast.) They head to outskirt villages, for the home made oraganic ingredients to eat in among the beauty of nature. Bafa lake is a favourite place for this on the Aegean coast, where locals flock from Bodrum, Altinkum, Soke and Kusadasi. Over in Bursa, most people head to Cumalıkızık, which is also UNESCO listed thanks to the Ottoman architecture.
2. Borek Pastries
These baked, filled pastries made of layers of filo pastries, called yuka include fillings of either cheese, potatoes, or spinach. They’re great for breakfast, the perfect snack during the day, or an excellent option for picnics. Sigara Börek is perhaps the most well-loved. These crispy white cheese and herb-filled rolls vaguely resemble cigarettes, hence the name.
Then there's the popular breakfast choice of Su Börek (water börek), which is like warm white cheese lasagna. Other options are Gul Börek (rose börek), which refers to tasty spirals of either feta cheese or spinach-filled pastry, and Kol Börek, a meat or cheese-filled puff pastry pocket. For snacks on the hop, head to local bakeries and sample the börek —it's cheap and tasty.
3. Gozleme -Anatolian Dish
This translates into a stuffed 'pancake.' This savoury traditional flatbread, made of hand-rolled dough and lightly brushed with oil, is often sold in markets as a snack. Stuff the inside with ingredients, like cheese, potatoes, greens, or eggplant. Sprinkle some pepper flakes over the top for an extra kick.
4. Iskender Kebab
Famous all over Turkey, this is not a dish to make at home! Thin slices of lamb or beef in a tomato-based sauce are served over cubes of pide bread with yoghurt and grilled vegetables by the side. Initially invented in the Kayhan Bazaar, Bursa is the home of the Iskender kebab. Specifically, look for the Kebapci Iskender restaurant with blue exteriors because the dish was born here.
5. Mantı With Garlic Yogurt and Red Pepper Oil
Probably the cosiest and most famous dish, Mantı is like a dumpling or ravioli. While usually filled with minced lamb mixture, the mixture varies throughout the regions. This dish takes time and usually is fun to make with family or friends. The size of your Manti, the smaller, the better, highlights your kitchen skills.
6. Meze and Oodles of Exquisite Tastes
Meze, or appetisers, are a perfect start to any meal. Eggplant, salads, and yoghurt-based mezes are usually the favourites. Often served with pita bread, along the coastal regions, mezes paired with 'rakıbalık,' a traditional liquorice alcoholic drink of Rakı and fish, become an evening affair accompanied by live music! Two popular types in restaurants are Acli Ezme and Haydari. Since most are vegetable dishes, they are suitable for vegetarians. Sprinkle with pepper flakes or olive oil for added taste.
7. Döner Kebab Meat
Doner means something that turns. The seasoned meat stacked onto a giant skewer slowly turns to cook next to a vertical rotisserie. The vendor slices the Döner Kebab off in thin strips, leaving the next section underneath, ready to cook. They add the meat to circular or lavas-style bread with pickles and tomatoes.
Chicken or lamb is served from a revolving spit in fresh pide, half-bread or lavas (wraps). It comes with salad and garlic or chilli sauce for a spicy kick. You get the regular versions, and some restaurants focus on meat over coals or wood, resulting in utterly delicious flavours. If kebabs are your favourite food, try the Shish kebab, while vegetarians will prefer the aubergine kebab.
8: Baklava and Nutty Flavors
Baklava, the sweet pastry, is the most popular dessert! The base features layers of phyllo dough, different spices, and ground pistachios. The pastry layers are soaked in hot simple syrup for an aromatic taste—think nutty flavours galore. The best version is from Gaziantep, which the Ottoman Empire influenced. The phyllo dough is carefully layered, and only locally grown pistachios are used.
9. Corba
Corba refers to soup, and Turks love a big bowl of comforting goodness, especially as a start to an evening meal or after a heavy night on the town. Mercimek (lentil) is popular or spicy, as is tomato or chicken soup. For the adventurous, head along to a lokanta (local restaurant) and try İşkembe (tripe) or Kelle Paça (sheep brain), both speciality soups with lashings of garlic sauce. Soup, a staple traditional cuisine, is also eaten for breakfast.
10. Varieties of Köfte
Köfte refers to meatballs. There's the grilled variety served with fresh vegetables, chips, and bulgur rice to the side or many regional variations, like baked in sauce, spiced with different herbs, or wrapped in flatbread with salad and eaten as a snack.
Cig Kofte used to be raw ground beef, but changes in the law meant vendors had to stop selling it. So, these days, the kofte sold on the streets is, in fact, bulgar rice. Inegol Kofte is another version. But the best kofte is from the BBQ.
11. Pide Baked in an Oven
This crispy flatbread is delicious! A thin, crispy, boat-shaped base filled with cheese and sucuk (spicy beef sausage), vegetables, ground meat or spinach, chopped up in slices and served with seasonal salad, chilli flakes, and lemon juice. Pide makes a fabulous lunch. There are several versions, and many restaurants sell takeaways. For thinner alternatives, try lahmacun cooked in a wood-fired oven.
12. Dolma to Tempt your Taste Buds
People who know Balkan food will associate dolma with stuffed vine leaves, but the concept refers to anything stuffed. Stuffed bell peppers, aubergines, and tomatoes are popular versions. For vegetarians, opt for spiced rice with currants, black pepper, and pine nuts. For meat lovers, mince and onion are great choices.
13: Turkish Delight
Turkish delight, or lokum, was invented in Istanbul, Turkey, during the 15th century. The Ottoman sultan wanted something sweet, and the inventor Haci Bekir, come up with this delectable delight. The sultans and their court often enjoyed the sweet confection and aromatic tastes and sold it across this beautiful country and abroad.
If you are in Istanbul, look for the Haci Bekir shop in Taksim Square, which has been handed down through generations and is the best place to buy. Do try the almond-filled Turkish delight for crunchy flavours.
14: Kumpir - Jacket Potato
Baked potato, a popular street food, is taken to another level by Turks. Cutting up huge, crispy potatoes and mixing the inside with lashings of butter, they then cover it with every topping you could ever want or imagine. This popular Turkish street food can include green peppers, chilli flakes, cheese, tomatoes, onion, and much more. If you are in Istanbul, head to Ortakoy, specifically Kumpir Avenue, where baked potato vendors set up stalls.
15: Turkish ice Cream for Extra Flavour
Turkish ice cream, called dondurma, is famous for its stretchy, sticky texture. This distinctive texture is from salep flour of orchid tubers, mastic resin, natural gum, milk, sugar, and cream. Vendors often put on playful shows while serving the ice cream, teasing and entertaining customers by manipulating the elastic ice cream with long metal paddles.
In addition to the playful serving style, ice cream in Turkey is denser and chewier than typical ice cream, creating a more satisfying mouthfeel for those who enjoy a rich and creamy dessert. Most Turks agree that the best ice cream is from Kahramanmaras.
16: Turkish Midye
Midye, also called stuffed mussels, is a summer street food that locals and visitors love. These mussels, filled with seasoned rice, pine nuts, currants, and aromatic spices, are sold in lemon wedges. Use fingers or a small fork to gently pry open the shells. Then add a squeeze of lemon juice over the midye to add citrusy flavours to the spices. The combination of flavours and textures is truly delightful.
17: Turkish Menemen
Now we come to a dish served for breakfast, brunch, or just a snack: Saute green peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Crack an egg into the mixture and sprinkle with chilli or black pepper flakes. Top with olive oil and serve with crispy bread. This vegetable dish suits vegetarians, and although there are regional varieties, most foreigners agree that it satisfies the soul.
Regional Varieties of Turkish Cuisine
Aegean and Mediterranean Kitchens
Mediterranean and Aegean food is much healthier than anywhere else. The warm, dry climate and rich soil generate several vegetables year-round, and the area is renowned for olives. Fragrant olive oil is the base of most dishes; no home is complete without it, even used as a replacement for butter. Also healthy, fresh fish caught in local waters replaces meat at mealtimes.
Dishes called ‘Zeytinyağlı’, meaning “with olive oil”, are predominantly vegetarian meze dishes. ‘Zeytinyağlı Fasulye’ is made with romano beans and cooked with tomatoes and onions. How about ‘zeytinyağlı barbunya’? A delicious and healthy dish of pinto beans with tomatoes, onion, garlic, and carrots, like other ‘zeytinyağlı’ dishes, doused in lashings of olive oil! Scrumptious!
It is not just olive oil dishes that make the table, though. Try ‘dolma’ or ‘patlican salata’, a grilled eggplant salad. ‘Hummus’ is incredibly popular and delicious when spread with hot pepper paste on warm bread.
Tastes from the Black Sea Region
The Black Sea is Turkey’s culinary misfit. Many people associate Turkey with kebabs and tables full of meze, but on the north coast, the cuisine is like America’s deep south. The food is simple, tasty, filling, and home-cooked. Think cornbread, collard greens, and smoky bean stews. The region is famous for its wet and windy climate, which is ideal for growing the area’s renowned produce, including tea, corn, and hazelnuts.
However, one treat keeps popping up. Hamsi’! Hamsi are anchovies that end up on every plate across the North Coast. These little fish are incredibly cheap. 1kg would feed a family of four. Black sea Turks use them in soups, stews, bread, rice, and cakes. They have even written poetry about them!
To enjoy anchovies in the Turkish style, bake them with seasoning or cover them with flour and spices and deep fry them. ‘Hamsi pilavı’ is easy to prepare: spiced rice enclosed in fried anchovies. Aside from anchovies, try the incredible ‘mıhlama’, a corn meal, butter, and cheese fondue that melts on crusty bread.
Turkish Gastronomy from Eastern Turkey
Here, dishes get spicier, and meat takes the place of fish. Spices are defining features of this region on the former spice and silk routes. Hot pepper flakes, paprika, dried sumac and mint are popular flavours that marinate an astonishing variety of meat dishes, from refuse to kebabs. The Eastern Turks love their meat. Lamb, beef, poultry mixed with vegetables and sometimes fruits are cooked over a wood fire after spicing.
Eating a long lineup of starters or meze is just as important in the southeast as near the Aegean. However, the selection of meze is very different. Hot flat bread spread with sweet butter and crumbled goat cheese, hot pepper and tomato salsa drizzled with pomegranate syrup, and roasted eggplant with garlic in olive oil are meze selections that are just perfect before a plate of spicy kebab.
Gaziantep, in southeast Turkey, is the food capital. You may find a side order of pistachios, pomegranates, or plums, but the core staples are spicy meat and spicy stews. Try ‘şiveydiz’, a stew made with lamb, garlic, and pistachios, with yoghurt, or ‘ali naik’, the region's most famous dish, smoked and spiced eggplant topped with cubes of spiced and marinated lamb with a side of rice.
Need to Know - Turkish Bread
Put aside sweet tooths to learn about Turkish bread. This staple part of Turkish gastronomy earns much respect, and we don't know many Turks who will eat a meal without it. However, it is a gift from God, so don't throw away bread. If there is excess, Turks hand it out, and at Ramadan, many charities give it away alongside other Turkish dishes.
About Turkish Tea and Coffee
Although popular Turkish food is worth learning about, remember the two indispensable drinks: tea and coffee. Black tea, grown in the Eastern Black Sea region, is essential to Turkish culture. Turkish coffee, made with a brewing method invented by Turks, is stewed in a unique pot called cezve. After the raw coffee beans are roasted and milled, they are prepared and served with a frothy top. If you enjoyed this Turkish food guide, find out more about Turkish drinks in our extensive guide here.
Fethiye
