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10 Traditional Turkish foods you must try in Turkey

  • Turkey

Last updated: 07 August, 2024

From gozleme pancakes to filo meze, sweet baklava to fiery raki, we asked Turkish specialist Annabelle Thorpe to select the Turkish foods and flavours you must try while you’re in Turkey.

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Table of Contents

Baklava

  • Turkey

baklava on a market in Istanbul

Experience

Sticky, nutty and sweet, baklava is the perfect way to end a Turkish meal; layers of filo pastry, drenched in honey and syrup and topped with pistachio

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Cig Borek

  • Turkey

Turkish meat pie fried in oil ( Cig borek - Raw pie or Tatar pie

Experience

A popular hot meze dish, cig borek are rolls of filo pastry (shaped like a cigar), traditionally filled with feta cheese and parsley. Borek can also come in triangles, like a samosa, filled with minced meat and spices.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Guvec

  • Turkey

Turkish and Arabic Traditional Ramadan Food Lamb Kavurma Guvec with hot red pepper. Top view on white rustic wood background.

Experience

A hot, bubbling casserole often served on a hot plate and bubbling with cheese, guvec can be made with either meat (usually lamb or chicken) or seafood – a prawn guvec is arguably the best.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Gozleme

  • Turkey

Traditional Turkish food gozleme with cheese and spinach. Turkish pancake gozleme concept on the dark background.

Experience

Turkey’s favourite street food, gozleme are thin, crepe-like pancakes cooked on a flat hot stone, and filled with spiced potato, feta and herbs or minced meat.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Imam Bayaldi

  • Turkey

clsoe up of Imam bayaldy - stuffed aubergines

Experience

The translation of this rich aubergine and tomato dish is ‘the priest fainted’ – presumably because it was so delicious. Aubergines are sliced lengthways and stuffed with tomatoes, onions, spices and pine nuts and poached in the oven.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Manti

  • Turkey

Turkish Manti with red pepper, tomato sauce, yogurt and mint. Plate of traditional Turkish food

Experience

A classic Anatolian dish of tiny dumplings and minced meat (usually lamb) drenched in a thick yoghurt sauce. Top with chilli flakes and dried herbs to really boost the flavour.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Menemen

  • Turkey

Traditional turkish food menemen, made by eggs, tomatoes, sesame and various spices.

Experience

A tasty breakfast dish of eggs scrambled with slowly-sauteed peppers and tomatoes, served with hunks of freshly-made bread.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Pide

  • Turkey

Turkish pide with minced meat, Turkish name; Kiymali Pide. Traditional Turkish cuisine. Turkish pizza Pita with meat.

Experience

The Turkish equivalent of pizza, a ‘pide salonu’ is a fast-food eaterie, serving up the elongated diamond-shaped flatbreads, filled with all manner of toppings – cheese, tomato and sucuk – a spicy sausage is a popular combination.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Raki

  • Turkey

Turkish and Greek Traditional Dinning Table with Special Alcohol Drink Raki. Ouzo and Turkish Raki is a dry anise flavoured aperitif that is widely consumed in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon

Experience

The Turkish national drink, raki is a strong, aniseed-flavoured spirit, rather like ouzo. Traditionally drunk in a tall glass, half raki, half water, with plenty of ice, accompanied by strips of cucumber and chunks of feta cheese.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -

Turkish Breakfast

  • Turkey

Turkish traditional breakfast with feta cheese, vegetables, olives, simit bagel and tea on white ceramic board over turquoise blue background. Top view

Experience

A traditional Turkish breakfast is a great way to start the day; fresh bread, feta cheese, black olives, boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes and honey. Best accompanied by ayran, a traditional, salty yoghurt drink.

Good for age: 18+

Duration: -