Turkish food is one of the most varied and richest in the world.

Turkey is on the crossroads of Europe and Asia, East and West. This unique location combined with the migration of Turks over the centuries from Central Asia to Europe has shaped the identity of its gastronomy. The great diversity of fauna and flora in Turkey has also contributed to the great variety in regional cuisines. Almost every region in Turkey offers its own gastronomic experience and they all await you to discover them!

Turkish Breakfast

Turkish breakfast isn’t just a meal, it’s an experience. Designed to be social, shared, and savored, Turkish breakfast consists of many small plates both sweet and savory, accompanied with bread and endless cups of tea. Usually a Turkish breakfast includes eggs, either fried or scrambled with tomatoes (sahanda yumurta or menemen). Cucumbers and tomatoes are consistently part of breakfast, as are olives, a plate of local cheeses, honey, and kaymak, a dairy product similar to clotted cream. Often there will also be jam, butter, a red pepper paste called acılı ezme, sausages, and börek, a flaky pastry that can be filled with cheese, spinach, or meat.

Serpme kahvaltı is a highly traditional way to enjoy the breakfast for long hours. Turkish people go out on weekends to have breakfast around the Bosphorus with a breathtaking view, to the countryside, to popular cafés and restaurants, etc. The concept of serpme kahvaltı consists of small plates with different products and tastes such as a cheese platter, a tomato and cucumber platter, herbs, jams, tahini and grape molasses, butter, kaymak and honey, different types of olives, olive oil with spices, spicy tomato paste, eggs, omelet, bread and simit, peppers, and Turkish pastries.

The importance of serpme kahvaltı is to share the food which is literally spread across the entire table and altogether enjoy the experience with family, friends, neighbors, loved ones, or whoever is hungry! The breakfast usually starts with drinking a cup of Turkish tea and at the end, Turkish coffee is served to aid digestion. Turkish coffee is usually served with a lokum (Turkish delight) in the traditional way.

Street Food

Here is a list of some of the most popular street foods in Turkey.

Simit: Freshly baked, molasses-dipped, and sesame-crusted dough. It is a staple of breakfasts on the go. Even day-old simit has its use as seagull feed.

Sokak poğaçası: Palm-sized buns with or without filling. It can also be found in bakeries.

Süt mısır: Boiled corn, served with salt.

Grilled corn on the cob: Turkish for maize, mısır is corn on the cob that is steamed, then lightly grilled and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and other spices. Often a summer staple coinciding with the region’s growing season, mısır is a travel-friendly snack sold by vendors lining the bridge atop the Bosphorus.

Kumpir: The ultimate baked potato with a great variety of toppings to choose from: kaşar cheese, sausage, corn, Olivier (or Russian) salad, pickled red cabbage, olives, ketchup and/or mayonnaise as a dressing… Ortaköy is the most popular area in the city to eat it.

Balık-ekmek: A popular fish sandwich that can be enjoyed near Karaköy or Eminönü shore.

Döner: The basics remain the same: pieces of meat are seasoned with suet, local herbs, and spices, skewered on a spit and grilled vertically. Originally the meat used for döner kebap was lamb. Today, in İstanbul, it is made using a mixture of lamb and beef, only beef, or even only chicken.

Kestane kebap: Roasted chestnuts are sold on the streets for those who would like to enjoy them by peeling off the shell when still warm during cold days.

Midye dolma: “Stuffed mussels” is a generic name for plump orange mussels, stuffed with herbed and spiced aromatic rice, and occasionally currants. It is a popular street food snack in İstanbul and İzmir.

Kokoreç: Spiced and skewered sheep’s intestines, served in either half or quarter of a bread loaf with plenty of grease and salt to go with.

Tavuklu pilav: Rice with shreds of chicken and/or cooked chickpeas. It’s easy to spot the men selling it in glass-covered carts around town.

Islak hamburger: The simple burger is packed with garlicky flavor and buttery tomato sauce which provides the succulent texture and the spongy buns.

Çiğ köfte dürüm: This is a food comprised of bulgur patties wrapped in paper-thin lavaş bread.

Lahmacun: Lahmacun consists of a thin, crispy dough spread with spicy minced lamb, and is often eaten with parsley and lemon.

Tantuni: This beef-and-tomato mixture is cooked on a large sizzling metal skillet and then wrapped in a very thin flatbread.

Börek: Street börek is usually made with cheese and provides a quick and delicious breakfast when you are on the go.

Kağıt helva: This sweet consists of a crispy wafer stuffed with a sweet, condensed milk filling.