Turkey

🇹🇷Turkey

Tahin Helvasi

Sesame halva, distinct from semolina irmik-helvasi.

🇹🇷Mersin, Turkey

Tantuni

A street food from Mersin on the Mediterranean coast, consisting of thinly sliced beef or lamb rapidly cooked with onions, tomatoes, and Turkish spices in a special pan. The meat is wrapped in lavash with sumac and a squeeze of lemon. Each tantuni chef has a unique technique, making every serving slightly different.

🇹🇷Turkey

Tarama

Fish-roe meze with olive oil and lemon.

🇧🇬Bulgaria

Taramosalata

Ταραμοσαλάτα

Greek fish roe dip of tarama (cured roe), bread, olive oil, and lemon, blended until silky and pale pink. A Clean Monday and meze staple, creamy and savory, served with bread.

🇹🇷Turkey

Tarhana Çorbası

A soup made from tarhana, a traditional fermented dried food made from wheat, yogurt, vegetables, and herbs. The tarhana is dissolved in water or broth and simmered into a tangy, comforting soup. One of the oldest preserved foods in Turkish cuisine, tarhana has been made for centuries.

🇹🇷Turkey

Tavuk göğsü

Tavuk gogsu, the milk pudding thickened with pounded chicken breast, is a genuinely singular Ottoman dessert and one of the most distinctive foods in Turkish cuisine.

🇹🇷Central Anatolia, Turkey

Testi Kebab

Testi Kebabı

A Cappadocian stew of lamb, vegetables, and spices slow-cooked inside a sealed clay pot (testi) that is cracked open at the table. The clay vessel locks in moisture and flavor, producing a tender, aromatic dish unique to central Anatolia.

🇹🇷Black Sea Region, Turkey

Tokat kebabı

Tokat kebabi, lamb strung with aubergine, tomato, garlic and potato and cooked in a wood-fired oven, is a named city dish with dedicated ocakbasi.

🇹🇷Istanbul, Turkey

Topik

Armenian chickpea dumplings filled with a spiced mixture of onions, currants, pine nuts and herbs, served cold as a meze or lenten dish.

🇦🇱Albania

Tourlou

Τουρλού

A Greek summer braise of eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and onion cooked slowly in olive oil until soft.

🇹🇷Turkey

Tulum Peyniri

A traditional Turkish cheese aged in animal skin bags (tulum), typically made from sheep or goat milk. The aging process in skin produces a crumbly, tangy, and complex cheese. The Erzincan variety is the most famous, with a Slow Food Ark of Taste designation.

🇷🇸Serbia

Tulumba

Ridged fingers of choux-style dough deep-fried then drowned in cold sugar syrup, crisp-shelled and juicy within — the baklava-shop counter classic of Turkey and the former Ottoman world.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Turkish Coffee

Türk Kahvesi

A method of preparing unfiltered coffee using finely ground beans simmered with water and sugar in a cezve. The result is a strong, aromatic brew with a thick layer of foam, served in small cups with water. UNESCO inscribed Turkish coffee culture on its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013. The grounds are traditionally used for fortune telling.

🇹🇷Turkey

Turkish Raki

Anise-flavoured grape spirit, Turkey's national aperitif

🇹🇷Black Sea Region, Turkey

Turkish Tea

Çay

Black tea grown primarily in the Rize province along the Black Sea coast, brewed in a double-decker teapot (çaydanlık) where the upper pot holds a strong concentrate and the lower pot holds boiling water. Served in small, tulip-shaped glasses throughout the day, çay is the social heartbeat of Turkey, offered to guests as a gesture of hospitality.

🇹🇷Eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Tutmaç çorbası

Tutmac corbasi, the yoghurt-and-noodle soup recorded since the eleventh century and still cooked in eastern Anatolia, is a named historic soup.

🇬🇷Greece

Tzatziki

Τζατζίκι

Greek dip of strained yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, olive oil, and dill. The national dip, served with bread, souvlaki, and grilled meats, cool and tangy, a meze staple.

🇹🇷Şanlıurfa, Turkey

Urfa biber

Urfa biber (isot), the darkened, oil-slicked chilli flake of Sanliurfa, is bought as itself and is a distinct product from Antep/pul biber.

🇹🇷Şanlıurfa, Turkey

Urfa Kebabi

Minced lamb kebab from Şanlıurfa, milder and thicker than Adana.

🇹🇷Black Sea Region, Turkey

Yayla Çorbası

A creamy yogurt and rice soup from the Black Sea highlands, seasoned with dried mint and a swirl of butter with red pepper flakes. The yogurt gives it a tangy, comforting flavor. It is a classic winter soup and a staple of Turkish home cooking.

🇹🇷Turkey

Yufka

Paper-thin dough sheets for börek and baklava.

🇹🇷Gaziantep, Turkey

Yuvarlama çorbası

Yuvarlama corbasi, the Gaziantep Eid soup of tiny bulgur-and-meat balls in yoghurt with chickpeas, is a named ceremonial dish with a real calendar identity.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Za’atar

زعتر

A Levantine blend of dried thyme or oregano, sumac, toasted sesame and salt, used on flatbreads, with labneh and as a table seasoning.

🇹🇷Turkey

Zerde

زردة

A traditional saffron rice pudding sweetened with sugar and enriched with pine nuts and currants. Its distinctive yellow color comes from saffron, one of the world's most expensive spices. Zerde is served at weddings, circumcisions, and religious celebrations, especially during Ramadan.

🇹🇷Turkey

Zeytinyagli Enginar

Artichoke bottoms braised in olive oil with onion, carrot, potato and dill until tender, served cold as an olive-oil meze — spring's most anticipated dish in Istanbul restaurants.

🇹🇷Turkey

Çerkez Tavuğu

A meze of shredded chicken mixed with a thick sauce of ground walnuts, bread crumbs, garlic, and red pepper. Originating from the Circassian community in Turkey, it is served cold and is a fixture at meze tables and special occasions.

🇹🇷Turkey

Çiğ börek

A Crimean-Tatar fried pastry of thin dough around minced meat.

🇹🇷Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey

Çiğ Köfte

Չի քյուֆթա

A spicy mixture of fine bulgur, tomato paste, onion, parsley, and red pepper flakes, traditionally kneaded with raw meat until it binds into small oval shapes. Modern versions are entirely vegetarian, using the same spices and bulgur without meat. Originating in eastern Turkey, it is now a popular street snack nationwide, served wrapped in lettuce with lemon.

🇹🇷Turkey

Çoban salatası

Finely diced tomato, cucumber, green pepper and onion tossed with olive oil and lemon — the unwritten default salad beside every kebab plate in Turkey, always chopped small and never lettuce-based.

🇹🇷Aegean Region, Turkey

Çökertme kebabı

Cokertme kebabi, meat over straw-cut fried potatoes and garlic yoghurt, is a named Bodrum-peninsula dish.

🇹🇷Aegean Region, Turkey

Çöp şiş

Cop sis, the tiny offcut skewers of Selcuk and Germencik eaten by the dozen wrapped in flatbread, is a named local institution rather than a size variant.

🇹🇷Turkey

Çılbır

Poached eggs served over garlic yogurt, topped with a drizzle of sizzling melted butter infused with red pepper flakes. A dish with Ottoman palace origins, çılbır has been enjoyed for centuries and is now a popular breakfast and brunch item across Turkey.

🇽🇰Sarajevo, Kosovo

Ćevapi

Sarajevski ćevapi

Small skinless sausages made of minced meat (beef, lamb, pork), grilled and served with flatbread and onions, popular street food.

🇬🇷Greece

İmam Bayıldı

Μελιτζάνες ιμάμ

A classic Turkish eggplant dish whose name translates to 'the imam fainted.' Halved eggplants are stuffed with onions, garlic, and tomatoes, then slow-cooked in olive oil until meltingly tender. Served cold or at room temperature as part of the olive-oil dishes category.

🇹🇷Aegean Region, Turkey

İncir uyutması

Incir uyutmasi, milk set inside a fresh fig without any culture, is a singular technique-dessert of the Aegean fig harvest.

🇹🇷Marmara Region, Turkey

İnegöl köfte

A Bursa köfte of lamb and beef, flat and grilled, served with pide.