Southeast Turkish
Fire and spice — Adana-Urfa kebabs, Gaziantep baklava and Antep pistachios.
Baklava
Layered pastry of thin filo dough, chopped nuts, and honey-sugar syrup, a jewel of Middle Eastern confection
View page →Southeast Turkish cuisine — from Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Hatay, Mardin, Diyarbakır, and the Tigris-Euphrates basin — is the most spice-forward, fire-oriented, and meat-celebrated of all Turkish regional cuisines. The cuisine sits at the crossroads of Arab, Kurdish, Persian, and Anatolian influences, with each ethnic group contributing distinct techniques to the regional kitchen. Gaziantep is recognized by UNESCO as a 'City of Gastronomy' (2015); its baklava has EU PGI protection; its pistachios (Antep fıstığı) are arguably the world's best.
Signature dishes are global icons: Adana kebab and Urfa kebab (hand-chopped lamb on flat skewers, the difference being Adana's hot Maraş pepper vs Urfa's milder smoky isot biber), içli köfte (the Turkish kibbeh), lahmacun (the thin meat-topped flatbread), baklava (the world's most-famous Turkish dessert), katmer (Gaziantep's hand-pulled pastry with kaymak and pistachios), and beyran (the iconic Gaziantep breakfast soup). The cuisine uses pomegranate molasses (nar ekşisi), red pepper paste (biber salçası), Aleppo and Maraş peppers, fenugreek, sumac, and cumin in liberal proportions. Coastal Mersin-Adana contributes seafood and the famous tantuni wrap.
Start Here
Hot pastry + cool syrup = crispy layers. Reversed = soggy disaster.
Why start here · Baklava is Turkey's most-exported dessert — Gaziantep is the world capital.
Urfa biber (isot) is fermented-then-dried — it has unique smoky-raisin notes you can't get from regular paprika.
Why start here · Urfa Kebab is the milder, smokier counterpart to Adana — choose Urfa if you want flavor over heat.
Pull the dough paper-thin — you should be able to read newsprint through it.
Why start here · Katmer is Gaziantep's morning theater — pastry chefs hand-stretch yufka in front of you.
The Pantry
See all 80 ingredients›
Dairy & Fats
Sauces & Condiments
Other
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
Kindred Kitchens
Cuisines built on the same signature ingredients
Other regions
Siblings within Turkish — each its own tradition.
