Eskisehir

A half-moon of dough stuffed with raw minced lamb, onion and spices, fried to order in hot oil. Crisp outside, juicy inside. Eat at Tatar-run shops like Besler Cig Borek, five or six in a sitting.

A long skewer of cubed lamb cooked over a charcoal pit, served with grilled pepper and tomato on flatbread. Simpler than the better-known urban kebabs but distinctively Eskisehir. Balaban Restaurant is the classic address.

A regional sesame and honey halva, much lighter and more fragrant than the supermarket version. Often served at breakfast with kaymak clotted cream. Buy from traditional shops near Odunpazari.

A Crimean Tatar pastry that travelled with the community to Eskişehir in the nineteenth century and remains a local speciality: yufka layers stuffed with minced lamb, potato and pumpkin, folded into a flat parcel and baked until crisp. Cut into squares for serving. Heavier and earthier than çibörek, with a longer cooking time. The Tatar restaurants in the Odunpazarı district list it as a separate menu item; eat it with airan and a chilli sauce on the side.

A coiled or layered pastry filled with ground black poppy seeds, butter and sugar - a regional speciality of inland central Anatolia that reaches its highest expression in the Eskişehir and Afyon belt where poppy is the major crop. The seeds give the filling a slightly bitter, nutty character that the sugar tempers. Sold at the historic bakeries around Odunpazarı and at the Friday morning village markets. Eaten with tea, never coffee.

A Tatar variation of mantı specific to Eskişehir: small dough squares filled with seasoned red lentils rather than the usual minced meat, boiled and served with garlic yoghurt and chilli butter. A vegetarian-by-tradition dish - reflective of the Crimean Tatar community's adaptation of available ingredients. Lighter than meat mantı, with a sweeter and more vegetal flavour. Listed at the Tatar restaurants in Odunpazarı alongside çibörek and göbete.