Kastamonu

A dry sausage made with heavy garlic seasoning - the defining flavour of Kastamonu's cured meat tradition. The Taşköprü garlic, with its sharp aromatic intensity, gives the sucuk a character unlike the cumin-forward versions made elsewhere. Pan-fried on cast iron until the skin blisters, eaten with eggs and fresh bread. Available at every butcher and market in the city and at the bazaar. Buy vacuum-packed for transport; the smell travels extremely well without containment.

Garlic from the Taşköprü district with a protected geographical indication, grown in the alluvial valley of the Gökırmak River. The soil and climate produce a garlic with smaller, more compact cloves and an intensely aromatic character that concentrates during the August harvest. Eaten roasted as a meze, used raw in dressings, and braided into the traditional garlic strings that hang in every Kastamonu kitchen. The annual garlic festival in Taşköprü in August is a legitimate event - not a tourist production but a commercial market that determines regional pricing.

Shredded boiled chicken tossed with crushed walnuts and butter, layered between large rounds of yufka soaked briefly in chicken stock, then served sliced. A celebration food and Friday lunch dish across the central Karadeniz region but particularly identified with Kastamonu. The richness comes from the walnut paste; the structure from the layered yufka. Served warm with a small bowl of stock on the side. Listed at the traditional lokantas in the city centre.

A pulled tahini-and-sugar sweet specific to Kastamonu: the mixture is worked by hand and stretched repeatedly until it develops a fine, layered, almost feather-like texture. Sold in small slabs at the dedicated helva makers in the city - several of which have been operating for over a century. The texture is the marker; the flavour is straightforward tahini sweetness. Buy from one of the historic shops near the bedesten, vacuum-pack and travel with it.

Cornmeal slowly cooked in butter with the local young, unsalted cheese until the cheese melts into long stretchy threads through the porridge - a close relative of the broader Karadeniz muhlama tradition but with a slightly drier consistency in the Kastamonu version. Eaten directly from the pan with bread. A village breakfast food and a yayla staple, found at the traditional restaurants in the city and at the highland inns above Pınarbaşı.

Siyez is einkorn wheat - one of the oldest cultivated grain varieties, still grown in the Kastamonu villages around İhsangazi using methods unchanged for centuries. The grain is parboiled, dried and cracked into bulgur, which has a smaller, denser kernel than the standard durum bulgur and a nuttier flavour. Cooked into pilav or used in salads. Sold at the village markets and increasingly stocked by speciality food shops; one of the more interesting Anatolian grain products to take home.