Mersin

A confection of caramelised carrot cooked with sugar and mixed with shredded coconut and ground nuts, the defining sweet of Mersin, found in this form only in this city. It is sold at the city's pastry shops and at the bazaar market wrapped in coconut flakes. The texture is dense and chewy, the flavour intensely sweet with a coconut aromatic note. Take a box home, it keeps well and travels without damage. This is a genuinely regional product with no equivalent elsewhere in Turkish confectionery.

A Mersin street food: thinly sliced beef or lamb cooked on a copper griddle (sac) with onion, tomato and cumin, then wrapped in thin lavaş with parsley and lemon. The correct tantuni is made from beef not lamb, on a curved copper pan with lard for cooking fat, and eaten immediately from the wrapper. Found at dedicated tantuni restaurants and street carts throughout the city. Inexpensive, fast, filling. The classic lunch of a working Mersin neighbourhood. Order two and eat standing at the counter.

Mersin's humus tradition reaches further south than the Aegean or central Anatolian versions: heavier on tahini, finished with cumin and chilli-infused butter, often served warm rather than cold. The dedicated humuscus in the city centre - several with multi-generational histories - serve it as a standalone meal with pickled vegetables and warm bread. The texture is rougher than the Levantine versions, with more whole chickpea visible. A breakfast and lunch food rather than a meze.

A semolina cookie filled with crushed pistachios and topped with a sweet white foam made from chöven (soapwort) root - a traditional emulsifier specific to the region. The cookies are shaped, baked and then finished at the table with the foam, which is whipped to a stable consistency just before serving. A Mersin and southern speciality, distinct from anything in the central Anatolian dessert repertoire. Found at the traditional pastry houses in the city centre, particularly during Ramazan.

From the Tarsus district east of Mersin: lamb shoulder cooked slowly in a closed pit oven with onions and minimal seasoning, served in heavy slices with the rendered juices. The Tarsus style favours longer cooking and less spice than the Adana tradition - the result is more pronounced lamb flavour and tender meat. The traditional kebab houses along the historic centre of Tarsus, several with century-long operations, serve the reference versions.

A celebratory soup of tiny manti-like dumplings - 'yüksük' meaning thimble for their size - shaped by hand by the bowlful, simmered in a meat broth with garlic and chickpeas, finished with mint butter. A Mersin and broader Çukurova specialty served at weddings and family gatherings. The labour of shaping the dumplings is what limits its presence in restaurants - the smaller and more uniform they are, the higher the regard. Listed at the traditional lokantas during winter and on special menus.