Turkey Travel Guide

The döner was invented in Bursa, Turkey in the 19th century — slow-roasted stacked meat shaved onto fresh lavash or in a pide pocket with onions, tomato and yoghurt. The Istanbul street version is as far from the global kebab shop interpretation as champagne is from sparkling wine.

Turkish meyhane (tavern) culture centres on shared cold and warm meze — white bean salad, stuffed mussels, hummus, olive oil-braised artichokes, cheese-filled börek — eaten over hours with raki and conversation. Istanbul's Beyoglu neighbourhood does this best.

Turkey's pastry tradition is one of the world's greatest — flaky phyllo layered with pistachios or walnuts and soaked in sugar syrup, made fresh each morning. Karaköy Güllüoğlu in Istanbul and Gaziantep (Turkey's baklava capital) are the pilgrimages worth making.

Lahmacun is a wafer-thin flatbread topped with spiced minced meat and fresh herbs — rolled with raw onion and sumac, eaten in seconds. Pide is the boat-shaped Turkish pizza of cheese, egg and sucuk sausage. Both cost almost nothing and deliver far more than they have any right to.

Turkish life runs on çay — double-steeped black tea served in tulip-shaped glasses, refilled perpetually in every shop, home and park. Paired with a simit (sesame-crusted bread ring from a street cart), it's the Istanbul breakfast that costs 30 cents and lasts all morning.