Adana Street Food and Sweets: Şalgam Suyu, Bici Bici, Şırdan and Taş Kadayıf

Even between meals at the kebab grills, Adana's streets offer a line-up of fermented drinks, stretched-cheese pastries and shaved-ice desserts found nowhere else in Turkey. Walk between the Clock Tower, Ziyapaşa and Seyhan Lake to sample each specialty at its dedicated stalls.

1. Şalgam Suyu (Fermented Purple Carrot and Turnip Drink)

Brewed in oak barrels across Adana, PGI-protected Adana Şalgamı is not beet juice. It is a tangy, lactic-acid-fermented probiotic drink made from purple-black carrots (mor havuç grown in Ereğli and Çukurova), sliced white turnips (şalgam turpu), cracked bulgur wheat yeast (setik), rock salt and water fermented for weeks until deep ruby-purple. At a traditional street cart or historic shop like Ali Göde Şalgamcısı, the server drops crunchy fermented purple carrot sticks (tane) into a tall glass, fills it with cold mild şalgam, and asks how many ladles of fiery fermented red-pepper juice (acı) you want floated on top.

2. Bici Bici (Rose-Scented Shaved Ice and Starch Dessert)

Whenever the Çukurova sun warms up between April and October, locals head to the waterfront tea gardens along Adnan Menderes Bulvarı (Seyhan Dam Lake) or Kazancılar for a bowl of Bici Bici: cubes of firm, translucent wheat-starch pudding (muhallebi) are topped with a mountain of finely grated ice, dyed bright crimson with natural red colouring and fragrant rosewater (gül suyu), dusted with icing sugar and topped with sliced bananas and seasonal fruit.

3. Şırdan and Mumbar

Late in the evening every night, steam rises from specialist street shops serving şırdan, lamb abomasum pouches stuffed with cumin-and-pepper-spiced rice, stitched shut by hand and simmered for hours in bone broth alongside stuffed mumbar sausages, sprinkled generously with cumin and chilli flakes at the table.

4. Halka Tatlısı (Crispy Syrup-Soaked Pastry Rings)

Piped in giant spirals into hot oil and plunged straight into thick syrup, crunchy ridged halka tatlısı rings are sold warm wrapped in paper across the bazaar streets.

5. Taş Kadayıf (Yassı Kadayıf) and Adana Böreği

Around Küçüksaat and Kemeraltı, evening carts prepare taş kadayıf (yeast-leavened spongy batter pancakes cooked on one side only, folded into a half-moon around crushed walnuts, fried crisp and dipped briefly in syrup) alongside bakeries serving Adana böreği, baked on giant copper trays with crispy baklava yufkası on top and bottom and hand-stretched su böreği dough and melting cheese in the middle.