What to Eat in Bursa: Original 1867 İskender Kebab, Pideli Köfte and Chestnuts

Every traveller in Turkey has seen "İskender Kebab" on a menu, but eating it in Bursa, where the dish was invented in 1867 and where the meat, pita bread, tomato sauce and Uludağ sheep's-milk butter follow a 159-year-old family recipe, is a completely different experience. Plan your days around these six signature Bursa foods.

1. The Original Bursa Kebap (İskender Kebab, Since 1867)

In 1867 in the Kayhan quarter, young İskender Efendi stacked boneless, thyme-fed Uludağ lamb horizontally on a vertical iron spit in front of vertical oak charcoal so the melted fat basted the meat from top to bottom. Thinly sliced ribbons of meat are laid over toasted squares of puffy pita bread (tırnak pidesi), topped with warm tomato sauce and strained sheep's-milk yoghurt on the side, and finished at the table with a copper ladle of boiling browned sheep's-milk butter. Head to the family-run 1930 Mavi Dükkan ("Blue Shop") on Ünlü Caddesi uphill from Heykel, the Tarihi Ahşap Dükkan nearby, or Uludağ Kebapçısı Cemal & Cemil Usta, accompanied by sweet-sour fermented grape must (şıra).

2. Pideli Köfte at Kayhan Bazaar

Walk five minutes east of Ulu Cami into historic Kayhan Çarşısı to taste pideli köfte: small, flat chargrilled beef-and-lamb meatballs served over butter-soaked diced pita bread with tomato sauce and sizzling foaming butter at historic courtyards like İdris Pideli Köfte or Kebapçı Teyfik.

3. Bursa Cantık (Stone-Oven Meat Tart)

Baked in stone ovens at spots like Tarihi Abdal Fırını, Bursa cantık is a round, boat-shaped soft yeast dough tart filled in the centre with spiced minced meat or kasar cheese.

4. Tahinli Pide (Warm Sesame Tahini Bread)

Right outside Abdal Fırını below Cumhuriyet Caddesi, locals queue every morning for piping-hot tahinli pide (sweet yeast flatbread swirled with warm sesame tahini and sugar) and molasses-dipped Bursa simidi with tea.

5. İnegöl Köfte

Brought to the eastern Bursa district of İnegöl by Balkan master Mustafa Efendi in 1893, springy İnegöl köfte meatballs are kneaded from beef, lamb and onion without breadcrumbs and grilled over charcoal.

6. Kestane Şekeri (Candied Uludağ Chestnuts)

Sweet chestnuts harvested from the forests of Mount Uludağ are candied in vanilla syrup at historic Bursa producers Kafkas (founded 1930) and Kardelen.