What to Eat in Denizli: Denizli Kebabı, Tavas Pidesi and Zafer Gazozu

If you only eat hotel buffets in Pamukkale village, you will miss one of the richest regional kitchens in inland Aegean Turkey. Denizli's cooking marries the slow-roasted lamb and wheat traditions of nomadic Yörük highlanders with the olive-oil greens, sun-dried peppers, walnuts and grape molasses of the fertile Menderes valley.

1. Denizli Kebabı (Wood-Fired Tandır Lamb Eaten Without a Fork)

Protected with geographical indication status, Denizli kebabı (locally called kuyu or tandır kebabı) is a lunchtime institution in Kaleiçi Bazaar and Bayramyeri. Whole carcasses of young milk-fed lamb are cut into bone-in sections (ribs, loin/böbrek yatağı, shoulder/kol and fatty tail/kuyruk altı) and hung inside a tall brick oven fired strictly with resinous gum-tree wood (sakız ağacı) from early morning without added oil or spice. By late morning the meat falls off the bone beneath a crackling mahogany crust:

• How to order and eat it: order by weight (ask for karışık or kaburga/böbrek yatağı for tender cuts). The master chops the steaming lamb on a wooden block and serves it over pieces of hot, broth-soaked pide flatbread alongside quartered raw red onions, tomatoes and green peppers. No fork or knife is brought to the table: tradition dictates tearing the meat with your fingers and folding it into the bread. Wash it down with frothy ayran or a chilled bottle of Zafer Gazozu, Denizli's fruity vintage soda produced locally since 1934. Note that historic ovens in Kaleiçi sell out by mid-afternoon.

2. Kuru Patlıcan and Kale Biberi Dolması (Stuffed Dried Aubergines and Peppers)

Sun-dried aubergines and crimson PGI-protected Kale peppers are stuffed with spiced rice or bulgur, simmered in tangy pomegranate sour and topped with garlic yoghurt, or fried crisp as biber tatarı.

3. Hacı Şerif Dondurmalı İrmik Helvası (Warm Semolina Halva with Ice Cream)

Founded in Denizli in 1938 (with its flagship shop in Bayramyeri and Kaleiçi), Hacı Şerif is famous across Turkey for serving warm, pine-nut-and-walnut semolina halva pressed over a scoop of cold goat's-milk ice cream.

4. Tavas Pidesi, Çaput Aşı, Keşkek and Clay-Tile Trout

Seek out metre-long boat-shaped wood-oven Tavas pidesi and Yenicekent pidesi topped with local çökelek cheese, minced meat or tahini and honey; tender lamb braised with young grape leaves and sour grapes (çaput aşı); slow-beaten wheat and lamb keşkek; and freshwater mountain trout baked on a clay tile (kiremitte alabalık) at Güney Waterfall.