What to Eat in Eskişehir: Crimean Tatar Çibörek, Balaban Kebab, Met Helvası and Boza

In the second half of the 19th century, tens of thousands of Crimean Tatar, Nogai, Caucasian and Balkan families settled on the fertile plains of Eskişehir, bringing a rich steppe pastry culture that merged with Central Anatolian grill traditions. Plan your meals around these signature local icons.

1. Eskişehir Çiböreği (Crimean Tatar Fried Meat Turnovers)

Note the spelling: locals insist it is Çibörek (from the Kipchak Tatar çiy meaning "delicious", or because the minced meat filling goes into the dough raw, never spelled with a "ğ"). Unleavened dough (flour, water, salt and a drop of vinegar) is rolled paper-thin, filled on one half with a wet paste of raw minced lamb or beef, grated onion, black pepper, salt and a splash of water, sealed with a serrated wheel into a half-moon, and fried in scorching oil for 15 seconds so it puffs like a golden balloon filled with hot meat broth. Order it inside the garden courtyard of the Kırım Tatar Kültür Çibörek Evi behind the Kurşunlu Complex in Odunpazarı, or at Papağan Çibörek and Has Kırım.

2. Balaban Kebabı (Meatballs and Beef Tenderloin Over Broth-Soaked Pide)

In Tatar dialect, balaban means "big, generous or grand". Diced squares of toasted pita bread are soaked first in hot marrow-rich bone broth, topped with warm garlic yoghurt and savoury tomato sauce, crowned with both plump chargrilled meatballs (köfte) and seared strips of beef tenderloin (şiş / bonfile), and finished at the table with sizzling browned butter at historic spots like Abdüsselam Balaban Kebap (in the Çarşı since 1938), Tatoy or Fahrettin Usta.

3. Karakedi Boza (Thick Fermented Grain Drink with Leblebi)

Join the queue outside Karakedi Bozacısı (at Köprübaşı since 1956) by the Porsuk bridge for a glass of thick, sweet-tart fermented corn-and-millet boza dusted with cinnamon and roasted yellow chickpeas (leblebi).

4. Haşhaşlı Mercimekli Bükme and Met Helvası

At Odunpazarı bakeries, pick up flaky hand-pulled mercimekli bükme pastries brushed with local roasted yellow poppy-seed paste (haşhaş ezmesi) and stuffed with spiced green lentils, plus a box of fibrous pulled flour-and-sugar Met Helvası (named after the wooden stick game met played on winter nights).