What to Eat in Mardin: Stuffed Ribs (Kaburga Dolması), Sembusek and Alluciye

Unlike the fiery red-chilli grills of neighbouring Gaziantep and Urfa, Mardin's cuisine is an aromatic palace-and-monastery kitchen defined by sweet-and-savory fruit stews, warm Silk Road spices (allspice yenibahar, cinnamon, coriander and black pepper), slow-steamed stuffed meats and fine bulgur doughs. Because cooking a single Mardin feast dish takes four hours of handwork, many restaurants serve a "Mixed Mardin Plate" (Karışık Mardin Tabağı) at lunch and dinner so you can taste five specialities side by side.

Six Signature Mardin Dishes to Order

1. Kaburga Dolması (Stuffed Lamb Ribs, The Crown Jewel of Mardin): the rib cage of a young male goat or lamb is carefully pocketed by the butcher, stuffed with parboiled rice sautéed with minced meat, blanched almonds, pine nuts, currants, parsley and a fragrant pinch of allspice and cinnamon, sewn shut by hand with needle and thread, steamed on a rack over simmering bone broth for 3 to 4 hours until the meat slides off the bone at the touch of a spoon, and finished briefly in the ovenuntil golden.
2. Sembusek (Şam Böreği, Mardin's Closed Lahmacun): half-moon turnovers of thin yeast dough stuffed with minced beef/lamb, plenty of finely diced onions, parsley, black pepper and allspice, baked crisp on the stone floor of a wood-fired bakery oven.
3. İkbebet and İrok (Mardin's Two Styles of Stuffed Bulgur Kibbeh): both consist of a paper-thin outer shell of pounded fine bulgur and lean meat stuffed with spiced minced lamb, onions and walnuts: İkbebet is shaped like a round flying saucer and boiled in salted water, whereas İrok is shaped like a torpedo or flat patty, dipped in beaten egg and fried golden.
4. Alluciye (Green Sour-Plum Lamb Stew) & Firkiye: tender cubes of lamb slow-simmered with tart green plums (alluç / erik) or green unripe almonds (çağla, in spring firkiye) in a glossy sweet-and-sour broth.
5. Kibe Mumbar (Stuffed Tripe & Sausages): a rich winter delicacy of lamb stomachs sewn around spiced rice and meat, served at daytime specialist shops like Kibeci in the bazaar.
6. Harire (Spiced Grape-Molasses Pudding): a silky warm dessert thickened from local Mazrona grape molasses (pekmez), flour, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, topped with crushed walnuts.

Where to dine: book an evening terrace table at Cercis Murat Konağı (founded by social entrepreneur Chef Ebru Baybara Demir inside an 1888 stone mansion), Bağdadi, Seyr-i Merdin or midday bazaar legend Kebapçı Rıdo (for flat paper-thin Mardin kebabı).