Pide, Dubbed as “Turkish Pizza”

Dubbed “Turkish pizza,” pide is flatbread baked in a wood-fired oven. It comes with a variety of meaty toppings: sujuk (Turkish sausage), pastrami, and minced (kıyma) or chopped (kuşbaşı) lamb meat are popular offerings. Cheese and veggies are also utilized. There are restaurants completely dedicated to pide, and in most of them the cook will break an egg on top of your pide when they take it out the oven, which keeps everything super succulent. Lahmacun is a simpler version, just a thin piece of dough covered with mincemeat and herbs. Other flour-based baked dishes include börek, baklava’s savory cousin; and gözleme, hand-rolled dough stuffed with cheese, spinach, or meat, then cooked over a griddle — and best consumed after a swim at the beach.