Eat Well
Çibörek, the city's Crimean Tatar pastry
A thin half-moon pastry with raw mince sealed inside, fried in seconds so the meat steams in its own juice — eat it with your hands and lean forward.
Not yet checked by the Smileys team — prices and hours may have moved.
Why do it?
Eskişehir has one of Turkey's largest Crimean Tatar communities, descended from the waves of migration out of Crimea after the Crimean War in the 1850s and 60s, and çibörek (çiğ börek, literally 'raw börek') is the dish they brought with them. A disc of very thin dough is filled with raw minced meat, onion, salt and black pepper, folded into a crescent and fried in hot oil for under a minute a side, so the filling cooks in its own steam and the juice stays inside. Eskişehir çiğ böreği was registered as a geographical indication in 2012 on the Chamber of Commerce's application, and the registration describes the traditional serving: hot, five to a portion, eaten by hand.
The Smileys Take
Order a portion and an ayran and eat it straight away — çibörek gets sad in ten minutes. Hold it by the edge and take the first bite carefully: the juice is hot and it will go down your wrist if you're not ready. The best places are the plain, busy ones with a Tatar name over the door; ask a member for this year's favourite rather than trusting a list. Some places also do a cheese or potato version for vegetarians, but the meat one is the point. It's cheap enough to be our default 'meet before the main plan' food.
Do it with people
Nothing is scheduled around this in Eskişehir yet. When a host plans it, it shows here — the calendar and hangouts are the places to look meanwhile.
More like this
There's always more Eskişehir.