The food of Erzincan is the food of a fertile plain and its mountain pastures: dairy, lamb, dough, and fruit, made with the patience of the countryside and served with eastern Anatolian generosity. The region’s tulum cheese is famous across Turkey, its honey carries the flavor of the mountain flowers, and its seedless Cimin grapes are prized far beyond the province. Eating in Erzincan means slow meals, strong tea, and dishes that have fed generations of farmers, shepherds, and travelers on the great road east.
The Taste of the Eastern Plain
Erzincan’s kitchen is built on what the plain and its pastures provide. The meadows of the surrounding mountains feed the herds whose milk becomes the region’s cheeses and yogurt, while the plain’s fields supply wheat, vegetables, and the fruit that is the province’s quiet pride.
The cooking is simple and generous. Lamb is the centerpiece of festive meals, dough appears in a hundred forms, and the pantry is filled with honey, pekmez, and the preserves of the summer harvest. Nothing is wasted, and the recipes have been refined over generations.
Seasonality rules the table. Spring brings fresh greens and the first dairy, summer brings fruit at its peak, and autumn is the season of pekmez making, cheese maturing, and the fattening of the flocks. Eat with the seasons and you will eat the real Erzincan.
Tulum Cheese: The Pride of Erzincan
Tulum cheese is the food that carries Erzincan’s name across Turkey, a sharp, crumbly cheese made from sheep’s milk and aged in animal skins, called tulum, which gives it its name and its character. Matured for months, it develops an intense, tangy flavor that cheese lovers travel for.
The cheese is eaten at every stage of its life: fresh and mild within weeks, harder and sharper after months of aging, and at its most powerful when the skin is opened for the first time. Each producer’s version differs slightly, and the argument over the best is a local sport.
In the market you can taste before you buy, and the best wedges come from the mountain villages. Tulum cheese is excellent with bread and honey, and it packs well, which makes it the ideal souvenir of the province.
If you are new to tulum, start with a younger, milder wedge and work your way up, because the aged versions are intense. A little goes a long way, and the cheese is best appreciated slowly, with good bread and the region’s honey, exactly as the locals eat it.
Cimin Grapes and the Fruit of the Plain
The plain around the district of Üzümlü produces the Cimin grape, a small, seedless variety that is one of the joys of the Erzincan autumn. Sweet, delicate, and meant to be eaten out of hand, the grapes arrive in the market from late summer and are gone all too soon.
The grape has a protected status in Turkey, and its reputation has spread far beyond the province. Locals eat it fresh, dry it for the winter, and press what remains into pekmez, the thick fruit syrup that sweetens the eastern Anatolian table.
Time your visit for the harvest and the market will be a celebration of the fruit. Even outside the season, the pekmez, the dried grapes, and the memories of the sweetest grapes in the east carry the flavor of the plain.
Honey and Mulberry Pekmez
The mountain pastures around Erzincan produce honey of real depth, floral and fragrant, and the mulberry trees of the region feed the other great sweetener of the plain: pekmez, the boiled-down fruit syrup that Anatolia has used for sugar for millennia.
Mulberry pekmez is darker and more complex than its grape cousin, and it appears at breakfast, in desserts, and as a remedy for winter colds. Locals stir it into yogurt, spread it on bread, and pour it over kaymak with a confidence that only the authentic product allows.
Buy your honey and pekmez in the market, where you can taste the differences between the mountain sources. They are the tastes that will follow you home, and the jars make gifts that everyone will appreciate.
Tandır Bread and Village Baking
Bread is the foundation of every Erzincan meal, and the tradition of village baking is still alive across the province. Tandır bread, baked against the walls of a clay oven, comes out in large, blistered sheets that are at their best still warm, and the smell of a bakery at dawn is one of the defining memories of the region.
In the city, bakeries keep the daily rhythm, and every meal arrives with something fresh from the oven. Bread is torn and shared, dipped into soup and yogurt, and used to scoop up the meat dishes of the plain.
Look for the neighborhood bakeries in the morning, buy a sheet still crackling from the oven, and eat it with cheese and honey. It is the simplest meal in Erzincan, and one of the best.
Lamb, Köfte, and the Meat Tradition
Lamb is the heart of the festive kitchen, and the meat cooking of the plain is slow and confident. Kavurma, meat cooked gently in its own fat, and tandır-style roasts appear at weddings, holidays, and family gatherings, and the quality of the mountain pasture comes through in every bite.
For everyday eating, köfte rules. The local versions are seasoned simply, shaped by hand, and served with bread, tomato, and yogurt, and every lokanta has its own recipe. The meat is never overworked and never overpowered, which is exactly the point.
Order the daily specials, trust the pots that have been simmering since morning, and let the butcher, the baker, and the cook do what they have done for generations.
The meat tradition of the plain is also visible at the market, where butchers display the day’s cuts and the smoking grills of the lokantas fill the air by midday. A simple plate of grilled lamb with bread, tomato, and onions, eaten at a street-side table, is the region’s cooking in its purest form.
Soups and the Warm Kitchen
Soup is the quiet workhorse of the Erzincan kitchen, the way the plain begins its days and ends its winter evenings. Lentil soup, the yogurt soups of the region, and the hearty grain soups of the cold months all appear on local tables with a rhythm that matches the weather.
The yogurt soups are the local specialty, smooth and tangy, often thickened with grain and finished with butter and dried mint. They are lighter than they sound and deeply comforting, and they make a perfect meal with bread and a salad.
Ask what the soup of the day is, and order it. In Erzincan, the pot that simmers longest is usually the one the locals recommend most warmly.
Breakfast the Erzincan Way
Breakfast in Erzincan is the meal the region does with the most pride, a spread that begins with tulum cheese and honey and builds from there: fresh bread, kaymak, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and tea without end. Hotels and tea houses serve versions of it from early morning.
The cheese and the honey are the stars, and the bread is meant for tearing and sharing. Breakfast is also a social hour, a time for plans and gossip, and lingering is expected rather than rushed.
Arrive early, eat generously, and drink the tea while it is hot. An Erzincan breakfast will fuel a day in the canyon country, and it will set a standard that the rest of your trip will struggle to match.
Eğin Cooking: The Cuisine of Kemaliye
The historic town of Kemaliye, the former Eğin, has its own proud culinary tradition, refined in the stone houses of the Euphrates gorge over centuries. The town’s cooking is famous for its economy and its invention, making something memorable from the plainest ingredients.
Among the specialties are the pan dishes and egg dishes of the local kitchen, the filled pastries served at every celebration, and the preserves and pickles that stock the winter larder. The cooks of Eğin were known across the region for transforming simple produce into dishes of real character.
To taste this tradition, stay a night in Kemaliye and eat at your guesthouse, where the cooking is family food at its best. It is a meal that comes with a story, and the story is the point.
The Market and Where to Eat
The market of Erzincan is the best place to eat your way through the province in one morning. Stalls sell tulum cheese at every age, honey, pekmez, produce, and the Cimin grapes in season, and the tea houses around the edges serve the local dishes to shoppers in need of fuel.
For cooked meals, the lokantas of the center offer the daily repertoire: köfte, soups, rice and bulgur dishes, and the stews of the season, served quickly and cheaply. The daily specials are announced by the pot, and the honest rule is to order what the regulars are eating.
Eat where the locals queue, buy your cheese before noon, and let the market set the menu. In Erzincan, the market is the kitchen, and the kitchen is the city.
Frequently asked questions
What is Erzincan’s most famous local food?
Tulum cheese, without question. The sharp, crumbly sheep’s-milk cheese aged in skins is famous across Turkey and is the taste most associated with the province. The seedless Cimin grapes and the mountain honey complete the trio of local products that visitors seek out, and all three are best tried in the market.
Where can I try local food in Erzincan?
The lokantas of the city center serve the daily dishes of the plain at honest prices, and the market is the place for cheese, honey, and fresh produce in the morning. For the most atmospheric local cooking, stay a night in Kemaliye and eat at your guesthouse, where the town’s celebrated home kitchen is on full display.
Is Erzincan food suitable for vegetarians?
Mostly yes. The region’s cooking centers on lamb, but the dairy and pastry traditions are vegetarian-friendly, and breakfasts of bread, cheese, honey, eggs, and vegetables are naturally meat-free. The yogurt soups, the pekmez, and the seasonal vegetable dishes of the lokantas also work well, and the market offers abundant fresh produce.
All Over Information
The All Over Information editorial team researches and writes practical English-language guides to Turkey. Facts are checked against official and local sources before publication, prices are published as dated ranges rather than quotes, and guides are revised when things change. We accept no sponsored posts, paid placements or paid links.
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