Aubergine charred over flame, peeled and beaten into garlic yoghurt, then topped with cubed or minced lamb cooked in butter. Smoke, sourness and fat in one plate, and Gaziantep claims it.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Ali Nazik is the dish most often used to introduce Gaziantep cooking abroad, and the city treats it as its own. The name is usually traced to an Ottoman court visit and a compliment paid to the cook, though the versions of that story do not agree on the detail. What is consistent is the method: the aubergine is burned directly on charcoal until the skin collapses, then peeled while hot and worked into thick yoghurt with raw garlic so it stays warm and loose. The lamb goes on last with butter and pepper. Every kebab house in the city serves it, and the differences are in how much garlic and how much smoke.
Common allergens: Dairy
Tip from the editors. Drain the aubergine properly. Any water left in it will split the yoghurt and turn the base grey.
İmam Çağdaş rolls its own baklava beside the kebab grill on Uzun Çarşı, and the havuç dilimi wedge is the one Gaziantep queues at the counter for it.
Tip: The takeaway counter is separate from the restaurant. Use the street door if you only want a box.
Worth the queue: Havuç dilimi
Ali Usta Kebap ve Baklava opens its grill at six in the morning near Karatarla, so kebab counts as street breakfast in this part of Gaziantep.
Try: Ali Nazik
Tip: Closed Sundays. Order at the grill window rather than sitting down if you are in a hurry.
Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı plates regional home cooking near the castle, and half portions make it the easiest place in Gaziantep to taste widely.
Order: Ekşili köfte, the sour meatball soup.
Tip: Vegetarian dishes are listed separately. The kuru patlıcan dolması is meat-free on request.
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