Şorbik
Beef, chickpea and milk soup
Beef cubes cooked in their own juices, turned in butter with onion and chickpeas, simmered and finished with warm milk; served hot, often at weddings.
Eastern Anatolia
Tunceli
In Tunceli’s kitchen, many dishes rest on four foundations: wheat, lentils, butter and ayran. Mahluta, a soup of lentils and coarsely ground wheat, arrives with hot melted butter poured over the top. Şorbik brings together beef cubes, chickpeas and onion, finished with warm milk. It is served hot and made most often at weddings. Patila, cooked on a sac griddle, holds minced meat and onion fried in butter between two thin sheets of dough. In zerefet, crumbled dough pounded with garlicky ayran has a hollow at its center filled with melted butter. Plants from the slopes find their way to the table as well. Fresh kenger, paired with plenty of onion and eggs, comes from there, as does single-clove mountain garlic harvested in August. If you want to follow the table out into the districts, look for Çemişgezek’s seedless white Ulukale mulberry, mostly sold sun-dried, and for Tunceli honey, promoted at Pülümür’s honey festival.
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Mountain valleys of the Munzur
The Munzur river between steep mountain slopes.
Signature dishes
Explore preserved fruit, grains and filled vegetables alongside the province’s cultural landscape.
Mahluta
Lentil and cracked wheat soup
Soup of lentils and coarsely ground wheat, served with hot melted butter.
Hazırlop köftesi
Lentil and bulgur köfte
Bulgur mixed with boiled lentils and flavored with butter and dried basil.
Kofik dolma
Stuffed dried peppers and eggplants
Dried peppers and eggplants boiled and filled with bulgur, minced meat, butter, tomato paste and spices.
Patila
Meat-filled griddle pastry
Two thin sheets of dough sealed around minced meat and onion fried in butter, cooked on a sac griddle and brushed with butter.
Zerefet
Pounded bread with garlic ayran
A baked dough of flour, salt and water, broken up and pounded with garlicky ayran, then served with melted butter in a hollow at the center.
Ayranlı aş
Ayran soup with chickpeas
Ayran cooked with flour, salt and egg yolk, with soaked chickpeas added once it boils.
Kenger kavurması
Sautéed wild kenger
Fresh kenger boiled and sautéed with plenty of onion, finished with eggs.
Locally cooked
Recipes from this city are coming soon.
Local ingredients
Tunceli sarımsağı
Single-clove mountain garlic (Allium tuncelianum) that flowers and sets seed; harvested in August.
Guide not written yetÇemişgezek Ulukale dutu
Seedless white mulberry, mostly sold sun-dried.
Guide not written yetŞavak peyniri
Cheese made in Çemişgezek, Hozat and Pertek from the milk of local herds.
Guide not written yetTunceli balı
Honey from Pülümür and Ovacık, promoted at Pülümür’s yearly honey festival.
Guide not written yetFood culture
The museum’s belief section includes interpretation of Alevism and ritual life. This is an important cultural context, not a claim that all residents share one identity or practice. Aşure is described in the food sources as a dish of sharing. Fruit preservation and grain preparation add household work to the account, while district and family variations remain important.
Grain and dairy
Wheat, lentils, butter and ayran run through dishes such as mahluta, hazırlop köftesi and ayranlı aş.
Mountain plants
Mountain garlic and kenger from the slopes reach the kitchen.
What to bring home
- Dried Ulukale mulberries
- Tunceli honey
- Şavak cheese
- Orcik and pestil
- Hand-woven cicim and saddlebags
History & landscape
In Tunceli, water shapes how the past can be seen today. South of Çemişgezek district, the Pulur (Sakyol) Tumulus now lies beneath the waters of the Keban Dam Lake. Excavations there revealed a cultural layer from the late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods, and among the finds were temples with hearthstones engraved with human faces. The same dam has given Pertek Castle, built in the ninth century, the look of an island. Sungur Bey Mosque, which stood beside the Murat River at the foot of the castle, was moved to the center of Pertek before the dam was built; each stone was numbered and the mosque was rebuilt to the same specifications.
Belief is part of this landscape too. In the city center, Gole Çeto, where the Munzur and Pülümür streams meet, is regarded as a holy site by Alevis, as is Ana Fatma in the Munzur Valley. In Mazgirt, Pertek and Pülümür, ram-shaped tombstones carry Turkmen traditions of the Akkoyunlu period to the present. Their carvings describe the person buried below: a sword or horse for bravery, a pitcher and tray for generosity, and the Zulfiqar for an Alevi.
