Dishes you should try in Karaisalı: Keşkek (wheat and meat porridge), Tarhana Çorbası (tarhana soup), Sacda Et (griddle-cooked lamb with vegetables) and Bazlama (flatbread). This guide also covers the local products to buy and what Karaisalı is famous for.
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This traditional dish is made by boiling cracked wheat and meat for a long time and then pounding them together. In Karaisalı's mountain villages it is the crowning dish of wedding and festival tables. It is served with butter.
Tarhana dough, prepared and dried in the summer months, is eaten as a hot soup in winter. Karaisalı's local tarhana offers a rich flavour of yoghurt and spices.
Lamb cooked on a griddle together with vegetables, this local dish is prepared over a wood fire in the traditional way in Karaisalı's rural restaurants.
This traditional bread, baked on a griddle over a wood fire, is an essential part of village breakfasts in Karaisalı. It is served with fresh butter, honey or pekmez.
These dishes are known throughout Adana province; see the provincial food guide for details.
Made from hand-minced meat of a male sheep, tail fat, chilli flakes and salt; no other spice is added. It is cooked over embers and served with lavaş, sumac onions and greens. It is a product with a geographical indication registered by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.
A slightly sour drink made by fermenting black carrots and turnips in salted water; it comes in hot (acılı) and mild (acısız) versions. Adana şalgam has received a geographical indication not only in Türkiye but also from the European Union.
A summer dessert made of shaved ice, starch pudding, icing sugar and rose syrup. Adana bici bici is registered with a geographical indication; it is found at street vendors and cafés.
Skewers of lamb liver cooked over embers, the classic breakfast of Adana mornings; they are found at the liver restaurants (ciğerci) that open early.
Lamb tripe filled with spiced rice stuffing and boiled, served with cumin at street stalls in the evening.
A Çukurova dish in which large stuffed bulgur dumplings (the mother) and small unfilled ones (the daughter) meet in a sour soup with chickpeas.
A traditional wrestling tournament held every year at the end of April or beginning of May in Salbaş, the most long-established cultural event in Karaisalı. It draws great interest with the participation of pehlivans from neighbouring districts.
Held every year in the last week of August at Kızıldağ, this open-air festival is a colourful event with folk music concerts, traditional competitions and local product exhibitions.
Karaisalı takes its name from a lord of the Ramazanoğulları principality. The district, which lived through the Seljuk, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and Ottoman periods, has a rich historical heritage.
Karaisalı is known for 4 local dishes, above all Keşkek (wheat and meat porridge), Tarhana Çorbası (tarhana soup), Sacda Et (griddle-cooked lamb with vegetables) and Bazlama (flatbread). This traditional dish is made by boiling cracked wheat and meat for a long time and then pounding them together. In Karaisalı's mountain villages it is the crowning dish of wedding and festival tables. It is served with butter.
Karaisalı is known for Keşkek (wheat and meat porridge), Karaisalı Pepper and Salbaş Wrestling Festival. Its best-known sights include Kapıkaya Canyon and Milvan Castle.
Local products and souvenirs to buy in Karaisalı include Karaisalı Pepper, Mountain Honey, Goat's Cheese and Ceviz (walnut).