Dishes you should try in Sultandağı: Keşkek (wheat and meat dish), Kirazlı Tatlılar (cherry desserts), Tandır Kebabı (clay-oven lamb) and Haşhaşlı Çörek (poppy seed bun). This guide also covers the local products to buy and what Sultandağı is famous for.
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Keşkek, prepared by boiling and pounding hulled wheat with beef for hours, is the most important dish at weddings and festive tables in Sultandağı. It is served with browned butter.
Preserves, compotes and cake varieties made with Sultandağı's world-famous cherries form the basis of the region's sweet tradition. Prepared in the fresh cherry season, these desserts are visitors' favourites.
Prepared by slow-cooking lamb in a clay tandoor oven for hours, this kebab is the most loved flavour of Sultandağı's rural tables. Cooking the meat in its own juices gives it a soft, flavourful texture.
A traditional delicacy of the Afyonkarahisar region, haşhaşlı çörek is also carefully prepared in Sultandağı's bakeries. The aroma of the poppy seeds gives the bun its distinctive flavour.
These dishes are known throughout Afyonkarahisar province; see the provincial food guide for details.
A thick, glossy white clotted cream, best when made from buffalo milk; it received a geographical indication on 10 July 2009. It is eaten at breakfast with honey or alongside desserts.
A sucuk with a geographical indication, made in the traditional way from minced meat enriched with red pepper, black pepper and garlic.
A döner made from sucuk, unique to Afyonkarahisar cuisine.
One of the products with a geographical indication, Afyon pastırma (cured beef) is part of the province's meat-product tradition alongside sucuk.
A dessert with a geographical indication, served by topping syrupy bread kadayıf with Afyon kaymak.
Afyon lokum is both an everyday treat and the most popular souvenir.
Held every year during the cherry harvest, the Sultandağı Cherry Festival is an event where farmers compete with their largest cherries. Gold and tractor fuel are awarded to the winner, and well-known artists give concerts.
Sultandağı was founded by the Seljuk bey İshak Bey and, through its location on the Silk Road, has a rich trading and cultural past.
The plateaus at the foot of the Sultan Mountains are the traditional living areas to which families who make a living from livestock migrate in the summer months. The tradition of plateau migration is still maintained.
Sultandağı is known for 4 local dishes, above all Keşkek (wheat and meat dish), Kirazlı Tatlılar (cherry desserts), Tandır Kebabı (clay-oven lamb) and Haşhaşlı Çörek (poppy seed bun). Keşkek, prepared by boiling and pounding hulled wheat with beef for hours, is the most important dish at weddings and festive tables in Sultandağı. It is served with browned butter.
Sultandağı is known for Keşkek (wheat and meat dish), Sultandağı Gılli Kirazı (Gılli cherries) and Cherry Festival. Its best-known sights include Sultan Mountains and İshaklı Castle.
Local products and souvenirs to buy in Sultandağı include Sultandağı Gılli Kirazı (Gılli cherries) and Sultandağı Kirazı (Sultandağı cherries).