Edirne Fried Liver

Tava ciğeri is the reason a lot of Turkish visitors stop in Edirne at all. Calf's liver is sliced extremely thin, dusted in flour and dropped into hot oil for a matter of seconds, so it comes out crisp at the edges and still soft inside - overcooking it is the failure mode and good places do not. It arrives piled on paper or a plate with fried long green peppers, which are eaten alongside rather than as garnish, and a heap of raw onion dressed with sumac and parsley to cut the fat. Bread and ayran complete it. The city has a row of specialist ciğerci restaurants, several of them decades old, and they serve essentially nothing else. Edirne's other edible signatures are its almond paste badem ezmesi and the deva-i misk macun, a sweet paste sold in the bazaar. The Selimiye is a few minutes' walk from most of the liver houses, which is the standard order of a day here.

What you actually see

• The thin-sliced liver - fried crisp in seconds.
• The fried peppers - long green chillies served alongside.
• The sumac onion - raw onion dressed to cut the fat.
• The ciğerci houses - restaurants serving little else.

When to go

Year-round; lunch is when the specialist houses are at their best and freshest. Many close in the evening.

Honest expectations

It is deep-fried offal - rich, and not for everyone. Portions are generous. The specialist restaurants are plain, functional places, not somewhere to linger.

Nearby

The Selimiye Mosque, Üç Şerefeli and the old bazaar are all within a few minutes' walk.