Gaziantep Culinary Museum

Gaziantep joined the UNESCO Creative Cities network for gastronomy in 2015, and the claim is well founded - the city's repertoire runs to several hundred documented dishes, and its baklava, made with local pistachios and carrying a protected designation, is the national benchmark. The Emine Göğüş Culinary Museum occupies a restored nineteenth-century stone house near the castle, arranged around a courtyard, and it sets out the food culture room by room: the kitchen with its tools - the copper pans, the stone mortars, the zırh cleavers - mannequin tableaux of preparation, displays of the ingredients that define the cuisine, including isot and the pistachio, and a calendar of what is cooked and preserved through the year, since much of the domestic tradition is seasonal work done in bulk. Labelling explains individual dishes. It takes an hour, and it is the sensible thing to do before eating your way through the city rather than after.

What you actually see

• The kitchen tools - copper, mortars and cleavers of the trade.
• The dish displays - the city's documented repertoire.
• The seasonal calendar - what is cooked and preserved when.
• The courtyard house - the restored stone building itself.

When to go

Year-round; it is indoors, which helps in Gaziantep's summer heat. Check the weekly closing day. Mornings before eating.

Honest expectations

It is small - an hour covers it - and relies on mannequin tableaux, which some find dated. Labelling is better in Turkish than English. There is no food served.

Nearby

The coppersmith bazaar and the castle are minutes away; the Zeugma mosaic museum is a short ride.