taste

The Kars cuisine is largely based on flour, legumes and animal products. Among the local specialties are Kars pastries and desserts such as hangel, kete, halva, and hörbe (hörre). Potato or lentil noodle pilaf, sour meat, feselli, leaf dumplings, noodle soup, hasuda, kuymak and katmer are also favourites as is yellow fish, unique to Çıldır Lake.

In Kars, which is also famous for its geese, goose has an important place in local cuisine. Goose meat is served in winter as a special dish.  

Kars Cheddar (Kars Kaşarı), a geographically indicated product, is distinctive due to its production technique and the high quality of the milk used – the natural-tasting cheese is made using milk from cows and goats grazing on the high-altitude plateaus of the Kars province. Chechil, gruyere, and tuluk are also prominent cheeses produced in Kars.

The first cheese production in Kars was in 1926, in Kümbetli, the central village of Kars. Today, the Cheese Museum in Boğatepe Village draws numerous visitors!

As a high plateau, Kars is also a centre for beekeeping, with more than 1,600 flowering plants, more than a hundred of which are endemic to the region. Kars Honey is another geographically indicated product.  

The Kağızman Long Apple is a native winter fruit with a geographical indication. Collected in early October, the fruit is juicy and delicious.

Visitors who arrive in Kars on March 21 can enjoy the Nevruz Festival, a celebration of the coming of spring. The “Yeddi Levin” are the seven stages of the holiday. The Nevruz tradition is observed by offering various fresh and dried fruits, snacks, and red-coloured eggs to friends and neighbours.