In Amasya, the daily eating routine begins with a morning meal known locally as "kuşluk." According to sources that document the region's cuisine, people in Amasya traditionally eat two meals a day: kuşluk and the evening meal. Those working in the fields have an additional meal in the afternoon, called ikindilik, and in some households a small meal called yatsılık follows the evening meal. In this arrangement breakfast is one of the two main meals. As a result, Amasya has built up a morning cuisine of its own, from pastries and butter to molasses and cheese. The spreads laid out today in the courtyards of the mansions along the Yeşilırmak and on the terraces facing the citadel are the later, tourism-oriented face of that accumulated tradition; the real weight of the table, however, lies in the pastries baked at home and in neighbourhood ovens, which in recent years have been registered one after another as geographical indications.

Kuşluk, İkindilik and Yatsılık

In Amasya the word kuşluk is first the name of a time of day, and only later the name of a meal. In Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) this part of the day is often used to fix the hour of an event. Describing the great earthquake that devastated the city in the summer of 1668, the author writes that the shaking began on Friday, the eighth of Rebiülevvel, at "kaba kuşluk vakti"; kaba kuşluk denotes the advanced hours of kuşluk, the late morning shading towards noon. The same work records that a scholar died "suddenly at kuşluk time" in the year 1306, and elsewhere the duha, that is, the kuşluk prayer, is mentioned. Kuşluk thus corresponds to the late-morning hours when the sun has risen but has not yet reached noon. That the same name was given to the filling meal laid out at this hour in place of lunch fits the logic of a two-meal day: eaten after the first tasks of the morning were done, it was substantial enough to carry a person through to the evening. No document has been found showing when the word kuşluk came to mean a meal.

According to information drawn from "Amasya Mutfağı / Amasya Cuisine," published by Amasya Governorship Cultural Publications in 2010, the people of the region dry foods in summer and bring them to the table in winter; preparations for winter dishes begin as early as the summer months. Most of the kuşluk table is likewise made of seasonal, home-produced items: jam and molasses from fruit picked in the orchard, dairy products, and pastries baked in an oven or over a wood fire. In a routine of two meals a day, it fits this structure that heavy, filling, buttery dishes made with walnuts find their way onto the morning table.

The same sources also list the smaller meals eaten during the day in Amasya. İkindilik is the meal eaten by those working in the fields. Yatsılık is described as an extra meal eaten after dinner. All three names denote a time; in the local language, in other words, a meal was named less by the clock than by the part of the day in which it fell, and often by the hours of prayer. The food of days such as weddings, circumcisions and religious holidays is regarded in the city as part of the festivity, and the abundance of the breakfast table becomes most visible on those days.

Bread, Molasses and Walnuts in the Old Records

No record is known that directly describes what the morning table looked like in Amasya in the Ottoman period; but bread, molasses and walnuts, the basic ingredients of today's kuşluk, also appear in older texts as everyday food. Within an entry woven with hagiographic tales, Hüsameddin describes the diet of the Naqshbandi Çatal Hâfız Ahmed Efendi, who died in 1221 (1806) and lived as a recluse in the room of the Hacı İlyas Mescidi behind the imaret, as follows: he never ate onion or garlic; his food was such things as bread, molasses, raisins, walnuts and dates, and he would give these to those he loved even at the most unexpected times. This is the abstemious table of an ascetic and cannot be read as a breakfast recipe. Even so, it shows that these few dry ingredients, needing neither fire nor pot, formed the core of the plainest daily diet in Amasya at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It may be suggested that the pairing of molasses and walnuts on today's kuşluk table is connected with this older habit; this, however, is an inference, and there is no document showing continuity between the two periods.

Old praises of the city's fruit and bread belong to the same frame. The Central Black Sea Development Agency's publication introducing the cuisine of the region reports that Evliya Çelebi, describing Amasya, spoke of its breads, its forty kinds of pear, eleven kinds of cherry, seven kinds of grape and seven kinds of quince. According to the same publication, the quince dessert ayva peverdesi made from Amasya quinces was at that time sent as a gift to the sultan. This report could not be checked against the Seyahatname itself. It is hardly surprising that mornings should centre on pastries in a city remembered for its bread; the rhyme sung for the Samsun simit, "From Amasya's flour, from Samsun's water, fresh out of the oven," also shows that Amasya flour was regarded as a standard even in neighbouring provinces.

The Staples of the Morning Table

The backbone of an Amasya breakfast is formed by the items found at almost any Turkish breakfast: fresh and aged cheeses, village butter, kaymak (clotted cream), olives, eggs, warm bread and tea. In the promotional descriptions of the city's breakfast venues, village eggs, homemade jam and warm bazlama flatbread appear as the elements emphasised by businesses outside the city centre that work in the "village breakfast" style. Some venues in the centre, by contrast, place geographically indicated local products on their spread. Breakfast in Amasya arises from setting a few regional products on top of the general Anatolian breakfast pattern, and the distinctive side of the table is concentrated in those few products.

On the sweet side, the product mentioned most often is the Amasya misket apple. One face of the apple is red and the other yellow or greenish; locals call the small, sweet ones misket and the larger, grafted ones kabak elması. Cut horizontally through the middle, its core appears as a five-chambered star. The apple was registered as a designation of origin on 14 March 2019 on the application of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry; the geographical boundary of the registration covers the central district together with Suluova, Merzifon, Gümüşhacıköy, Hamamözü, Taşova and Göynücek. According to the registration record, the harvest runs from mid-September to the end of October, and thanks to the waxy layer on its skin the apple keeps until May in cold stores or in traditional earth stores. The same record also mentions that the apple is dried so that it can be eaten all year round. In March 2025 the Amasya Chamber of Commerce and Industry applied for European Union geographical indication registration for the misket apple and the çiçek bamyası (flower okra). Publications describing the local cuisine stress that one never tires of the molasses made from misket apples; the same publications also list carob molasses and apple lokum among the local products bought in the city.

The presence of apple jam and molasses at breakfast is therefore a natural choice tied to the region's fruit. That a hard apple which keeps for a long time is still on hand in winter makes it easy for it to come to the table not only as fresh fruit but also as jam and molasses. Accounts of the apple's antiquity in these lands also mention a Roman-period mosaic, said to bear the figure of an apple tree, found in excavations near the village of Yavru in the central district; this information comes from a statement a producer gave to the press and could not be confirmed in a scholarly publication. The sour cherry, rose and apricot jams, honey and kaymak mentioned in popular descriptions of the table, on the other hand, are not documented as products specific to Amasya; they are simply common on the tables of breakfast venues.

Butter, too, is not confined to breakfast in the region's cuisine. Helle soup, made by toasting flour and rice in butter, is found in nearly every restaurant in the city. Toyga soup, prepared with chickpeas, wheat and cracked wheat, is finished with mint sizzled in butter. Çatal soup, made from green lentils and cracked wheat, is likewise served with mint and red pepper flakes fried in fat. The breakfast table is not directly connected with these soups, but some venues serve çatal soup alongside the spread. The wide use of butter in the local cuisine, from soup to pastry, explains why village butter holds the place of honour on the breakfast table.

Amasya Çöreği

The best-known element of the kuşluk table is the Amasya çörek. Made with wheat flour, walnut kernels, butter, chickpea water, salt, egg yolk, sugar and vegetable oil, the çörek is leavened with chickpea yeast. Writings on the regional cuisine state that the dough is shaped in two ways: a round version with walnuts, and finger-shaped versions with walnuts and poppy seed or with poppy seed alone. Traditionally it is baked over a wood fire. The çörek is sold packaged in almost every patisserie and bakery in the city and is among the first foods taken from Amasya as a gift for loved ones. It is eaten as much at breakfast as with afternoon tea. The development agency's publication on the regional cuisine mentions a shop in the city centre that has baked çörek and poğaça for three generations and recommends buying the poppy-seed and walnut çöreks hot early in the morning; in this sense the çörek is something like kuşluk's bread fresh from the oven. The prevalence of poppy-seed varieties in the region is tied to local agriculture; writings on Amasya cuisine note that beet, poppy and sunflower are frequently used in regional dishes and are also sold outside the province. Poppy-seed and walnut çörek is also among the pastries offered to guests who come visiting during religious holidays.

The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office registered the Amasya çörek as an indication of source on 24 August 2021 under number 874. The application was filed on 24 February 2021 by the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union; according to information reported by news agencies, it was prepared under the patronage of the Amasya Governorship. The registration document describes the çörek as palm-sized and half-moon shaped, and identifies two distinctive features: the yeast is obtained from crushed chickpeas, and the baking is done in two stages. For the chickpea water, ten to fifteen chickpeas are crushed in a mortar and placed in a glass jar, warm water and a dessertspoon of sugar are added, and the jar is closed and left for three days. According to the document, for the yeast to mature the jar must stand in a sunny place at between 22 and 25 degrees and in moderate humidity; when the yeast is ready, a thick foam forms on its surface.

The dough is kneaded after a well is made in the middle of the sifted flour and the chickpea water, butter, crushed walnuts and salt are added. The dough is rolled into a log and divided into fifteen or sixteen pieces, and the balls rolled in the palm are placed on a greased tray and left to rest for half an hour. The çöreks, scored on top, are baked for about fifteen minutes in a preheated oven; once they have formed a crust they are taken out, brushed with a mixture of egg yolk, sugar and oil, and returned to the oven for another twenty minutes. It is this second baking that gives the çörek its glossy, faintly sweet crust. On keeping, the sources diverge: writings on the regional cuisine say the çörek does not go stale for a long time, while the registration document states that it can be kept at room temperature for at most one day without losing its quality, and up to six months in vacuum bags or in the freezer. The difference between the half-moon shape in the registration document and the round and finger shapes mentioned in the writings is also worth recording; the registration appears to have defined a single standard form of the çörek.

The name at the centre of the registration news was Galip Doğla, a çörek baker working on Habibi Sokak in the Pirinççi neighbourhood. According to the report, the family has been baking this çörek since 1925; the recipe passed from his grandfathers Ahmet and Hakkı Doğla to his father, and from him to Galip Doğla. It is reported that Doğla shares the recipe with no one except his daughter, a food engineer, and bakes the çörek over a wood fire in an oven he fires himself. In the same report, the mayor and the head of the tourism association say that many people in the city have tried to make a çörek like this recipe but have not achieved the same result. The information that the çörek is "a hundred years old" therefore rests on the account of a family business and has not been confirmed by an independent document. What is striking is that the same year, 1925, also appears as the date of "first production" in the registration document of the burmalı çörek registered the following year. It may be suggested that the date entered both registration files from the same family account; this, however, is an inference, and the documents do not state the source of the date.

Burmalı Çörek, Yağlı and Gömbe

After the Amasya çörek, the Burmalı Amasya Çöreği (twisted Amasya çörek) was also registered as an indication of source on 7 June 2022 under number 1136, following an application filed on 4 October 2021 by the Amasya Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Speaking at the meeting introducing the registration, the chamber's president, Murat Kırlangıç, said that Amasya, which he counted among the rare cities where Ottoman palace cuisine is kept alive in Anatolia, had until recently had only four geographically indicated products, and that with the burmalı çörek the number had risen to ten. Although it shares the name, the burmalı çörek is a different pastry from the small Amasya çörek. According to the registration document, the dough, kneaded from flour, water, salt, dry yeast and again chickpea water, is divided into five balls; each is rolled out with olive oil to about fifty centimetres across, and the sheets are stacked with a filling of poppy seed crushed with olive oil and a scattering of walnuts between them. The layered sheets are cut in half and stacked again, divided into strips three centimetres wide, and each strip is twisted and laid side by side in the tray. First proved in a warm oven and then baked for twenty to twenty-five minutes, the çörek is served in slices. The result is a single tray of morning çörek that is cut and shared.

Two more pastries that may be counted in the same family are also registered. Amasya yağlısı, registered on 16 June 2022 on the application of the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union, is made by spreading a filling of sunflower oil, walnuts and poppy seed over dough kneaded from flour, water, salt and yeast and then rolling it up. The roll is coiled on itself into the shape of a rose, then rolled out to about forty centimetres across and cooked on a sac griddle in a few minutes, producing a many-layered round. The registration document states that yağlı is offered on occasions such as weddings, circumcisions, religious holidays and funerals. The variety listed among the regional pastries as "yağlı or katmer" and found fresh in bakeries early in the morning belongs to this family; the registered recipe, however, is based on cooking on the sac rather than in an oven. Amasya gömbesi, registered in June 2026, gains its layered structure by placing a filling of walnuts, crushed poppy seed and sugar between two layers of yeasted dough, folding the corners into the centre like an envelope, and then spreading the dough out over the tray again by pressing it with the fist; it is brushed with egg yolk, baked in the oven until golden and cut into slices. According to the document, gömbe appears on the tables of engagements, henna nights and weddings.

The same trio recurs in all these varieties: wheat dough, walnuts and poppy seed. Yoğurmaç, mentioned in the development agency's publication, is made from the same ingredients; the dough, opened by two people pulling it between them, is kneaded with butter, crushed walnuts and poppy seed, greased layer by layer and gathered into a ball again, then rested, rolled out once more and put in the oven. The gömbe document also stresses that poppy is grown extensively in Amasya. The weight of walnuts and poppy seed on the kuşluk table becomes understandable when considered together with a two-meal routine that needs a rich, sustaining morning meal.

Other Pastries and Savoury Breakfast Dishes

Apart from çörek, Amasya's repertoire of pastries is broad, and part of it belongs directly to the morning. The list of regional pastries approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism includes Amasya çöreği, yağlı or katmer, bişi, cırıtka or cızlak or akıtma, döndürme, ekmek aşı, eli böğründe, poppy-seed and walnut çörek, hengel, meatless mantı, kaypak, mayalı, sini suböreği, tepsi böreği, yakasal böreği and yanuç. Not all of these are breakfast foods, but those that most often reach the morning table are chosen from this list.

Yanuç, from this list, is the only Amasya pastry that its registration document links directly with breakfast. Registered as an indication of source on 22 November 2023 in the name of the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union, yanuç is described in the document as eaten at daily meals, "especially at breakfast," and also offered on days such as weddings, religious holidays and festivals. The dough, kneaded from flour, water, salt and bread yeast, is rested for at least an hour, divided into balls, proved again and rolled out to between twenty-five and fifty centimetres. A filling is placed on one half, the other half is folded over it, and it is given a half-moon shape. The filling may be cheese, cheese and parsley, cheese and spring onion, minced meat, potato or spinach. Yanuç is cooked, preferably over a wood fire, on a sac or in a pan, turned at intervals so that both faces cook evenly, brushed with butter if desired, and eaten hot. The document specifically notes that cooking both faces evenly and preparing the filling require skill.

Eli böğründe is a savoury, single-serving variety made by placing crushed walnuts inside a yeasted dough. It is brushed with butter and baked over a wood fire until golden. In the region it is eaten at other times of day as much as at breakfast; it is also made at home on days when many guests are received, such as religious holidays and weddings, and is usually served with tea. Yakasal böreği is a plain dough of flour and egg cooked in a tray. Likened to bazlama, this börek is eaten hot with melted butter brushed over it and often takes the place of bread on the morning table. Cızlak, also known as akıtma or as a kind of crêpe, is a batter dish eaten dipped in molasses; it is remembered especially as a breakfast food loved by children. Çökelekli pide, made by baking a thinly rolled dough with a filling of çökelek cheese, butter and parsley in a stone oven, is another variety that suits the same table. No geographical indication application for eli böğründe, yakasal or cızlak was found in this research.

One of the savoury breakfast dishes is pastırma pağallemesi. Onion is sautéed in fat, pastırma cut to the thickness of a matchstick is added, and the dish cooks in ten to fifteen minutes. Locals usually eat it at breakfast or with afternoon tea and serve it alongside other breakfast items. Pastırma pağallemesi is also listed in the development agency's publication among the regional dishes that can be tasted in the historic mansions. Pastırma is used in other dishes of Amasya cuisine as well; pastırma with beet greens is also counted among the regional dishes.

The Sweet Side, with Molasses

In Amasya, molasses is not just something spread on bread; it is an ingredient that stands on the border between breakfast and dessert. Dene hasudası is a dessert of very few ingredients, made with wheat starch, molasses, water and butter; the cooking mixture is stirred with a wooden spoon until it becomes granular, and plenty of walnuts are scattered on top. Hasuda, also known as peluza, is much loved in the local cuisine and is eaten both in the city and in the districts. Vişneli ekmek arises from combining thin slices of bread baked in butter with sour cherries boiled in sugar. The development agency's publication presents this dessert as one "eaten at the Amasya princes' palace"; no palace record showing this connection has been found, and the information should be treated as local tradition. These desserts are listed among Amasya's sweets in regional food records.

The unutma beni ("forget me not") dessert is prepared by sweetening stale bread with molasses and decorating it with walnuts. In 2024 teachers and students at the city's İlduş Hatun Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School began making again this dessert, which received a geographical indication through the initiative of the Amasya Governorship and the Ziyaret Municipality. The school's food and beverage teacher, Bilsen Bodur, explains that village bread, grape molasses and walnuts are used, that her mother made it in her childhood, and that the dessert was made in the villages but rarely in the city centres. Making use of stale bread, this dessert is the product of a village economy in which bread left over from the morning table returned to it with molasses and walnuts; it is also notable that it shares its ingredients with Çatal Hâfız's table of bread, molasses and walnuts.

Sources describing Amasya cuisine connect apple dessert to the same circle. Prepared with misket apples and sour cherries, the dessert turns a deep red when cooked in syrup, is served cold, and is usually eaten with kaymak. The presence of apple dessert on the menus of breakfast venues shows that the local fruit has entered the sweet part of the morning table.

A Table Set by the Riverside and the Citadel

Some of Amasya's breakfast venues lie within the historic fabric of the city. The tables laid in the Yalıboyu houses on the bank of the Yeşilırmak and in restored Ottoman mansions look across to the Rock Tombs of the Kings on the opposite slope. A breakfast venue operating in an old mansion on Hazeranlar Sokak, opposite the Şehzadeler Museum, is remembered for its stone walls, wooden ceiling and closeness to the river; its menu also includes regional dishes such as bakla dolması, toyga soup and apple dessert. A venue on Kolbaşı Sokak in the İhsaniye quarter, right at the foot of the citadel, offers a panorama of the city framed by the citadel walls. Some venues on Çakallar Caddesi look over the city from a high point and serve tea brewed in a samovar alongside the breakfast spread. A business in the Hatuniye neighbourhood is known for hand-rolled gözleme and breakfast menus from different regions.

These venues in the city centre address a different clientele from the village-breakfast businesses outside the city. The spread laid out in a mansion courtyard or with a view of the citadel brings all the regional products together on small plates. How far regional products actually make it onto business menus, however, is open to question. Kenan Pala's study, published in 2026 and based on interviews with eleven tourism professionals working in Amasya, finds that the city's gastronomic identity is perceived above all through apples and apple-themed products, but that local products appear only to a limited extent on business menus. One of the interviewees names the preference for fast food and foreign cuisines over local cooking as a threat. From this point of view, the plates of a breakfast spread that bring together the registered çöreks and molasses may be counted among the easiest doors through which local cuisine opens onto tourism.

Religious Holidays, Diş Hediği and the Zekeriya Table

Amasya's food tradition continues in rituals that go beyond kuşluk. During religious holidays, stuffed vegetables with meat, keşkek, baklava and poppy-seed çörek are prepared for visitors; during Ramadan, soup, pilaf with noodles, börek, hoşaf (stewed fruit) and çörek are eaten at iftar. During the Feast of the Sacrifice, guests are served bakla dolması, pilaf with meat, baklava, toyga and fried liver, and some of the food prepared is also sent to the poor. The custom of giving children lokum wrapped in a handkerchief, along with pocket money, continues according to the sources. The diş hediği custom, in which wheat boiled with sugar is distributed to neighbours when a small child cuts its first tooth, is linked to the same tradition of the table. At weddings and circumcisions, pilaf with meat, sherbet and desserts are served.

Hospitality sets the measure of these tables. According to an account reported in the development agency's publication on the regional cuisine, the people of Amasya, even when they had no guest to entertain that day, would invite someone in need into their home and share their food with them. A guest who came from outside and stayed the night was called an "ağır misafir" (honoured guest), and the table laid for such a guest had six dishes: toyga soup, whole meat, rice pilaf, sinusu böreği, okra and a dessert. At village weddings tables are set up in the courtyards, and keşkek, pilaf, meat and helva are cooked in large cauldrons. At the celebration called the "gelin hamamı" (bride's bath), held in the bathhouse before the wedding to introduce the bride to the family's relatives, bakla dolması, walnut puaça, bat and lokma were eaten. These accounts are told in the past tense, and the sources do not say to what extent they continue today.

The Zekeriya Table, described as one of Amasya's oldest traditions, is not a breakfast table but a table of wishes. No invitations are sent for this table, which is laid with uncooked foods; anyone who wishes may join. The table holds zamzam water, dates, nigella seed, yoghurt, cheese, olives and pide; beyond these, it is reported that there must be forty-one kinds of food in all, including dry foods. Six rak'ahs of prayer are performed, and after the prayer a candle is set on the table. A person whose wish comes true lays the table again in their own home. This custom shows that in Amasya food did not serve only to satisfy hunger but also involved uninvited sharing.

Gaps in the Sources

No academic study on the history of Amasya breakfast was found in this research. The information here rests on passages drawn from the governorship's cookbook, the geographical indication documents of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration news reports, the Central Black Sea Development Agency's publication on the regional cuisine, a recent academic article on Amasya gastronomy, and current publications that compile local food culture. Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi shows kuşluk as the name of a time of day and molasses and walnuts as everyday food, but it does not describe what the breakfast table in Amasya consisted of in the Ottoman period; for that reason, no documented breakfast tradition from the era of the princes or earlier periods is claimed. The references to Evliya Çelebi and to the princes' palace are reported at second hand and could not be verified from the original texts. The geographical indication documents say that the products' "history goes back a long way," but give no date other than 1925 for the burmalı çörek. No passage touching on breakfast or the kuşluk table was found in Osman Fevzi Olcay's Amasya Hâtıraları. Information about breakfast venues is promotional in nature; variable details such as prices and opening hours have therefore not been included.

Chronology

1668: The great earthquake that devastates Amasya begins, according to Hüsameddin's record, at "kaba kuşluk vakti."

1806 (1221): Çatal Hâfız Ahmed Efendi, whose food consisted of bread, molasses, raisins, walnuts and dates, dies.

1925: The Doğla family begins producing the Amasya çörek (according to the family and press account); the registration document of the burmalı çörek also places its first production in this year.

2010: Amasya Governorship Cultural Publications publishes the book "Amasya Mutfağı / Amasya Cuisine."

14 March 2019: The Amasya misket apple is registered as a designation of origin.

24 February 2021: The Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union applies for a geographical indication for the Amasya çörek.

24 August 2021: The Amasya çörek is registered as an indication of source.

7 June 2022: The Burmalı Amasya Çöreği is registered as an indication of source in the name of the Amasya Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

16 June 2022: Amasya yağlısı is registered as an indication of source.

22 November 2023: Amasya yanuç, associated with breakfast, is registered as an indication of source.

March 2025: An application is filed for European Union geographical indication status for the misket apple.

16 June 2026: Amasya gömbesi is registered as an indication of source.

Bibliography

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