Kurdish Restaurants: menu guide

Baklava: a popular dessert across the Middle East, this is a pastry filled with nuts in honey syrup, a sweet and filling way of finishing your Kurdish restaurant meal.

Bayengaan: roasted aubergine stuffed with rice and yoghurt.

Biryani: a familiar dish if you love Indian food. Kurdish restaurants add a tasty twist to this favourite curry, with the meat or chicken cooked with sultanas and almonds.

Burghul pilaf: cracked wheat rice fried in onion and baked in beef or chicken stock. Burghul (bulgar wheat) has long been a staple food of the Kurdish people and is a mainstay of Kurdish restaurant menus.

Couscous salad: a healthy option on a Kurdish restaurant menu. It's typically couscous, tomatoes, cucumber and onion garnished with mint and parsley—and the zesty juice of two limes.

Dokliw: a popular soup at Kurdish restaurants—a thick and tangy broth of chicken, yoghurt, rice, basil and lemon.

Dolma: vine leaves stuffed with rice and often served up in a Kurdish restaurant with a green salad.

Falafel: chickpea patties, fried and served in the Middle Eastern style—with oil and lemon juice, and maybe a nutritious hummus dip.

Kebab: charcoal-grilled skewers of meat will usually be on the menu. Kurdish restaurant fare is very influenced by Turkish food, but adds its own twist. Chicken kebabs are often marinaded in lemon juice, served with naan and a zingy yoghurt, the lamb kebabs lightly spiced.

Kofta: torpedo-shaped mincemeat and spices. A simple dish, but you'll find many variations of it at Kurdish restaurants.

Kulicha: a popular starter on a Kurdish restaurant menu, these are syrupy balls of naan bread deep-fried and served with a crisp salad and yoghurt dip. Kurds love yoghurt, which is often made from sheep or buffalo milk.

Plow: a flavoursome rice dish with turmeric, almonds, raisins and walnut. Some Kurdish restaurants also add chicken.

Tapsi: another Kurdish restaurant favourite—aubergines, peppers, courgettes and potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce.

Tashreeb: a real Kurdish restaurant treat—lamb and layers of naan in a sauce of green peppers, tomato, onions, and chillies.

Kurdish restaurant drinks:
Chai Kurdi is sweetened and aromatic tea, Kurdistan's favourite drink—often served to you in traditional samovars in Kurdish restaurants. You could also try dugh, which is a yoghurt mixed with water.