Local cuisine is heavily dependent on meaty fare, with Gaziantep and Urfa being renowned nationwide for their local varieties of kebabs. Vegetarians will have a tough time in the region and should prepare themselves for ransacking supermarkets for canned vegetable meals and eating lots of unsavory and unexciting pastry.
A local product not to be missed is pistachio, grown in the countryside surrounding Gaziantep and Siirt, in the southwest and northeast of the region respectively. While it is known as Antep fıstıÄı i.e. "pistachio of Gaziantep" in Turkish, people of Siirt vehemently object to this name, and prefering to call it instead as Siirt fıstıÄı "pistachio of Siirt" or with the local name bıttım, mostly unknown in the rest of the country. Gaziantep variety is smaller and tastier, but both are worth a try.
