Çeşme Kumrusu

Kumru takes its name from the shape of its roll – kumru is the Turkish word for the collared dove, narrow at either end and fuller in the middle – and the bread itself is a sesame-coated roll leavened with chickpea sourdough, made with wheat flour raised by a starter cultured from chickpeas. Visit İzmir dates kumru back approximately 150 years and describes the older form plainly: İzmir tulum cheese, tomatoes and peppers stuffed into the bread and served cold.

The hot form covered by this entry is later, and it is a different sandwich. Culinary Backstreets puts the simpler tulum kumru in the mid-19th century and writes that it was in the 1940s that sandwich shops started grilling them up with sausage and melted cheese – the greasy, salty configuration of grilled sucuk, salami, thinly sliced hot dog strips, two types of cheese, pickles and tomatoes, with ketchup and mayo at some shops. Wikipedia likewise dates the modern sandwich to the mid-20th century in İzmir, where it soon became very popular.

The name was given official protection as 'İzmir Kumrusu', recognised with a geographical indication in 2017, according to Visit İzmir. In Çeşme, the Aegean resort town the hot form is named for, dedicated single-product shops still serve it as the default mixed build – grilled sucuk and salami, sosis in the mixed versions, melted kaşar and tomato in the buttered, griddled roll.