Kokoreç Is Coming: The Turkish Street Foods About to Take Over Your City
Photo: Sami Mlouhi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Every food trend has a scout team, and Turkish cuisine just sent its reinforcements. The döner-to-shawarma-to-gyro pipeline proved Americans will happily eat spiced meat off a vertical spit at 2 a.m. Now, a new generation of Turkish-American vendors — many operating out of food trucks, weekend markets, and Instagram-only storefronts — is betting the next obsession is already grilling back home.
Here are seven contenders, ranked by how fast we think your group chat will light up.
1. Kokoreç — The Sleeper Hit
Seasoned lamb intestines, chopped on a hot griddle with oregano and red pepper flakes, piled into crusty bread. Yes, we know what it is. Yes, it's incredible. In Istanbul it's the smell of midnight; in New York, vendors like the crew behind a Queens pop-up are betting Americans — already fluent in offal thanks to tacos de trompa and pho — are ready. Smoke, fat, spice, bread. This is not complicated math.
2. Midye Dolma — The Finger Food That Hooks You
Mussels stuffed with herbed rice, spiced with currants and pine nuts, served with a squeeze of lemon. They're the ultimate street snack: sold by the piece, eaten standing up, dangerously easy to eat a dozen. A vendor in Brooklyn's weekend markets sells them by the tray and reports customers returning "the same day, sometimes twice." Once you learn the etiquette — use one empty shell as tongs — you're in the club.
3. Islak Burger — The Wet Hamburger Phenomenon
Chicago has its Italian beef. Istanbul has the islak hamburger: a small patty steamed in a garlicky tomato sauce until the whole thing surrenders, served dripping from a glass display case. It sounds wrong. It eats like a religious experience. A late-night spot in Hell's Kitchen already sells out by midnight on weekends.
4. Simit — The Breakfast Empire Waiting to Happen
The sesame-crusted bread ring that fuels an entire nation is already making quiet inroads in New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Northern Virginia. It's vegan by default, costs almost nothing, and pairs with the American coffee run like it was designed for it. Bagel shops, watch your back.
5. Balık Ekmek — Fish Sandwich as Theater
Grilled mackerel in bread with onion and sumac, ideally eaten beside water with seagulls plotting against you. The Galata Bridge version is a whole performance. American versions — popping up at waterfront markets in D.C. and Boston — lose the seagulls but keep the drama.
6. Tavuklu Gözleme — The Handheld That Travels
Paper-thin griddled flatbread stuffed with anything from spinach and cheese to spiced chicken. It's portable, customizable, and photographs beautifully — three qualities that made burritos and crepes empires. The infrastructure is already here; Turkish-owned gözleme stalls are multiplying at farmers markets from Portland to Atlanta.
7. Kumpir — The Loaded Baked Potato of Your Dreams
A giant baked potato whipped with butter and cheese, then buried under whatever you want. Istanbul's Ortaköy district turned it into an art form. In a country that invented the loaded baked potato, kumpir is less a new idea than a better one.
Our Prediction
Midye dolma goes mainstream first — it's gluten-free-adjacent, shareable, and fits the small-plates wave already reshaping American drinking culture. But watch kokoreç. Every food trend that ever mattered started with people saying "wait, it's made of what?" and then ordering a second one.
The döner walked so these could run. Keep your eyes — and your appetite — open.
