Baklava Baklava Baklava (, , or ; ) is a rich, sweet dessert pastry made of layers of filo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the Levant, the Caucasus, Balkans, Maghreb, and of Central and West Asia. The word "baklava" is first attested in English in 1650, a borrowing from Ottoman Turkish . The name baklava is used in many languages with minor phonetic and spelling variations. Historian Paul D. Buell argues that the word "baklava" may come from the Mongolian root ' 'to tie, wrap up,
Turkish cuisine meat in Turkey, comprise a small part of contemporary consumption. "Kuzu çevirme", cooking milk-fed lamb on a spit, once an important ceremony, is rarely seen. Yogurt is an important element in Turkish cuisine. In fact, the English word yogurt or yoghurt derives from the Turkish word "yoğurt". Yogurt can accompany almost all meat dishes (kebabs, köfte), vegetable dishes (especially fried eggplant, courgette, spinach with minced meat etc.), "meze" and a specialty called "mantı" (folded triangles of dough containing minced meat). In villages, yogurt is regularly eaten with rice or bread. A thicker, higher-fat variety, "süzme yoğurt" or "strained yogurt", is