Product Code Database
Simit is a circular bread, typically with or, less commonly, poppy, flax or sunflower seeds, found across the Ottoman cuisine and the Middle East, especially in Armenia, Turkey and the Balkans. Simit's size, crunch, chewiness, and other characteristics vary slightly by region.
In İzmir, simit is known as gevrek ("crisp"), although it is very similar to the Istanbul variety. Simit in Ankara are smaller and crisper than those of other cities.
Other names are based on the Byzantine Greek kollikion (κολλίκιον), or Ancient Greek kollyra (κολλύρα), or Greek koulouri (κουλούρι). In Latin it is known as arculata. Aramaic language: ܩܶܠܽܘܪܳܐ/ܩܸܠܘܿܪܵܐ ( qeluro/qelora); Turkish: ;In parts of Turkey, referring to all crisp breads; see Modern Turkish Dictionary, TDKEvliya Çelebi's travels, Seyahatname, 1680. South Slavic đevrek, ђеврек, gjevrek, ѓеврек, геврек. The Armenian name is ( bokegh). In Judaeo-Spanish it is known as roskas turkas.Matilda Koén-Sarano Diksionario Ladino-Ebreo,Ebreo-Ladino,S.Zack,Jerusalem 2010 In English language it is known as Turkish bagels, rosca or coulouri.
Simit are generally sold by in Turkey, who either have a simit trolley or carry the simit in a tray on their head. Street merchants generally advertise simit as fresh (" Taze simit!"/" Taze gevrek!") since they are baked throughout the day; otherwise hot (" Sıcak, sıcak!") and extremely hot (" El yakıyor!" means "It burns the hand!") when they are not long out of the oven.
Simit is an important symbol for lower and middle-class people of Turkey. Sometimes it is called susam kebabı ("sesame kebab").
In other parts of the Middle East, in Egypt it is consumed with boiled eggs and/or Duqqa, which is a mixture of herbs used as condiments. It is commonly used to break the fast, with yoghurt or buttermilk, in mosques in Mecca and Medina.
Today, many municipalities in Turkey produce simit through their own subsidiaries.
Another type of bread similar to simit is known as obwarzanek (in particular obwarzanek krakowski) in Poland and bublik in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The main difference is that the rings of dough are poached briefly in boiling water prior to baking (similarly to ), instead of being dipped in water and molasses syrup, as is the case with simit.
Girde (Uygur: Гирде) is a type of bread baked on the walls of tandoori oven, that is very similar to simit, and that the Uyghurs in China see as a characteristic item in their culture-specific kitchen.
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