Türkiye
Photo: Quick fix, CC BY-SA 2.0, croppedLokum
/loˈkum/loh-KOOM
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- Taste
- Sweet
- Made with
- Nuts & seeds
History
Lokum, known abroad as Turkish delight, is a soft, chewy sweet of sugar and starch, flavoured with rosewater, lemon or mastic, or packed with pistachios or hazelnuts, cut into cubes and dusted with powdered sugar. Similar starch sweets existed in the Middle East earlier, but the modern product is tied to Istanbul. Hacı Bekir, a confectioner who came to Istanbul from Kastamonu, opened a shop in 1777 that still exists, and the family credit him with refining it, which is the story told in the city. Travellers took boxes of it to Europe in the 19th century, and it became one of the best-known Turkish products. It is served with Turkish coffee.
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