The story
Tantuni comes from Mersin on Turkey's Mediterranean coast and is rooted in the cooking of the region's Turkmen and Yörük nomads. In its early, 20th-century form it was a cheap meal of chopped lung and beef fat, popular with port workers and students in this busy harbour city. From the 1970s and 1980s cooks switched to tender beef, boiled first, then fried in cottonseed oil with chilli flakes on a wide sac pan, and steamed with splashes of water before being rolled in flatbread. The name is said to imitate the clanging of the spatula on the metal pan. Mersin tantuni gained a geographical indication in 2017.
Also known as Mersin tantunisi, tantuni dürüm.
On the Meridish menu
Tantuni was the street food course on menu No. 21 on October 21, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Finely chopped beef stir-fried in cottonseed oil on a wide domed pan, then rolled in thin flatbread. Dockworkers in this Mediterranean port made it a cult snack.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
