Konya's food is the cooking of the central Anatolian plain — heavier and meatier than the Aegean coast, with traditions reaching back to the Seljuk and Ottoman court kitchens. The dish to order is etli ekmek, a long thin flatbread topped with spiced minced meat and minced onion and baked in a wood oven until the edges curl — Konya's signature, similar to a Turkish pide but more refined, and rarely as good outside the city. The other Konya speciality is fırın kebabı, slow-roasted lamb shoulder pulled apart and served on flatbread with rice.
Drink ayran — diluted yoghurt drink — with the meat dishes; alcohol is hard to come by and Konya is the most conservative of Turkey's major cities. The traditional dessert is höşmerim, a kind of cheesecake made with curd cheese and sugar.
Restaurants cluster around Mevlana Caddesi and the streets behind Mevlana Square. Several of the most famous old etli ekmek houses — operating from wood ovens for several generations — are in the lanes off Mevlana Caddesi, and they fill up fast at lunch. Reservations are not normally needed; walk in and take a table.