Waterfront Stall · Loaded Baked Potato

Kumpir

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A single kumpir can carry a dozen-plus toppings piled onto one baked potato, turning a humble side dish into a full meal-sized street food spectacle.

A whole potato is baked until the skin is crackly, split open, and mashed inside its own shell with butter and kaşar cheese before being piled high with a buffet of toppings — corn, olives, pickles, Russian salad, sausage, and more. Ortaköy's waterfront stalls, in the shadow of the Bosphorus Bridge, are the dish's most famous address.

Why it's made this way: Ortaköy's stalls popularized the loaded-potato format in the 1980s-90s as a cheap, customizable, filling snack for crowds strolling the Bosphorus promenade, and it has stayed a fixture there ever since.