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Best Çiğ köfte in San Francisco

“Once raw, now reimagined: Urfa's kofta that lives on the border between tradition and regulation”

Çiğ köfte

What the real thing tastes like

Çiğ köfte (Turkish pronunciation: [tʃiː cœfte]) or chee kofta is a kofta dish that is a regional specialty of southeastern Turkey in Urfa. The dish is served as an appetizer or meze. Çiğ köfte is common to both Turkish and Armenian cuisine. Traditionally made with raw meat, there are vegetarian variations made with bulgur, and in Urfa, a local meatless version is made with scrambled eggs. In Şanlıurfa province, locally prepared batches are sold by street vendors. In 2008, public sales of çiğ köfte with raw meat were banned by the Health Ministry of Turkey due to health hazards, especially taeniasis, thus leaving only plant-based versions in shops and restaurants.

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Çiğ köfte arrives at the table as a regional ambassador from Urfa in southeastern Turkey—a kofta so tied to its place that it belongs equally to Turkish and Armenian tables. Traditionally it was raw meat, a dish built on trust and immediacy, but after 2008 that version vanished from official commerce, leaving behind its plant-based cousins: bulgur versions, and in Urfa specifically, a scrambled-egg iteration that street vendors still press into eager hands as meze.

Order it here when it has

  • deeply regional identity
  • multiple cultural ownership
  • vegetarian adaptations
  • street vendor accessibility

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