# The Story of Simit, Istanbul's Iconic Sesame Bread

> What is simit? The story of Istanbul's sesame-crusted ring bread: how it is made, how locals eat it, and why the simit cart is a street icon.

**Simit** is Istanbul's sesame-crusted ring bread, a circle of dough with a chewy interior and a dark, nutty crust of toasted sesame. People ask “what is simit” and the honest answer is that it is the city's everyday bread, sold from red carts on almost every corner, eaten on the move with a glass of tea or laid on the breakfast table next to white cheese. It is cheap, it is everywhere, and for many Istanbullus it is the first taste of the morning.

## What exactly is simit?

Simit is a ring of leavened wheat dough, boiled or dipped before baking, then coated heavily in sesame seeds and baked until deep golden. The result is a bread that is crisp where the sesame has caught and chewy in the middle, closer to a dense pretzel than to soft sandwich bread. The shape matters: the ring is easy to carry, easy to tear, and easy to hand around a table.

It is sometimes called a “Turkish bagel”, and the comparison helps newcomers picture it, though the two are not the same. Both are ring-shaped, but a simit is thinner, drier, and far more about the sesame than the dough. There is no thick chewy heft here, no need for cream cheese or filling. Simit stands on its own.

## How is simit made?

The step that gives simit its character comes before the oven. The dough rings are dipped in *pekmez* (grape molasses) thinned with water, then pressed into a tray of sesame seeds so the whole surface is coated. The molasses does two things: it helps the seeds stick, and it caramelises in the heat, giving the crust its dark colour and faint sweetness.

From there the rings go straight onto the oven floor or a hot stone and bake quickly. A good simit comes out with sesame toasted to the edge of bitter, a crust that crackles, and an interior that pulls apart in soft strands. The best are eaten within an hour or two of baking, while the contrast between crisp shell and tender crumb is at its sharpest.

- **Dough**: plain leavened wheat dough, shaped into rings and often twisted from two strands.
- **The dip**: *pekmez* (grape molasses) and water, which sets the colour and helps the sesame cling.
- **The coat**: a generous press into sesame seeds, the defining flavour.
- **The bake**: fast and hot, until the crust is deep gold and the sesame is toasted.

## How do locals eat simit?

Most simit is eaten plain, in the hand, often standing up. You buy one warm from a cart, tear off a piece, and walk. The classic pairing is a glass of *çay* (Turkish black tea), strong and hot, which softens the sesame and cuts the dryness. For a heartier version, people split a simit and fill it with *beyaz peynir* (white cheese), or eat it alongside olives, tomato and cucumber.

At breakfast, simit takes its place on the wider spread rather than standing alone. It sits among the cheeses, the honey, the eggs and the bread, one more thing to tear and build a small bite from. If you want to understand where it fits in the larger ritual, our [guide to the traditional Turkish breakfast](/en/blog/turkish-breakfast-guide/) lays out the whole table and how Istanbullus graze across it. A simit and a wedge of white cheese, chased with tea, is breakfast for a great many people on a working morning.

## Why is the simit cart a street icon?

The red simit cart, glass-sided and stacked with rings, is one of the steadiest images of an Istanbul street. The carts appear at dawn near ferry terminals, tram stops, mosque gates and busy squares, wherever people pass on their way somewhere. The seller calls out, the stack turns over through the morning, and a fresh batch arrives by mid-day.

Part of the appeal is how little it asks of you. There is no queue to join, no table to find, no menu to read. You hand over a few coins, you get warm bread, and you keep moving. In a city this large and this fast, the simit cart is a small fixed point: the same bread, the same shape, the same price for everyone from the student to the office worker to the gull that snatches a fallen piece off the pavement.

## Simit beyond the cart

While the cart is its natural home, simit also belongs on the morning table, where it slows down. Pulled apart and shared, it sits comfortably next to the spiced sausage and pastry of a full spread, and it is a natural companion to [menemen, the soft tomato-and-egg dish](/en/blog/menemen-guide/) that anchors so many Turkish breakfasts. Torn simit is made for scooping. The same bread that is a snack on the street becomes part of a long, seated meal once there is tea to refill and people to talk to.

## Tasting simit in Süleymaniye

If you would like to start a morning with simit and white cheese done properly, **Moss Lounge the Bosphorus** sits in Süleymaniye, on the historic peninsula, with a terrace looking over the old city and the water. Adem Özen, who opened it in 2019, lays out a generous Turkish breakfast and keeps the tea coming, treating the place as a home rather than a restaurant. It is a calm spot to tear a simit, build a bite, and let the morning run long.