Beyti kebab

A long skewer of minced lamb or beef, grilled over charcoal, rolled tightly inside a sheet of lavash, cut into slices and served with a tomato-butter sauce and a pool of garlic yoghurt: the beyti is the kebab that Istanbul made rather than inherited. It takes its name from Beyti Güler, whose restaurant in the Florya district has operated since 1945; his original beyti of the 1960s was a cut of lamb wrapped in its own fat, and the wrapped-and-sliced version served everywhere today is a later development that borrowed his name. Within the kebab family it sits closest to Adana and Urfa, since the meat is the same hand-chopped mince on a flat skewer; what makes it a beyti is the lavash, the slicing, and the sauce. It is a dish of knife and fork, not of the hand, and in a kebapçı it is one of the more expensive orders.