The Crimean Tatar cuisine is primarily the cuisine of the Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...

, who live on the Crimean Peninsula

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

 in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

Crimean Tatars have lived on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea at least since the 13th century. In 1944, they were unjustly accused by Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 of collaborating with the Nazi occupiers during World War II and some 500,000 Crimean Tatars were deported to Central Asia

Soviet Central Asia

Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet administration . In terms of area, it is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan, the name for the region during the Russian Empire...

. In the early 1990s, after nearly five decades in exile, approximately 250,000 Crimean Tatars decided to return to Crimea, officially a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic since 1954. The Tatars living in Crimea today are a minority on the peninsula, accounting for 12% of the population of Crimea. Other countries with significant population of Crimean Tatars are Uzbekistan, Russia, Turkey, and Romania.

The traditional cuisine of the Crimean Tatars derives basically from the same roots as the cuisine of the Volga Tatars, although unlike the Volga Tatars they do not eat horse meat and do not drink mare’s milk (kymyz). However, the Crimean Tatars adopted many Uzbek dishes during their exile in Central Asia since 1944, and these dishes have been absorbed into Crimean Tatar national cuisine after their return to Crimea. Uzbek samsa, laghman, and plov are sold in most Tatar roadside cafes in Crimea as national dishes. Uzbek flatbread, nan

Naan

Naan is a leavened, oven-baked flatbread. It is typical of and popular in South and Central Asia, in Iran, and in South Asian restaurants abroad. Influenced by the large influx of South Asian labour, naan has also become popular in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.Originally, naan is a...

 (or lepyoshka in Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

), is also a staple among Crimean Tatars.

Traditional dishes

• Chee-börek (or Chiburekki
  Chiburekki
  Chiburekki is a fried turnover with a filling of ground or minced meat and onions. It is similar to the peremech of the Volga Tatars, but made with a single round piece of dough folded over the filling in a half-moon shape...
  
  ) is a fried turnover with a filling of ground or minced meat and onions. Similar to the peremech of the Volga Tatars, but made with one round piece of dough folded over the filling in a half-moon shape. A national dish of the Crimean Tatars, it is also popular in Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Russia, and Uzbekistan.
• Yantik, a chee-börek that is grilled, not fried.
• Köbete, a traditional pie with a rice-and-chicken filling baked between two layers of dough. Served as a main course, köbete can be made with alternative fillings, such as rice and meat, meat with potatoes and onions, or even potatoes and cheese.
• Tabak börek, small dumplings with a meat filling cooked in a broth and served as a main dish or in a soup (kashik börek). Similar to the pilmän of the Volga Tatars, the Uzbek chuchvara
  Chuchvara
  Chuchvara is a very small dumpling typical of Uzbek cuisine. Made of unleavened dough squares filled with meat, it is similar to the Russian pelmeni and the Chinese wonton, but in observance of the Islamic dietary rules, the meat filling is without pork. The dough for chuchvara is made with flour,...
  
  , or the generic manty in Central Asian cuisines.
• Göbädiä (or gubadia), a wedding pie with layers of meat, rice, chopped eggs, raisins, and qurt
  Qurt
  Qurut , qurt, or kurt , also aaruul , is a type of cheese eaten throughout Central Asia, often as a snack. Qurut is made from drained sour milk or yoghurt by forming it and letting it dry. It can be made in a variety of forms, including rolled into balls, sliced into strips, and formed into chunks...
  
  (dry white cheese). The equivalent of the eponymous dish in the cuisine of Volga Tatars.
• Shurpa, a Central Asian meat soup with large pieces of beef and mutton, onion, carrots, and other vegetables.
• Bakla ash, a soup made from green peas or beans, an unusual vegetarian dish in a meat-eating Tatar culture.
• Sheker keyeks, a traditional dessert, similar to the Turkish baklava
  Baklava
  Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and much of central and southwest Asia....
  
  .