The sesame-coated bread ring that is a common Turkish street food is simit.
Simit is a circular bread made from dough that is dipped in a sweet liquid such as grape molasses and then covered generously with sesame seeds before baking. The result is usually crisp on the outside and chewy inside. In Turkey, vendors traditionally sell simit from carts or carry trays of it through busy streets.
The bread has roots in the former Ottoman world. Historical records show simit production in Istanbul by 1525, and 16th-century records later helped standardize its price and weight. Byzantine sources also describe an earlier ring-shaped bread resembling it.
Simit is often eaten plain or with Turkish tea, cheese, jam, olives, or ayran. It is sometimes compared with a bagel, but simit is typically lighter and has a distinctive molasses-sesame crust. In İzmir, a similar bread is commonly called gevrek.