Simití

Simiti is a town and municipality located in the Bolívar Department, northern Colombia.

Coordinates: 7°58′N 73°57′W / 7.967°N 73.950°W / 7.967; -73.950

Simit

Simit (Turkish), gevrek (Turkish; Macedonian: ѓеврек, Bulgarian: геврек, Serbian: ђеврек) or koulouri (Greek: κουλούρι) is a circular bread, typically encrusted with sesame seeds or, less commonly, poppy, flax or sunflower seeds, found across the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, and the Middle East. Simit's size, crunch, chewiness, and other characteristics vary slightly by region.

In İzmir, simit is known as gevrek ("crisp"), although it is very similar to the Istanbul variety. Simits in Ankara are smaller and crisper than those of other cities. Simits in Istanbul are made with molasses.

Name

The word simit comes from Arabic samīd (سميد) 'white bread or fine flour'. and semolina. The word is also used in Greek, as σιμίτι.

Other names are based on the Greek koulouri (κουλούρι): Aramaic qeluro/qelora; or the Turkish gevrek:South Slavic đevrek, ђеврек, gjevrek, ѓеврек, геврек. In Judaeo-Spanish it is known as roskas turkas.

Origins

Simit has a long history in Istanbul. Archival sources show that the simit has been produced in Istanbul since 1525. Based on Üsküdar court records (Şer’iyye Sicili) dated 1593, the weight and price of simit was standardized for the first time. The 17th-century traveler Evliya Çelebi wrote that there were 70 simit bakeries in Istanbul during the 1630s. Jean Brindesi's early 19th-century oil-paintings about Istanbul daily life show simit sellers on the streets.Warwick Goble, too, made an illustration of these simit sellers of Istanbul in 1906. Simit and its variants became popular across the Ottoman Empire.