Salep — also spelled sahlab or sahleb — is a fine, ivory-white flour milled from the dried underground tubers of wild terrestrial orchids, chiefly species of Orchis and Anacamptis native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia. Bland and faintly nutty on the tongue, its value lies not in a bold taste but in a rare texture: the tuber is packed with glucomannan, a plant gum that swells in hot liquid into a smooth, elastic, almost chewy body. That thickening power makes salep the soul of two Turkish classics — the hot milky winter drink also called salep, dusted with cinnamon, and dondurma, the famously stretchy, resistant Maraş ice cream you can slice with a knife. A vanilla-orchid cousin it is not: salep's fame is all about mouthfeel and a delicate floral warmth, and true wild-tuber powder has become scarce and costly enough that most modern "salep" is an imitation blend.