Black Sea Cooking in Trabzon

The eastern Black Sea eats what it has: anchovy, maize, butter, cabbage and hazelnut. Hamsi, the small anchovy that runs in the cold months, is fried in cornmeal, layered into rice as hamsili pilav, worked into kofte, and brought out whole on a tray to be eaten with fingers and bread. Muhlama, called kuymak locally, is cornmeal cooked slowly in butter with fresh string cheese until it pulls in threads off the spoon, and it is a breakfast that ends most people's plans for the morning. Akcaabat kofte comes from the town west of the city, Vakfikebir bakes sourdough loaves the size of a cartwheel, and black cabbage goes into soup.

What you actually see

• Hamsi in season - fried in cornmeal, baked into pilav or worked into kofte.
• Muhlama - cornmeal, butter and stretchy cheese cooked until it strings off the spoon.
• Vakfikebir bread - very large sourdough loaves out of wood-fired ovens.
• Hazelnut and black cabbage - the crop and the vegetable behind half the local dishes.

When to go

Hamsi season runs roughly from November into March, and that is when the fish is cheap, fat and everywhere. Summer brings better weather for the highland roads but the anchovy is out of season and often frozen. Breakfast is the meal to plan around. The coast is wet all year, so carry a jacket regardless of the month.

Honest expectations

Hamsi is bony and strongly flavoured; people take to it immediately or not at all. Muhlama is close to pure butter and cheese and sits heavily for hours. Trabzon city is congested and short on charm, with traffic on the coast road most of the day. Summer weekends bring heavy domestic tourism to the highland valleys.

Nearby

The highland yaylas above the coast, the tea country east towards Rize and the Zigana pass inland.