Anchovy and Cornmeal Cheese: The Table Where Trabzon and Rize Meet

Two Climates, One Table

Along Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast, a narrow shoreline gives way within a few hours' drive to steep highland pasture, and the two feed the same table in very different ways. Anchovy and corn come from the shore; cheese and butter come from the plateau above it.

That split defines the cooking of Trabzon and Rize more than any single dish does. Fishing and corn farming dominate near the sea, herding and dairy work take over as the land climbs, and everyday meals routinely draw from both zones at once.

Anchovy, Cornmeal, and a Coastal Habit

On this stretch of coast, hamsi (Black Sea anchovy) is cooked more ways than almost any other regional fish: pan-fried in a thin cornmeal crust, steamed, baked into rice, battered into small fritters, or salted to keep through the off-season. Its migration and spawning biology are a separate subject; what stands out here is simply how many forms one small fish takes on a coastal table.

Corn runs through nearly all of it. The same cornmeal that crisps around a pan-fried anchovy also forms the body of the region's signature cheese-and-butter dish — two very different textures from one grain.

How Corn Took Over a Rainy Coast

Corn reached Europe from the Americas in the 16th century and arrived in Ottoman Istanbul around 1600 via Egypt and Syria, first known as "Egyptian wheat." It took hold most strongly on the eastern Black Sea coast, spread partly by Laz sailors trading along the shore, and was long known locally as "Laz grass."

Climate did the rest of the work: the region's rain-heavy summers made large-scale wheat farming difficult, while corn tolerated wet conditions even as it ripened. Corn bread followed, and remains a regional staple — cooked less often than in the past, but still on the table.

Kuymak, Muhlama, and a Cheese That Stretches

The same dish — cornmeal cooked with butter and a soft, fresh cheese into a thick, elastic mixture — goes by different names depending on where you are: kuymak in Trabzon, muhlama along the Rize and Artvin coast, yağlaş further west, havits in Çamlıhemşin. Four documented regional methods, from Artvin to Gümüşhane, vary the same three ingredients in slightly different order and proportion.

What makes it work is the cheese's ability to stretch into long strands when heated with butter rather than simply melting — closer to the pull of fresh mozzarella than to a standard sauce. Rize's version, muhlama, made from kolot cheese, butter, cornmeal, salt and water, received official geographical-indication status in 2021 and is consistently named the most popular dish among visitors to the Ayder plateau.

Kale, Tea, and a Climate That Shapes the Table

Karalahana, a dark, frost-hardy kale, is one of the few ingredients shared by both the coast and the highland kitchen — turned into soup, wrapped into stuffed leaves, or braised plain through the winter months, since it can be picked straight from a snow-dusted garden.

Tea reshaped the region in the opposite direction. Agronomist Zihni Derin, sent to Rize in 1923, brought back tea seedlings from a 1924 trip to Batum, and the law he drafted took effect that February, opening the way for tea cultivation that now covers much of the coastal farmland.

Rize is also Turkey's wettest province, and that humidity runs through the whole menu: drying in the sun rarely works here, so salting, butter-preserving and eating things fresh take its place. Anchovy, corn, cheese and kale each answer to the same wet climate in a different way.