The Black Sea region of Turkey (Karadeniz) has a distinct culinary identity based on corn (mısır), fresh anchovies (hamsi), butter (tereyağı), and green kale (karalahana). The corn is used in a polenta-equivalent preparation (mısır ekmeği — corn bread) and a porridge (muhlama/kuymak — corn flour cooked in butter with melted local cheese until stringy). The anchovy tradition produces one of the world's most diverse uses of a single small fish: fried, grilled, baked in bread, stuffed into pastry, made into soup.
**Muhlama/Kuymak (cornmeal cheese fondue):** - The Black Sea preparation of white cornmeal (not yellow — the Black Sea variety is a different white corn) cooked in clarified butter until thick, then local string cheese (Trabzon peyniri or similar) melted through, producing a stringy, stretchy, golden fondue - The stretching: correctly made muhlama pulls into long strings when lifted with a spoon — the cheese proteins form a network throughout the corn porridge - [VERIFY] Dagdeviren's specific muhlama recipe **Hamsi (Black Sea anchovy) preparations:** - Hamsi pilavı: anchovies arranged in a pan with rice, baked — the anchovy fat bastes the rice from above during baking - Hamsili ekmek: anchovies baked inside bread dough - The specific Black Sea anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus ponticus) is smaller and fattier than Atlantic anchovies — [VERIFY] Dagdeviren's hamsi specifications
The Turkish Cookbook