Whether the dishes in our post on İzmir cuisine, that is Eating and Drinking in İzmir, are an example of Aegean Cuisine, who knows? With its various herb dishes, meze and fish tables, its own breakfast culture and street flavours, it's a wonderful land for those who love eating and drinking.
BOYOZ
"Boyoz is an unleavened pastry that was added to Anatolian and especially Aegean cuisine by the Sephardim who settled in Turkey in 1492, and has become identified with the İzmir palate. Boyoz's fame has gone beyond İzmir; it has become a symbol of the city and a flavour that everyone visiting İzmir especially looks for. It's rolled out with a technique that requires too much mastery to be done at home. Unlike other kinds of börek, tahini is used in making it, which is why it's a very tasty and healthy source of food. And the taste of boyoz fresh out of a wood-fired oven is indescribable. When it left home kitchens and started appearing on bakery counters, it became breakfast especially for those going to work in the morning, and now it's one of the rare baked goods that everyone looks for at every hour of the day and that's healthy because of its low fat content."
When it comes to eating and drinking in İzmir, the first thing that comes to mind is boyoz, and when you say boyoz, Alsancak Dostlar Fırını comes to mind. With its flavour and atmosphere, I can really say it's Turkey's best boyoz bakery. Kinds of boyoz: plain, with honey, spinach, cheese, aubergine, artichoke, nigella seeds, extra tahini, leek, olives.. For those who want to take this flavour with them, it's sold frozen. For the location, click here.
GEVREK
When it comes to eating and drinking in İzmir, although simit and gevrek first of all cause all kinds of arguments, they're different flavours.Simit: Simit is made from a dough of sugar, milk and fat. When baking simit, there's no stage like dipping it in pekmez.
Gevrek: Gevrek is made by forming round shapes from chickpea-yeast dough, cooking them in pools full of very hot pekmez, then covering them in sesame and putting them back in the oven.
For gevrek, the Historic Alsancak Gevrek Bakery comes to mind. We too recommend it as the bakery where you can eat the oldest and tastiest gevrek in Alsancak. For the location, click here.
TORPİL
A layered but soft-as-anything pastry like millefeuille, which we can't exactly call a cone, hollow in the middle, with an amazing cream inside and pistachio and icing sugar outside... Mm mm! It's a dessert you can find in almost every patisserie in İzmir, but you can find the most famous and tastiest one at Karşıyaka Evim Pastanesi. For the location, click here.
SEVİNÇ PASTANESİ
Sevinç Pastanesi is perhaps one of İzmir's oldest patisseries. Each of its desserts is lovely in its own way. On summer evenings its location is very nice for getting around: wouldn't it be lovely to sip coffee watching the bustle of Alsancak? Its regulars, the oh-so-sweet old İzmir locals, will definitely be there:) For the location, click here.I recommend trying the Pavlova, the place's signature dessert, but unfortunately the portions are generally small. They also have little shot-style desserts, worth trying.
KUMRU
Kumru is a pure Aegean flavour... Its indescribable flavour crosses borders, seas and straits.Kumru is actually believed to have been brought to İzmir by Macedonian immigrants; in the 1960s it was eaten only on Sundays, taken steaming from the oven and filled with İzmir Tulum cheese and tomato. It takes its name, at least as famous as its taste, from the little turtle dove (kumru) taking hurried steps on Konak Square. In 1966 a revolution happened in the name of flavour: Hüseyin Pekmen, who came across the hamburger while working as an interpreter for American soldiers, decided to tan the kumru a little, that is toast it, to make it a true Çeşme lover. He put both the kumru bread and the fillings on the grill, on the charcoal fire. He makes the sucuk and aged kaşar almost dance over the fire. From this date on it has kept delighting palates. If you've been to Çeşme, don't come back without stopping by Kumrucu Hüseyin. For the location, click here.
The Secrets of Kumru
• Kumru bread owes its tan to being soaked in pekmez. • The golden sesame seeds on its bread are sprinkled over the pekmez. • The dough's greatest feature is that it's made using chickpea yeast. • Also, bread made with chickpea yeast doesn't go stale or puff up like a sponge. • Kumru is never, ever toasted and prepared on a gas stove. At kumru places, genuine charcoal fire is used.
MUSSELS
At the point where you've lost hope of finding a mussel place with a concept in Istanbul, Midyeli in İzmir comes to your rescue, and on an İzmir evening you can head straight for Midyeli in Alsancak.
Given the difficulties of sourcing mussels in Turkey, running a business focused on mussels takes great courage! We congratulate our sweet couple for this courage. As in most places, the mussels come ready from farms. So everyone can rest easy about cleanliness. That said, the size and flavour could be better. In terms of value for money it's very satisfying; I can say we liked it overall. For the location, click here.
FRESHLY SQUEEZED JUICE
In Konak there are lots of freshly squeezed juice shops, always crowded in front, with glasses constantly being filled and emptied. In my view İzmir is the place in Turkey where the loveliest and cheapest freshly squeezed drinks are sold, compared with other provinces.Tsunami, Summer Sun, Vitaminci, Doping and Tropical are the mixes I came across most. When you ask "What's in these?", they quickly list the fruits in it; or if you've gone for the first time and can't decide what to drink, they ask you "For example, do you like this more, or this?", and instantly offer you a drink suggestion just for you.
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