Hamsi (Black Sea anchovies) is the obsession — fried as Hamsi Tava (cornmeal-dredged in olive oil), folded into Hamsili Pilav (anchovy rice), mixed into bread, even dessert. Muhlama (in some places kuymak) — cornmeal-and-mountain-cheese fondue, eaten with bread torn straight into the pan. Karadeniz Pidesi — the boat-shaped Black Sea pide (longer and narrower than Aegean pide), filled with sucuk sausage or kıyma ground beef. Mıhlama egg-and-cheese skillet. Hamsiköfte (anchovy meatballs). Tea — Çay grown on the steep Rize hillsides — at every meal.

Within Turkish cuisine, the Black Sea coast (Trabzon, Rize, Ordu, Giresun) is the most distinct from Anatolian-plateau cooking. Cooler, rainier, mountains-meet-sea. The pantry: anchovy, hazelnut (Giresun is the world's hazelnut capital), cornmeal, butter, mountain-cheese, kale-family greens (kara lahana), tea. Caucasus influence (Georgian-Laz-Hemshin populations) shows in the corn-and-cheese cooking. Different from Aegean's olive-oil light-touch, different from Antep's chili-and-bulgur — the Black Sea is butter-and-anchovy.