Hamsi Tava

Hamsi (European anchovy) defines Black Sea Turkish cooking — the fish runs in dense schools from November to March, and Trabzon and Rize cuisines turn it into rice, soup, bread, even dessert. Cornmeal dredging reflects the region's corn (mısır) staple, since wheat was historically scarce on the rainy Black Sea coast where corn grows better.

Hamsi (European anchovy) defines Black Sea Turkish cooking — the fish runs in dense schools November through March, and Trabzon and Rize cuisines turn it into rice, soup, bread, even dessert. Cornmeal dredge reflects the region's mısır staple, since wheat was historically scarce on the rainy coast where corn grows better.

Small Black Sea anchovies (about a finger long), heads on or off, dredged in coarse cornmeal and fanned around a hot pan in a pinwheel — fried as one disc. Crisp shell, soft white flesh, eaten whole, bones and all. A wedge of lemon, raw onion with sumac on the side. The cornmeal should be audibly crunchy; flour-only dredges go limp.

The pinwheel arrangement isn't decoration — packing the anchovies tight, tail-to-head, lets them fuse into a single disc that flips as one piece. Loose fish break apart and the cornmeal sloughs off. The pan goes in hot, oil shallow; the bottom sets in 90 seconds, then the whole disc gets flipped with a plate.