Good Eats: Foodie Adventures in Bodrum, Turkey

Of course, when one visits Turkey, you can plan to eat well.

I thought I would share some of the special dishes and places I visited during my trip to Bodrum, a beautiful resort area located on the southwest peninsula along the Aegean Sea.

Avlu Bistro & Bar

On the first night in Bodrum after the 3rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival had kicked off with traditional Aegean dances, we ate dinner at a lovely restored, 160-year-old stone house called Avlu Bistro & Bar. The restaurant has two levels inside and plenty of outdoor tables so you can enjoy the pleasant summer weather.

Here, we started off with several mezzes including smoked salmon bruschetta, veal carpaccio, Turkish olives, cheese, etc. Every dish was delicious, but to me, the real highlight was the main course – the çökertme kebabı. This traditional Bodrum dish features tender steak (bonfile) served atop fried shoestring potatoes in a yogurt and tomato sauce. OMG! As a meat lover, I was in heaven!

Somehow during my previous trips to Bodrum, I had missed out on having çökertme kebabı. Never again! If you love steak, then you must try this amazing dish when you visit the Bodrum area.

For dessert, we had a warm chocolate soufflé cake and a panna cotta with berries. After dinner, we walked along Bodrum’s famous Barlar Sokak and headed back to our hotel to relax.

Hotel Marma Beach

In the mornings, I enjoyed a full Turkish breakfast buffet at Hotel Marma Beach, a small, boutique hotel located on Ortakent Beach. I had a second-floor bedroom here with a small terrace where I enjoyed sitting out in the late afternoons with a glass of Turkish wine. A traditional Turkish breakfast often features several kinds of cheeses, breads, olives, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, boiled eggs and teas. Simple and delicious!

Köy Kahvaltısı 

Of course, I can’t forget the amazing köy kahvaltısı (village breakfast) that I enjoyed with my new Turkish friends in the countyside at Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı. To read more about that experience, please read this post: Enjoying a Turkish Village Breakfast Near Bodrum.

Kavurmacı Celal Usta

For lunch, we ate at a small family restaurant in Mumcular called Kavurmacı Celal Usta. Often, small restaurants in Turkey will specialize in cooking and serving just one or two dishes. In this case, we were interested in eating saç kavurma. Kavurma usually refers to beef or lamb simply seasoned and cooked in its own juices and fat.

Another traditional way to prepare kavurma is to cook it on a metal pan called a saç. The saç is placed over an open fire and the diced lamb or beef is stirred around and cooked with a large metal spatula until the meat releases its juices and fat. Our dish was served with lettuce, freshly diced tomatoes and bread. Of course, the drink of choice here is ayran – a salty, but refreshing Turkish yogurt drink. Ayran also goes well a really spicy meal. Trust me.

Göltürkbükü Mahallesi

Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, I often didn’t know where I was going on this trip since I had very limited wifi and my brain was constantly working away at my lost Turkish language skills. After leaving Mumcular, I know we drove south toward the Göltürkbükü Mahallesi. I have since learned that we stopped for afternoon tea at Hasan Restoran, a family-owned restaurant/motel located on the beach. We dined on chilled, locally-harvested grapes and figs while enjoying the seaviews in the afternoon sunshine. But the highlight here was eating Saraylı Tatlısı – another Bodrum specialty which is thin sheets of yufka (phyllo dough) baked in a sugary syrup and topped with chopped pistachios.

If you like Turkish baklava, then you will love Saraylı Tatlısı as well.

Whenever you travel to Turkey, I promise that you will eat well – be it a large city like Bodrum or Istanbul or the tiniest of Turkish villages.

Again, special thanks to Karaova-Der, Slow Food Bodrum and the Bodrum municipality for making this wonderful Turkish trip happen!

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Highlights from Bodrum’s 3rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival

I can’t believe that it’s already been more than a month since I was in Bodrum, Turkey, for the 3^rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival.

This fantastic foodie event, held in September in the Mumcular Park, highlighted not only the local crops of the surrounding rich agricultural lands, but also the local Turkish traditions and customs. The three-day festival provided an excellent opportunity to learn more about these traditional ways and for me to spend some time basking in Turkish hospitality and supporting a wonderful cause. The event was organized by Karaova-Der, a local association under the leadership of Ali Öztürk, along with Slow Food Bodrum and the Bodrum municipality.

This week, I learned from fellow blogger Annie of Back to Bodrum that the event was considered a success, with a 30 percent increase in participants and visitors. That’s wonderful news!

Since I come from a farm-based background and professionally work as a pastry chef, I am a firm believer in using local and seasonal products like the ones promoted at the festival. I was honored to be a guest chef at the event, helping judge the food contest and doing a cooking demo of my recipe for a Fig Tart with a Turkish Twist. Let me know if you give my recipe a go!

And now some highlights from the 3^rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival:

The festival kicked off on the first night with announcements by local officials and traditional Turkish dances held in the main Bodrum square or meydan. I loved the local dresses which are typical of the Aegean region in Turkey!

On Saturday, I met up with a friendly group of Turkish bloggers and writers to spend a day at the festival. Although my Turkish has become a bit rusty these last few years, I still am able to communicate in my bir az Türkçe, and my yeni arkadaşlar were quite welcoming. 

At the festival, I met several local farmers and women who make a living by selling their produce and spices or by making dolls, jams, compotes, sauces, scarves, placemats and tablecloths, wooden serving spoons and more. I had a wonderful time wandering around the festival, admiring and sampling various goodies by the numerous stallholders.

I bought this beautiful blue scarf from this local lady who said the scarf matched by blue eyes. What a sweetie!

I couldn’t resist taking a photo with this local farmer!
He was so jovial! I bought some spices and dried herbs from him.

One of the bloggers, Suleyman Dilsiz of Istanbul did a presentation about cooking fish. He has published two cookbooks: “Kılçıksız Balık” (about fish) and “Kahvaltıya Dair Her Şey” (about breakfast). 

In the evening, I helped judge the food contest which included traditional Turkish recipes made by local cooks in three categories: Zeytinyağlılar (olive oil dishes), Tatlılar (desserts) and Börekler (savory pastries made from thin phyllo dough). The idea of the food contest was to help promote traditional recipes and to hopefully publish them all in a small booklet. I had no idea that judging a food contest would be somewhat difficult and filling at the end. Adding up all the proper points for each category took time. But I was very honored to participate along with Asli Mutlu of Cooking Classes Bodrum, Oya Emerk of Oya’s Cuisine in Istanbul, and two local residents.

After we had counted the results, the winners posed for photos with Asli Mutlu, Oya Emerk and myself. What a wonderful event!

You can read more about the food contest and its winners written by Turkish blogger Arzu of Vanilins.com.

Baking in Bodrum at the Karaova Festival

On Sunday, I returned to festival because it was showtime! Even though I’ve given dozens and dozens of cooking classes over the years, I was still a bit nervous because I was talking in front of a mainly Turkish-speaking crowd. No need to fear! One of the volunteers from Slow Food Bodrum helped translate as I spoke in English. I felt more relaxed as I talked about one of my favorite tart recipes and looked out and saw several familiar and smiling faces in the crowd.

Asli  of Cooking Classes Bodrum introduced me at the event.

I personally met Ali Öztürk of Karaova-Der and humbly received a lovely award from him.

At the end of my presentation, I gave out samples of my delicious fig and grape tart and spoke with some of the audience members. Again, it was an honor to be at the Karaova Festival and talk about baking.

I’m so thankful to have met all these wonderful Turkish bloggers and for providing me with some of these photos.

I’m already hoping that I can make another trip to Turkey in 2018! And don’t miss next year’s Karaova Festival in Bodrum!

This event would not have been possible without the support of these friends and sponsors, so special thanks goes to:

·       *Asli Mutlu of Cooking Classes Bodrum 

·       *Oya Emerk of Oya’s Cuisine 

·       *Slow Food Bodrum 

*Karaova-Der

·      * Akustik Turizm for providing transportation.

·       *Hotel Marma Beach for providing lodging.

To learn more about Turkish food, please visit some of these Turkish bloggers’ websites:

·       * Sibel Yalcin 

·       * Arzu Goncü Hangül of Vanilins.com 

·       * Birgül Erdogan 

·       * Hacer Sener 

·       * Leyla Kılıç 

·       * Emel Akan 

·       * Nur Hayat 

·       * Serkan Karagoz 

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