Food Guide in Cesme & Alacati: What to eat

We’ve just engaged in physical activities and spent time in the sights of this wonderful peninsula. Next, we’ll use delightful local foods to recover the energies we’ve spent. Then let our taste journey begin here in Çeşme!

Table of Contents

Fine dining in Cesme: Local Mezes and Fishes

Located on a coastline, Çeşme, undeniably famous for its local Raki-Fish dinings besides hundreds of local olive oil appetizers –or simply “meze” as Turkish residents prefer- that take their place on these tables.

These “meze”s create the indispensables for Aegean cuisine. In general, they separately make these mezes out of sea kidney beans, asparagus, dead nettles, helxine, and many other vegetables. They boil vegetables at first and then add some lemon and olive oils, just like a salad.

Let’s go on with what we eat as fish on these tables! There are many types of fish in the Çeşme Peninsula. Therefore, you can choose the fish to your taste on the tables, for example; Artichoke sea bass, roasted adabeyi, sea bass roll, grilled octopus, fish pastrami, tube squid, grilled shrimp, iskender fish.

Lunch in Cesme: Kumru, Loqma

Another local dish, called Kumru, may resemble a sandwich, but does each taste the same?

Luckily, their most delicious one is at Çeşme coasts. Known as a traditional Turkish Sandwich, Kumru is the trademark of İzmir. A thick but light grain covered with sesame seeds was used to make the sandwich.

Besides, a unique dessert of Aegean cuisine, Loqma is one of the best-selling flavors in Çeşme. It’s a fried crispy donut dough in oil and topped with a sugary sauce called sherbet. 

Breakfast in Cesme: Boyoz, Mastic-Gum Jam, and Turkish Coffee

Turkey is famous for its breakfast culture, in that bakery products along with jams are essential to these tables.

Among them, Boyoz, unique to İzmir, is a delicious taste like a bakery product. And the mastic-gum jam is kind of marmalade.

It is best served in this peninsula since the area is covered with a lot of gum trees. It would help if you packed some of them to carry away to your hometown.

Finally, a piece of traditional advice here, Turkish coffees suit best following these intense and full breakfasts. It is a Turkish tradition root back to the Ottoman Era.