As many of you know, Dan and I love a food tour, so we gladly joined a day long one in Izmir, Türkiye last July. This tour ended up being wildly long (6+ hours!) but super interesting as we learned loads about Izmir, Turkish culture, and food, in addition to trying so many local dishes that we never would have found on our own. Whether you take this tour or not, definitely visit Izmir and try some of these foods!
Izmir, Türkiye early in the morning. Yes, fishing and seafood are huge here, but, as you will see – keep reading, there is plenty of other things to eat in this seaside town!
Our food tour began around 10:00 AM, and luckily we only drank coffee pre-tour at our hotel (the Izmir Marriott). We met our tour guide and the participants, another couple from the NYC area, near the train station. We then walked through a clam, picturesque Izmir neighborhood to pick up bread for later (more on that below) and eventually stopped at the bottom of a rickety staircase, which we carefully climbed to find a man hand frying doughnuts! Great start to the tour.
These flowers are all over Izmir. I love them. This tour really showed us some quiet streets that we would not have seen otherwise.
FOOD STOP 1: STICKY ROSEWATER DOUGHNUTS
The man hand frying donuts was an employee of Öztat Kardesler, a well known bakery in Izmir that has been operating since 1930. When had unknowingly walked by the storefront before climbing those rickety stairs. While Öztat Kardesler makes a host of treats, we were here for the doughnuts, or lokma in Turkish. The doughnut kitchen was tiny (and felt even tinier with our group inside it,) and hot, as it lacked any air conditioning. Despite these circumstances, the expert doughnut chef was not bothered. He made batch after batch of doughnuts, which were then slathered in a rosewater-sugar glaze and packaged in sets of three. Two other men were also working in this tiny kitchen, ensuring that each doughnut received a proper amount of glaze and were perfectly packaged. We left with a pack of three rosewater doughnuts to eat later. We had ours the following morning, and they were fabulous. I understand you can find these around Izmir if you are not taking this tour.
Öztat Kardesler from the front. The donut kitchen is located under that blue umbrella atop the storefront.
The doughnut chef! This gentleman definitely knows how to make a doughnut.
Well on their way.
Our rosewater doughnuts. The cover photo shows all of them out for delivery.