What to Eat in Rize: From Melting Muhlama to Sweet Laz Böreği

Dip a piece of bread into hot muhlama, and the cheese follows it out of the pan. Butter glistens on the surface, carrying the aroma of toasted cornmeal. Before you have finished your first mouthful, you are already tearing off another piece of bread. It is a wonderful introduction to Rize’s food—but leave room for dessert.

Rize’s best-known desserts include Laz böreği and pepeçura, while its signature dishes include muhlama, anchovy pilaf, hamsikoli and dishes made with collard greens. Ingredients from the sea, mountain pastures and vegetable gardens come together at the table. To appreciate this kitchen properly, give it more than a single breakfast.

What Is Rize’s Famous Dessert?

Laz böreği is one of the first names you will hear when asking about dessert in Rize. Pepeçura, with its fragrant grape flavour, is another distinctive local favourite.

One combines crisp pastry with soft milk pudding. The other brings the aroma and deep colour of grapes to a smooth, spoonable dessert. They are so different that choosing between them hardly seems fair.

Laz Böreği: A Sweet Surprise Beneath the Pastry

If you have encountered savoury Turkish börek before, the filling in a slice of Laz böreği might look like cheese at first. It is actually milk pudding, tucked between thin sheets of pastry. Butter is poured over the pastry before baking, and syrup completes the dessert.

Your fork breaks through the upper layers before reaching the soft filling. In a well-made slice, you feel that contrast in every mouthful, followed by the rich aroma of butter.

Order a glass of unsweetened Turkish tea alongside it. A sip between bites makes a lovely companion to the sweetness.

Pepeçura: Fragrant Grapes by the Spoonful

Pepeçura begins with fragrant black grapes. Their juice is extracted, thickened with flour to a pudding-like consistency and served cold.

The colour catches your attention first. Bring the spoon closer, and the grape aroma follows. The flavour carries the sweetness and tartness of the fruit used to make it.

For anyone drawn to fruit flavours, pepeçura is a lovely choice—and a good reason to look beyond Laz böreği when exploring Rize’s desserts.

What Are Rize’s Famous Dishes?

Muhlama

Rize muhlaması is a hot dish made with kolot cheese, butter and cornmeal. When the pan reaches the table, start while it is still warm. That is when you can best enjoy the flowing cheese, buttery aroma and toasted flavour of the cornmeal.

As you dip your bread, pay attention to more than the stretching cheese. The pleasure comes from all the ingredients meeting in the same mouthful. Once a pan arrives in the middle of the breakfast table, the other plates can easily lose your attention.

Hamsili Pilav: Anchovy Pilaf

Anchovies on the outside, aromatic rice within. A portion cut from the baking dish brings two textures together: oven-cooked fish surrounding a filling of rice and onion, with currants, pine nuts, herbs and spices depending on the recipe.

If you have only eaten fried anchovies, this is a different way to discover them. Take some fish and rice together in your first forkful to appreciate the combination.

Hamsikoli: Anchovy and Cornmeal Bread

Hamsikoli is a regional cornmeal bread made with anchovies. Chard, spring onions and fresh mint also go into the mixture. Each slice brings fish, greens and cornmeal together.

It is filling, with a distinctive aroma, and well worth trying if you want to see how imaginatively anchovies are used in the local kitchen.

Stuffed Collard Greens and Collard Green Soup

Collard greens, known locally as karalahana, are a staple of the regional table. The leaves can be wrapped around a meat filling or prepared with an olive oil-based filling. Their pronounced flavour gives these rolls a character quite different from stuffed vine leaves.

Collard green soup is especially welcome on a cool day. Beans, corn and other ingredients, depending on the local recipe, turn it into a satisfying bowl.

Turşu Tavalı: Sautéed Pickled Green Beans

If you enjoy tangy flavours, look for turşu tavalı. Pickled green beans are sautéed with onion and garlic, creating a sharp, savoury dish that goes beautifully with cornbread.

Cornbread and Çumur

Cornbread accompanies many dishes on a Rize table. In çumur, it becomes the centre of the dish: warm cornbread is crumbled and mixed with butter and minci, a fresh curd cheese. The heat of the bread melts the butter through the mixture.

For your first taste of Rize, begin with hot muhlama, then leave another meal for the anchovy dishes. When dessert comes around, take a closer look at the menu. Laz böreği, hiding milk pudding beneath its crisp layers, and grape-scented pepeçura could become two of the flavours you remember most.