Karamürsel simit dolması
Filled simit-shaped bread
Simit-shaped dough baked in a stone oven, split and filled with cheese, minced meat or sucuk, dipped in egg and milk and fried in butter.
Marmara Region
Kocaeli
In Kocaeli, many foods carry the name of a district. In Karamürsel, simit baked in a stone oven becomes simit dolması, filled with cheese, minced meat or sucuk and fried in butter. İzmit pişmaniyesi brings sugar together with flour roasted in butter until it separates into fine threads. In Gebze, a sourdough bayram çöreği scented with aniseed, cinnamon, cloves and mastic is baked on the eves of religious holidays. Some dishes carry no district name at all. Dartılı keşkek cooks wheat and chicken with dartı, arrives with butter poured over it, and is served especially at weddings. Kiremitte alabalık bakes trout on an earthenware tile that can go into the oven or straight over a flame. District names return when you turn to local products. In Kandıra, the milk of water buffaloes raised there becomes a firm white yogurt. Değirmendere hazelnuts, flat and elongated with glossy brown shells, are picked by hand in late July and sold fresh. Start with filled simit, then follow the trail to buffalo yogurt and fresh hazelnuts to get to know Kocaeli district by district.
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Pişmaniye and buffalo yogurt by the gulf
The Gulf of İzmit, wooded hills and a box of pişmaniye.
Signature dishes
Start with fine strands of pişmaniye, then follow greens, grain and dairy into savory dishes.
İzmit pişmaniyesi
Pulled sugar and flour floss
Boiled sugar pulled and folded together with flour roasted in butter until it forms fine threads.
Gebze bayram çöreği
Spiced holiday bread
Bread of wheat and rye flour with sourdough, aniseed, cinnamon, cloves and mastic, baked on the eves of religious holidays.
Mancarlı pide
Pide with chard or spinach
Pide filled with greens such as chard or spinach, known locally as mancar, especially in Kandıra.
Dartılı keşkek
Wheat and chicken keşkek
Keşkek of wheat and chicken cooked with dartı, red pepper and black pepper and served with butter poured over, especially at weddings.
Kiremitte alabalık
Trout baked on a clay tile
Trout baked on a kiremit, an earthenware tile that goes into the oven or straight over a flame.
Locally cooked
Recipes from this city are coming soon.
Local ingredients
Kandıra manda yoğurdu
A firm white yogurt made from the milk of water buffaloes raised in Kandıra.
Guide not written yetDeğirmendere fındığı
A flat, elongated hazelnut with a glossy brown shell, picked by hand in late July and sold fresh.
Guide not written yetEşme ayvası
A juicy, sour quince grown at Eşme in the Kartepe district.
Guide not written yetKaramürsel samanlı zeytini
Green and black olives from the slopes of the Samanlı mountains, with thin skin and a small stone.
Guide not written yetKandıra dartısı
A breakfast spread made by boiling raw milk and separating the solid part from its fat.
Guide not written yetFood culture
Hereke carpet weaving and Karamürsel baskets connect finished objects with skilled local work. The provincial culture directorate documents Hereke’s silk and wool production and names pişmaniye alongside these crafts among local products. Kandıra cloth adds another textile connection. Food, basketry and weaving each have their own materials and techniques; a shared provincial label should not erase the district where a practice is documented.
Buffalo milk
In Kandıra, buffalo milk becomes a firm white yogurt, and dartı comes to the breakfast table.
Holiday baking
Gebze’s spiced bayram çöreği is baked on the eves of religious holidays and offered to guests.
What to bring home
- İzmit pişmaniye
- Eşme quince cezerye
- Karamürsel olives
- Kandıra buffalo yogurt
- Kandıra linen cloth
History & landscape
A good way into Kocaeli is along the shores of the Gulf of İzmit. In Gebze district, Eskihisar Castle sits on a steep hill overlooking the Sea of Marmara. It was built to control the gulf’s southern sea passages and protect the adjacent harbour, and is estimated to date from the Eastern Roman period. Eskihisar also became a motif for the painter Osman Hamdi Bey, whose house in Gebze, which he had built, is now a museum. In Körfez district, Hereke Castle stands on a strategic hill commanding the gulf and was annexed to the Ottoman Principality during Orhan Gazi’s conquest of İzmit.
In İzmit, two buildings point to different eras: Kasr-ı Hümayun, a palace built during the reign of Sultan Abdulaziz, and SEKA, opened as the first paper factory of the Republican era and turned into a museum after it stopped operating. Kocaeli’s geography reaches well beyond the gulf, since the province has coasts on both the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Kartepe, on the highest part of the Samanlı Mountains, looks over İzmit Bay and Sapanca Lake, while Kefken, near Kandıra, is known for its beaches and the Pink Rocks, named after the color of the surrounding rocks.
