What to Eat in Bodrum: Çökertme Kebab, Courgette Flowers and Mandarin Ice Cream

Bodrum's kitchen is rooted in the orchards, olive groves and Cretan-Aegean island heritage of Muğla province. Even if you avoid high-end marina restaurants completely, you can eat memorably every day by seeking out five local dishes that originated right on this peninsula.

1. Çökertme Kebabı (Bodrum's Signature Meat Dish)

Named after the coastal village and folk song of Çökertme east of Bodrum, çökertme kebabı begins with a mound of potatoes julienned as thin as matchsticks and fried until golden and crunchy like straw, topped with cool strained garlic yoghurt, tender strips of olive-oil-marinated beef tenderloin (bonfile) seared over high heat, and a drizzle of sizzling buttered tomato sauce with roasted green peppers.

2. Kabak Çiçeği Dolması and Acı Ot Kavurması

At midday esnaf lokantaları in the Old Bazaar (such as Gemibaşı, Kısmet Lokantası or Bağarası in Bitez), look for orange morning courgette blossoms stuffed with herbed rice and olive oil, alongside acı ot (wild black bryony shoots) sautéed in olive oil with farm eggs, and köpoğlu (charred aubergine and peppers under garlic yoghurt and walnut-tomato oil).

3. Bodrum Lokması and Bitez Mandarin Ice Cream

Grab hot, crispy syrup-dipped Bodrum lokması dough rings from a harbour street cart, or stop at a local scoop shop in Bitez or Kumbahçe for stretcher-pulled goat's-milk ice cream in flavours of green Bodrum mandarin, bergamot, black mulberry (karadut), burnt almond and mastic.

4. Bodrum Sebzeli Döner and Yeşil Mandalina

In the lanes around Bodrum Çarşısı and the old bus station, master döner shops stack beef-and-lamb cones interleaved with potato, tomato, onion and herbs, roasting the meat upright in front of horizontal oak logs for Bodrum sebzeli döner. Pair it with artisanal Bodrum Mandarin Soda (Bodrum Mandalina Gazozu), pressed from PGI-protected green Bodrum mandarins harvested in Bitez and Ortakent.