Izmir eats with one foot in the bazaar and the other by the sea. This quick primer covers the old-school meyhanes, neighborhood markets, bars, restaurants, and essential dishes that help define the city’s food culture.

At the Olive Oil Library of Orhanlı, visitors taste oils from across Turkey and beyond while learning how olive cultivation shapes culture, landscape and memory.

With its prodigious array of baked goods, penchant for seasonal seafood, and reputation for excellent meze and olive oil-based dishes, Izmir has much to offer the curious and hungry visitor. Skillfully cooked organ meat and other unusual butcher cuts tempt here more than anywhere else, and true to Turkish mangal (barbecue) culture, charcoal-kissed skewers of kebab and grilled meatballs abound. Proudly secular Izmir is just as proud of the flowing rakı and beer in the city’s innumerable bars and meyhanes.