I’m on my way north east to the city of Samsun on the coast of the inland sea. I was destined to head east to Sivas and then on to Erzurum before heading for the Iraqi border, but it seemed to me that with the Black Sea so close, it would be wrong not to visit. This whole area has been fought over so many times by so many people. There are only a few possible routes I could take, which is likely to be even more restricted as I head east. The roads so far have been very good, and not as congested as I would find in the UK, or any other part of western Europe, which has been my main experience.
En route I pulled into Corum, a city in the Corum province in northern Turkey.
 Manti is a similar to a ravioli. |
 Leblebi is a chickpeas snack. |
When in Rome, do as the Romans do, they say, so I ventured into the centre to see what great Turkish food I could find. Çorum Mantısı is a dish that is very well known in this region. ‘Manti’ means dumpling, and is a similar dish to pasta, but Turkish. It is baked in a brick oven, or steamed in a broth. Leblebi is a snack made of chickpeas and baked in spices or salt. This is very common to this area, so make sure you get a taste if you are nearby.
After the defeat of the Ottoman empire during World War One, Turkey entered a period of civil war until 1923. Corum was very much a part of that with one of the highest number of casualties and over 1500 medals of independence being awarded.