Canli Balik, Mustafa Amca'nin Yeri, Amasra

www: http://www.amasracanlibalik.com/
Summary: Freshest of the fresh fish and salads


At the end of a road trip with my parents a few months ago, we arrived at Amasra. Amasra is a small coastal town in the northern region of Turkey. One day, I will a road trip covering the entire Northern region!

We went to the most famous of the fish restaurants in the town, but I am sure, with the fresh ingredients they get to work with, majority of the restaurants in the town would produce decent fish on a plate.

Mustafa Amca, in addition to its fish, is famous for its salads. As seen in the picture, this beautifully presented salad, is full of fresh salad leaves and herbs, and roots, and the vinaigrette they use is absolutely delicious! We had to order another plate!

We ordered some warm appetizers to start with and to whet our appetite - the fried squid and the shrimp, which came in a clay pot and cooked in butter was excellent! I believe we finished many slices of bread with the sauce of the shrimp only!

For fish, we tried Hamsi  tava, Mezgit tava, and Barbunya tava. Hamsi is a kind of anchovy, but I have never found the exact the same kind (fresh, I should add) outside Turkey. I miss this fish dearly - it has such simple but strong delicious taste. You can find a good article on hamsi here: http://seasonalcookinturkey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/hamsi-turkish-anchovies.html
The other fish are more common: Mezgit is haddock and barbunya is  red mullet.  The word "tava" explains how the fish was cooked - it is covered in a mix of  corn and white flour, and fried in a special pan. The video below shows how the fish is cooked - the video is in Turkish but what they are mainly saying is that it requires expertise to make sure that the fish is cooked thoroughly but did not soak much oil!

In summary, we loved Amasra. We loved its quietness and simple charm. We went off season, and  its quietness is obviously attributed to that. In my opinion, off season is the best time to visit touristic places,  giving a chance to the explorer to meet the real people of the city, away from the crowds.