The Bodrum Look

Where there are luxurious resorts and beaches, there will be stylish people. Two up-and-coming Turkish designers tell where to see and be seen.

- Richard Godwin

Emily had to leave, but my culinary adventures were not quite over. I took a car to nearby Karnas Vineyards (tasting menu $98) to try the tasting menu with wine pairings, which would be my first dinner this night. A strawberry-studded ceviche of sea bass came with a grassy Sauvignon Blanc, while braised lamb was accompanied by a peppery Syrah.

Still, it was my final dinner in Bodrum, my second of the evening, that stayed with me. Back at Susona Bodrum, a parade of dishes arrived: charred artichokes beneath translucent sheets of fennel, bracingly clean lionfish ceviche, a mulberry soup with cubes of compressed melon that recalled a line from William Carlos Williams: "so sweet and so cold." 

I hadn't been sure what I would find on this trip, but I had been surprised and delighted by each and every meal, from my first in-flight dinner to the small plates we dined on in the lantern-lit spots hidden behind bougainvillea and honeysuckle. The charm of Bodrum spilled out from alleyways, from bazaars, from behind the trappings of tourism, almost hidden, but not quite. It was that rare thrill of a place that delivers none of what you expect but, instead, something far better.

Mina Dilber 

Founder of the lifestyle brand Anim Living