Several small restaurants near the city centre specialise in muhlama, the Black Sea dish of cornmeal cooked with butter and local cheese (a mild, stretched variety similar to mozzarella) until it becomes a bubbling, stringy mass. It is served in the copper pot it was cooked in, with bread for dipping. On a cold mountain morning before a hike into the Kaçkar, there is nothing better.
Look for restaurants with muhlama (sometimes spelled mıhlama) on a handwritten board outside — the dish is not universally available and the quality varies. The best versions use real Rize cornmeal and local Hemşin cheese. Ask for it with sucuk (spiced sausage) mixed in if you want a heartier version.