Taste of Istanbul

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Not going to lie that we awoke unhappily to an alarm much earlier than we wanted on the 2nd morning of the trip, but we had our food tour planned to meet at 9am through Culinary backstreets Food Tours. We were a small group of 6, two senior couples and us. First info was there were not going to be decent restrooms essentially until the tour ended at 3pm. The old city has very little offerings, especially for women. Only mosques offer toilets and they are the traditional squat style. Ok, program body....ready! Our guide was born here in Turkey and grew up in Germany, only to return with her family many years ago. Our tour started outside of the bustling spice market where it was hard for us to stay out of the way of daily life. She led us into a buidling that had a large open space that we used to eat a traditonal Turkish breakfast. Our guide set out sesame "bagels," cheeses, dried fruits, and a spicy tomato based spread for us to eat while she explained the different regions of Turkey and their offerings. We enjoyed a clotted cream from Water Buffalo (@60% fat) that was AMAZING with honey drizzled over it, along with tea. Turkish cheeses are very flavorful and we've enjoyed so far. Two of the cheeses at breakfast were aged in Goat and Cow skin (please now pause, close your eyes, and imagine what you think this looks like.....) We also sampled Turkish coffee which I was very excited for, but at the end of the day is just not that great 😞 too gritty.

We continued to wander our way through the spice market and learned of restaurants that service the shop owners. The places that deliver tea many times daily and provide the quick tradesman lunch. They deliver, they're quick, they're reliable. We stopped at one to have a lentil soup which is immensely popular in Turkey. Ok, but nothing Matt or I was wanting to have a whole bowl full. We left the spice market area into what is known as the "trading area" and were lucky enough to have our guide want to take us into the the Rusterm Pasha Mosque. Which is AMAZING! The tiles are unreal.....these tiles were exclusive to the Sultans in their use and this mosque has them inside and out. Our guide even shared that blue was the easiest dye color for the tiles (thanks to Indigo) and red the most challenging which this mosque had. She shared that the recipe for the red died with the master actually and it took years and years to replicate following the 15th century. This was a small mosque that made up for its size with beauty.

After the mosque, we stopped at Cag Kebob which unike most has a horizontal rotisserie of ALL lamb. They slice it off onto skewers, fry it up a bit more for crispiness and then you are good to go with their thin lavash bread, cucumbers, tomato, and onion. The flavor was one that required you to close your eyes...chew slowly....moan! We are SOOOO going back to this place!! Next stop was a Pidescis place which is essentially Turkish pizza. A dough master shapes it into a oblong perfectness and then tops with (in our case) cheeses/veggies and mincemeat/egg. We also got to sample a tradtional turkisk drink called Kopukuayran which is salted yogurt with water added. Ummmm...."pizza" good, drink "pass!!!"

We stopped at an amazing multi-generational candy shop where for 4+ generations they have been making candy. We got to sample Turkish delights, hard candy, and special sesame paste candy all made in this shop for hundreds of years. It felt magical to see a father and son running this place. Many locals came in while we were inside and one young boy (prob 5 yrs old) reached out and patted my leg several times. His mother and (what I assume grandmother) were going crazy trying to apologize I guessEd, but it was A-OK and I hope my smiles and reaching down to his level made them feel better.

We then stopped at a place now considered hangover food in Turkey that makes "Kokorec." It's sweetbreads, wrapped in a layer of fat and then intestines. They cut off a hunk and fry it up with tomato and peppers before putting it on bread. Now I thought this was going to be the bomb honestly but surpisringly half the group wouldn't even try it and Matt and I took one bite and were like "nope." It was just a tad bit funky for us....I will say I am still surprised as I thought we'd love it.

We then began walking through a very poor neighborhood of Istanbul that is considered the "refugee" area with many Syrains, etc. Our guide pointed out the many hotels that are very cheap and designed for people who stay to send money back to their families. Phone card shops and barbers are a plenty as well....as those are the basic necessities for a man hoping to make a place in life to bring his family. One of our favorite eats was a doner place (similar to a gyro) that is family owned and makes something very special!! Most are all meat and a combo of lamb, beef, chicken. These take about 30 minutes to make and roast vertically. This place makes one that is layers of lamb only and tomatoes and peppers. This takes 3 hours to assemble but OMG.....the flavor....the juiceness....the pure delight. There we were on the sidewalk. Eating with families, kids, etc....people who we would consider to have nothing, yet they don't realize they're eating something the rich should want every day of their lives! A delicacy!

Next stop was a delightful pudding that we all took bites of before our guide asked what we thought it was made of. It was very thick...tacky....covered in cinnamon. Maybe a tapioca? Oh no....chicken. Yes.....pudding make from chicken. Breasts boiled and stirred until the point of anniliation and then sugar is added. You can even see and taste the stringy texture of the chicken. It was good...seriously amazing. Matt couldn't stop eating it.

A long walk through the neighborhood and we ended up at Vefa bozacisi, a place famous for a drink made from fermented bulgar but it's only 1% alcohol. This place has been open since the 1890s and completely unchanged. It's a thick drink that tastes like fermented applesauce. It was used for the military in war times to keep them energized and warm. It's a place now where even in the middle of one of the poorest areas of Istanbul, all classes mix and people come together over the boza. It's very nutritional and good for you. We saw several locals coming in to buy large containers of it for their family.

Next was the cherry on top. Lunch! Which I think all of us thought we couldn't handle...but we did. Why??? We ended up in a neighborhood that is purely SE Turkish. By that I mean that everything in that area comes from SE Turkey. So for example, the restaurant that we ate at for lunch all of the ingredients come from that region. This place was about the lamb and how it's cooked. Many say it tastes different becaue it's feeding on the grass from that region and then combine that with their cooking method of hanging multiple lambs off of hooks and cooking them in an underground barbecue pit for at least three hours. It creates the most tender, flavorful lamb. We also enjoyed "curtain rice" which was rice cooked in pastry. The rice had pine nuts, raisins, etc. So yummy. The best was a tomato based sauce made with peppers, etc. that we couldn't get enough of on our rice or bread with lamb.

Leaving the tour (overly full) we decided to head to Suleymaniye Mosque since it was close. Nice mosque inside and amazing views from atop the hill. We desended and made out way back to the hotel before having dinner at place recommended by the culinary tour company. We had the Turkish Ravioil with yogurt sauce that I could have every day of my life and a chicken with watercress sauce which was yummy.

After dinner we found oursleves at the rooftop area of our hotel to look at the phots of the day but surpsiingly found ourselves in coversation with a guy from Boston who is on a fellowship program to study Turkish water conservation. It led to this incredible conversation around essesntially the end of the world that is sooner than anyone will think about or admit. He apologized for being a downer, but it was an incredible wakeup call in terms of how we (the US) are running out of water completely, making ourselves immune to antibiotics, and every fruit or veg we buy that's not organic we are essentially eating "round-up." Yep.....it's disgustng and this guy works for our governement...... I don't think I will EVER buy anything that's not organic again.

So, we didn't get to blogging but had a nice but downer chat with this guy before heading to bed.....

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Photos

Goat skin aged cheese
Yep, there's cheese in there!!!!

Turkish breakfast
No, it's not a birthday party

Comments

[Tom Lyle]

Day 2 food tour
If you like lamb and cheese, this would be a good tour; luckily I do. Waiting 3 hours for a sandwich, it had better be good. How's the Pepto doing, especially when restrooms aren't always available. You 2 are good adventures!