Istanbul. A city that has most reminded of New York. A feast for the senses. In a city of 14 million, you can get everything from savory street food to posh supperclubs – and you won’t get bored. The Bosphorus is stunning, it glitters with a hue of blue I’ve never seen and you can spend hours admiring it from Sultanahmet, Kadikoy, or the rooftop bars of Istiklal. So where do I start? Food of course! After just coming from beer and sausages at Oktoberfest, my stomach needed some spice.
A friend lent me a copy of Istanbul Eats which ended up being my food bible for the duration of stay in Istanbul. Overall the choices and descriptions were solid, when I tried my own places I didn’t have as much success. Here were the highlights:
Restaurants:
- Çiya – the BEST overall meal I had in Turkey (in an entire month). Orgasmic Turkish home cooking from Gaziantep, the culinary capital of Turkey (which I subsequently went to just for food). I went to Çiya with a local whose first Couchsurfer was Seth Kugel from NYTimes Frugal Traveler, pretty cool! Favorite dishes include an eggplant-tomato-meat dish which was unbelievable (still trying to track it down), a meatball and cherry dish, and the desserts! There was this sugary cabbage / pumpkin ‘log’ with sesame paste and peanuts on top, incredible.
- Otantik in Kadikoy – This came recommended from a fellow CS’ers landlord, very affordably priced, delicious Turkish cooking, everything from the manti and appetizer platter to kebabs were excellent. One of my friends ordered a lamb-tomato-rice dish which was everyone’s favorite. Order the figs with kaymak for dessert – they taste like chocolate!
- Baklava @ Karaköy Güllüoğlu – The best in town, my favorite are the ‘triangle’ ones, I think they have more sugary juiciness to them than the ‘square’ ones, absolute heaven. Ask them to put a dollop of kaymak on top, it’s heaven.
- Ismael Kebapcısı – my first Turkish meal was lahmacun – thin pita spread with minced meat, baked in the oven, sprinkled with lemon, then rolled up. It was strangely Mexican tasting (in a good way), delicious and cheap. This was my first and favorite lahmacun.
Food:
- Ayran – salty yogurt drink, I became addicted to ayran. It’s a drink of yogurt, water, and salt, but so good I can down a glass in 10 seconds. They need to make salty yogurt acceptable in America!
- Turkish coffee – Mandabatmaz is purported to have the best in town, its Turkish coffee is rich and chocolaty.
- Çay (pronounced “chai”) – Turkish tea that comes in these little hourglass-shaped glasses. I love that it’s so readily available, you can find men carrying trays of it on the street, at the bus stop, or you typically have it after every meal. Once you’ve been in Turkey long enough, it’s easy to have 5 a day, I take mine with two sugars.
- Turkish breakfast @ House Café in Nişantaşı – You can get Turkish breakfasts everywhere, but some local friends took me here and I absolutely loved it. You have marmalades, nutella, cucumbers, tomatoes, Turkish cheeses, olives, kaymak (clotted cream) with honey, and best of all, simit = Turkish bagels with sesame, these have rekindled my love for bagels.
- Midye dolma or “stuffed mussels”– The first time I saw these on the street I thought “raw mussels? That sounds like a bad idea…” but one day my Russian friend orders them at a restaurant and I find that they are mussels stuffed with bulgur and spices, then cooked. They soon became an addiction, cheap and filling street food to snack on when waiting for the ferry.
- Kebabs @ Canım Ciğerim – I love the tomato ‘salsa’ that goes with the kebabs. The right way to eat a kebab is similar to that of fajitas. Start with the bread, grasp the kebab and pull the meat off the skewer (I didn’t know this my first time), throw in parsley, onions, tomato salsa, and anything else you want. Roll it up, eat like a fajita / burrito.
- Muammara @ Antiochia – a walnut, red pepper, and pomegranate paste.
- “Fish bread” sandwich at Eminonu docks – Right on the docks are floating boats which grill fish on the spot and throw them in a baguette with lettuce and onions, the whole shebang is called balik ekmek.
- Fresh juices – I love any city which has fresh juice stands on every corner. In this part of the world, pomegranates are as cheap as oranges, hello antioxidants!
Sights:
- Blue Mosque – Incredible, I went back several times to admire its beauty, go to the rooftop of Blue House Hotel for amazing sunset views.
- Hagia Sophia – Pricey ticket but totally worth it. Climb up the stairs to the second floor to see the mosaics and for nice interior views.
- Basilica Cisterns – The entrance is fairly non-descript so it’s easy to miss, but the cisterns were one of my favorite sights in Istanbul. As you descend the staircase into the cisterns, you’ll feel like Indiana Jones. Check out the medusas.
- Grand Bazaar – I expected something much grander and more exotic, but it felt like any night market in Asia. But as many will say, if you consider how old it is, it’s pretty impressive. I didn’t find the prices all that cheap, but the shopkeepers were not terribly aggressive either.
- Spice Bazaar – I enjoyed this more than the Grand Bazaar. Purchases included apple and jasmine tea, perfume oils (Roxanne?), and a variety of Turkish Delights. If you want saffron, apparently some are fake so do some internet research and find the stall with real saffron.
- Galata Tower – Great 360 views from the viewing deck, one of my favorite landmarks in Istanbul.
- Bosphorus River – one of my favorite things about Istanbul and what makes it such a beautiful city. You can enjoy the Bosphorus from pretty much anywhere.
Nightlife:
- Rooftop views: There are tons of rooftop bars but I thought Mikla @ Pera Marmara Hotel had the best view of Istanbul, from Sultanahmet to the 1st Bridge, the 360 view is absolutely breathtaking.
- Clubs: Reina is as much a tourist destination as the Blue Mosque and the best part is that it’s located right under the Bosphorus Bridge. Other nice establishments were Angelique, also located on the Bosphorus, and Ulus 29 in Bebek which had a classy, upscale New York feel.
- Asmalımescit – a street off of Istiklal with tons of bars and small clubs. Lux (good house music), Novo, and Faces (Tuesday nights).
Hamam:
- I had my first hamam experience with a Russian friend at Firuzağa Hamamı in Beyoglu and it was incredible. It wasn’t fancy but for 30 TL, we got the scrub-down exfoliation by a Turkish woman and 10-15 minute foam massage. Not to mention plenty of time to relax and steam on the hot stone and plenty of warm / cold water dousing by the Turkish ladies. I felt extremely revived and refreshed. You’d be surprised how much dead skin they can scrub off!
Next Time:
- Dolhmabache Palace
- Topkapı Palace and Harem
- Bosphorus Cruise to the Black Sea
- Istanbul Modern
Other Food: Here are some other Turkish foods to try
- Çiğ köfte – raw meat with bulgur and spices, think steak tartare
- Pide – Turkish pizza
- “Wet burger” on Istiklal – a sloppy joe-like burger, ‘wet’ because the bread is soaked in the sloppy joe sauce
- Kumpir – baked potato with a variety of toppings
- Turkish ice cream – You’ll see the ice cream sellers do their song and dance with the sticky Turkish ice cream, the best is Mado.
And if you are still more curious about the various types of Turkish cuisine, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_cuisine Turkey is foodie paradise!
Andy Jiang
December 9, 2011
i am so jealous. you have no idea.