Eastbound and Down

When telling friends we were heading to Istanbul for a few weeks the response from those who had been before was always the same: “Eat eat eat!”  Not ones to ignore sound advice (that happens to coincide with our love to experiment with new flavors), we ate and drank our way through the city while meeting new friends, chefs, and experts in Turkish specialties.  Is this an entire post about food?  Absolutely.

We came to Istanbul in the dead of their winter: cold and windy with alternating blue and gray skies.  With determined faces, Jonathan and I threw on our scarves and jackets (yes, Jonathan now owns a scarf!) and headed out to explore.  We were shocked.  The streets weren’t full of people hustling by with their heads down to get from one heated building to the next.  The streets and alleys were alive with vendors, musicians, and most importantly, food carts.  Of course we tried them all… roasted chestnuts (despite my guess that primarily Muslim Turkey isn’t familiar with the famous Christmas tune), mussels mixed with rice and lemon served from the shell, and breads/pretzels/pastries of all shapes.  Our report: one bag of roasted chestnuts was enough for us and the mussel, lemon, rice combo currently holds first place in our favorite street food list (still closely followed by bean and cheese burritos in Denver).

Istanbul thrives on an outdoor shopping experience.  Whether it is going from cheese shop to bakery to butcher for gathering dinner ingredients or (and this is real) going from the hammer store to the nail shop to the shop that only sells gaskets so you can fix your sink, you will pop in and out of multiple stores on shopping day.  Apart from the thousands of tiny shops, Istanbul has fantastic markets.  They are everything you want when thinking about an open air market – colorful, loud, busy, and full of tastes from friendly vendors excited to show your their goods.  Jonathan and I spent our time picking out our favorite olives, breads, and veggies for morning omlets.

Turkish cuisine is rich, diverse, and unique.  It feels oddly exotic and tastes of home-style comfort at the same time.  Being nestled squarly between Europe and Asia with a history that will make your head spin, Istanbul is one giant fusion restaurant.  We ate the obvious donors and kumpirs and sat on pillows while trying manti (Ottoman style pasta covered in yogurt sauce).

We squeezed through the locals at lunch on the docks for one of Eminonu’s fish sandwiches.

And we ended most nights warming up with Sahlep (ground orchid root flour mixed with hot milk and cinnamon often seen in copper urns around the city).

One night we met some friends out at the Flower Passage for a traditional night of mezes and Raki – think tapas and licorice flavored spirits and the next night went for seafood where I watched Jonathan’s mind get blown by grilled calamari.  “I didn’t even know calamari could taste like that!”

After indulging in so much great food, we decided to take a cooking class one afternoon.  This was, without a doubt, the best night we had in Turkey!  Oguz, a native to Istanbul, met us and a couple others on a street corner to start the class with basic lessons on ingredients.  We meandered through shops and carts piled high with fish, veggies, spices, and Turksih Delight – all the while snacking on whatever Oguz handed us.

We learned how to seperate real spices from immitations, how lokum (Turkish Delight) is supposed to be soft – not chewy, and that you can pickle just about everything.  Our 30 minute walk turned into two hours before Oguz noticed the time and rushed us back to his kitchen.  We spent the next 6 hours helping prepare traditional Turkish mezes (appetizers), a main course of lamb stuffed vegetables, feta filled boreks, and fire roasted eggplant, and halva for dessert.

We had a blast!  Oguz sent us home with the receipes and we are anxious to try them out with everyone!

As passionate as the Turks are about their unique style of cooking, we learned that they really only care about one thing… desert.  This discovery made for one of the most important compromises between Jonathan and me so far on this trip: two deserts per day.  It is no surprise that I have the sweet tooth in this relationship, and I found it straight up impossible to walk by window after window full of baklavas, lokums, puddings, and cakes without being drawn in.

Once inside, the shops were warm with a soft golden light and the smell of honey.  Everyone inside, tourists and locals alike, was happily sipping tea and eating dessert at all hours of the day.  I remember stopping in for desert #1 at about 2pm one day and a older man wearing his business suit squeezed in next to us for a quick pudding and tea break before heading back to the office.  I love these people.  We tasted puddings with caramel and chicken (yes, really chicken!), shoveled in pistachio nut rolls, and frequently popped into baklava shops just to try two or three pieces.  The baklava managed to be crispy and honey soaked at the same time and the rose flavored lokums are a taste we will associate with Turkey forever.

With wastebands a little tighter, Jonathan and I decided Turkey will be a place we will return to someday… maybe with a three desert per day rule next time. 🙂