 |
Eat your way around Turkey -- without ever leaving İstanbul
Some parts of the city have a particularly heavy local character reflected in their eateries. Typical examples include “Little Siirt” in the shadow of the Aqueduct of Valens, and “Little Urfa” around the Aksaray transport interchange. There's also a strong Hatay presence around Aksaray, while Fener and Balat have many residents whose families originally hailed from Kastamonu and the Black Sea. So here, without further ado, are just a few of the tasty regional treats awaiting you on a culinary tour of İstanbul.
Siirt -- büryan kebab and perde pilav: Twenty years ago it was a grungy area known for a livestock market and some rather dicey butchers' shops. Now the Kadınlar Pazarı, otherwise known as Little Siirt, immediately in front of the Aqueduct of Valens as you head up Atatürk Bulvarı from the Golden Horn, is the best place in town to eat büryan kebab, one of a set of pit-baked meats (think tandir kebab and kuyu kebab) that are always delectably tasty. In Little Siirt they fire up the ovens early, and you're best advised to head there around lunchtime when the meat is at its best -- avoid Fridays when so many people flock in after prayers that you'll be pushed to find a table.
Büryan kebab is served on a bed of pide and washed down with foaming fresh ayran (yoghurt drink). The best accompaniment is a helping of crispy perde pilav (“veiled rice”), which is baked in a fez-shaped container and comes out shot through with shredded chicken, currants and almonds.
Incidentally, the Kadınlar Pazarı is also a great place to shop for such culinary curiosities as tandir ekmeği (doughnuts of dried bread that need rehydrating before eating), Van otlu peyniri, a white cheese speckled with herbs, and lots and lots of super-fresh honey.
Siirt Şeref, İtfaiye Caddesi No. 4, Tel: 0212-635 8085, www.serefburyan.com
Hatay -- tuzda pilav and künefe: The cuisine of the Hatay corner of Turkey is influenced by Syria and the Middle East, so if you visit the Hatay restaurants around Aksaray you'll be in for some great surprises including warm humus topped with slithers of pastırma (pastrami). At the Hatay Akdeniz Sofrası the biggest treat has to be chicken or lamb cooked inside a case of salt which is sliced open at the table with great ceremony. Be warned that it's a treat that must be ordered in advance -- two hours ahead in the case of chicken, a day ahead in the case of lamb. You also need a group of three diners for chicken, even more for lamb.
Hatay's other great gift to Turkish cuisine is künefe, the mouth-watering dessert made up of crispy grilled shredded wheat wrapped round a melt-in-the-mouth helping of soft cheese, with copious quantities of syrup dribbled over the top. Eat it with cream at the Khorasani Restaurant, and you'll be in seventh heaven.
Hatay Akdeniz Sofrası, Ahmediye Caddesi No. 44/A, Vatan Hastanesi Karşısı, Aksaray, Tel: 0212-531 3333
Khorasani Restaurant, Ticarethane Sokak No. 39-41, Tel: 0212-519 5959, www.khorasanirestaurant.com
Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır -- ciğer and mırra kahvesi: If Hatay food is not your scene, Aksaray is also a great place to dine Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır style. On summer nights in Urfa the main drag is lined with low tables and tiny wooden stools on which sit local men tucking into generous helpings of freshly grilled ciğer (lamb's liver) served on skewers with lashings of greenery. There are plenty of places to emulate the experience in Aksaray, although Canım Ciğerim in Beyoğlu is also renowned for its liver -- watch out for the skewers with neat lamb's fat that come bundled up with it.
Afterwards you can round off the evening with a gulp of mırra kahvesi (mırra coffee), an Urfa and Mardin super-strong take on Turkish coffee that is brewed and rebrewed before being served with elaborate ceremony. Down it in three sips but don't put the cup on the table afterwards, or you might find yourself expected to pay a forfeit -- a cup's worth of gold, or the cost of the waiter's wedding.
Mırra Urfa Sofrası, Muratpaşa Sokak No. 29, Yusufpaşa, Tel: 0212-532 7432
Canım Ciğerim, Minare Sokak No. 1, Asmalımescit, Tel: 0212-252 6060
Ehli Kebap ve Ciğer Diyarbakır, Simitçi Şakır Sokak No. 32, Aksaray, Tel: 0212-631 3700
Mersin -- tantuni and şalgam: Everyone is familiar with döner kebab in all its assorted manifestations. Tantuni, however, tends to get less of a look in, although around Mersin and Adana it's the snack food of choice. Finely chopped snippets of beef are stir-fried with water, oil, onions, tomatoes and herbs, then stuffed into a half loaf of bread or wrapped in paper-thin lavaş. Ideally you down it with bitter şalgam, the turnip-juice taste sensation that can be acquired from the pickle stalls down on the Eminönü waterfront.
Emine Ana Sofrası, Sıraselviler Caddesi, Billurcu Sokak No. 5/A, Beyoğlu, Tel: 0212-292 8430
Bursa -- İskender kebab: It's so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget that İskender kebap was in origin a Bursa specialty, supposedly created when the eponymous İskender stabbed his sword into the ground, then loaded it with meat so that he could grill it while slowly revolving it and so reduce the risk of charring. After adding a dollop of yoghurt plus tomato sauce and a hot butter sauce, and laying slithers of the meat on pide bread, he had the makings of a dish that is now one of the greatest pleasures of Turkish cuisine. Try it at branches of Konak on İstiklal Caddesi or at the Süslü Karakol in Beşiktaş for the authentic Bursa experience.
Konak, İstiklal Caddesi No. 259, Galatasaray, Tel: 0212-244 4281
Kebapçı İskender, Süslü Karakol, Yıldız Yolu No. 6, Ihlamur, Beşiktaş, Tel: 0212-236 5571
Rize -- karalahana çorbası and hamsi: Fewer places in İstanbul serve the cabbage-heavy cuisine of the eastern Black Sea region, but in Cibali, as it merges into Fener, the Kömür Lokantası has been serving up stuffed cabbage leaves and cabbage soup since the late 1980s. This is also a great place to come to eat crispy, crunchy hamsi tava (fried anchovies), a wonderful winter treat.
Kömür Lokantası, Müstantik Sokak No. 33, Küçükmustafapaşa, Tel: 0212-631 0192
Kayseri -- mantı: If you want to make a lonely Kayserili's eyes water, just mutter the word mantı to them. These tiny pasta packets enclosing minuscule morsels of meat are usually doused in a garlicky yoghurt sauce or a thick homemade tomato sauce. They're often called the Turkish ravioli, although you could as easily describe them as Turkish dumplings. Really, they're a dish unto themselves.
Hala, İstiklal Caddesi No 137/A, Beyoğlu, Tel: 0212-292 7004
Gaziantep -- pistachio baklava: Whatever your choice of starter and main course, you're bound to want to finish up your meal with a helping of baklava, the cigarette paper-thin, multi-layered pastry that reaches its apotheosis when stuffed with some of the pistachios for which Antep in the Southeast is famed. Most restaurants worth their salt serve baklava, but for the finest of all, head straight for Güllüoğlu in Karaköy, where they still use a recipe dating back to the 1870s.
Karaköy Güllüoğlu, Rıhtım Caddesi, Tel: 0212- 293 0910, www.karakoygulluoglu.com
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN |  |
||
| Hrant’s parasites | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Cover-up over neo-Nazi murders in Germany | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Russia, US acting together | |||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| Muslim world threatened by three extremes | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Multicultural challenges | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the national police assuming the military's role in Turkish politics? | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Russian resistance for Syria | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| France, diaspora and missed opportunity | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Update on mandatory health insurance rules | |||
| SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU |  |
||
| Beyond the stage | |||
| ERGUN BABAHAN |  |
||
| From the Tan Printing House attack to Hrant’s assassination | |||
| ALİ BULAÇ |  |
||
| Sectarian wars | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian deep state: underground pyramid | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Early Mondays and Fridays at our local primary school | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Does Turkey face threat of social engineering? | |||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
