Being unable to cook is something, but if your customers get food poisoned with your yogurt mezzes -one of us who had the mezze-, that is another thing… no need to tell about the rude waiters eating while working and talking mouthful, same as the ones in the kitchen serving the mezze, snobbish chef sitting by ocakbaşı, mr. knows it all, dirty food displays, you name it, they have it, tasteless kebab, chewy ribs… Will not return, do not- will not recommend.
Category Archives: Istanbul
Sorry, but no: Dönerci Sadık Usta – Istanbul
For a decent portion of döner, you need decent meat. You need high quality meat. Because döner is made from meat and animal fat, to be precise, tail fat. But… The smell of the meat was very unappetizing, the meat used was fron various low quality cuts, nerves and all were present, not to mention the inedible, tough and greasy at the same time meat, leaving your mouth greasy and tummy sour. Will not return…
Kokoreç – a delicacy
As an offal enthusiast, I am embarrassed that I have not written any word on one of my favorite offal meals. Kokoreç!
Kokoreç is basically lamb intestines, wrapped around sweetbreads on skewer and grilled horizontally over the charcoal fire. But not easy as is. Preparation is harsh, when you think of all the intestines, which needs to be cleaned thoroughly!
My first kokoreç was chopped intestines sauteed with spring onions. It was a dish prepared Thessalonian style, where my mom’s roots are from. The women of the house used to clean the intestines those days, not the butchers. Patience and mastership was needed for this laborious process. Cleaned under the cold running water, by turning the intestines gently inside out with the help of a medium thick knitting needle, hours we are talking here.
In Istanbul you may find kokoreç being prepared on the small eateries, but the real kokoreç is prepared on wheeled carts. That thick skewer is being grilled slowly on charcoal fire, ready to be cut and chopped coarsely, grilled more while you watch the fat melts and the bubbling sounds fill your ear and the smell makes you crazy. Then some salt, oregano is sprinkled on top and, I like it best with some cumin and spicy chili flakes. Followed by filling in the bread that has been heating up on the skewer,then wrapped in paper and… you eat!
It has been the most enjoyed street food of many offal lovers for years and years. Everyone has a kokoreç usta, knows his coordinates and whereabouts his timing and so on. Most of them even given their cell phones to their fans, hence it makes it easier for us to find them in Istanbul.
Those white aproned heros are our saviours after along nite out, after a long day at work, or just for indefinable pleasure of eating kokoreç grilled on charcoal.
As I would say, well most of us who can not resist the cruchy, chewy, delightful meaty taste, would say the same after the first bite:
Usta, bana bir çeyrek daha! -Usta, Another quarter bread for me!-
Tarihi Subaşı Lokantası – Istanbul
All the walls are covered with black and white photographs, news from international and local press, trophies, all memories with smiling faces… This place is the city’s history, its taste, its smell and its texture.
The dishes are prepared with the finest ingredients. The lamb stew is like any other thing, or any other place, the broth is so tasty and so meaty, you spoon it eagerly, the lamb is so soft and delicious, and falling off the bone, you spoon more and when you finish the meat, the potatoes and carrot, then comes the bone marrow, suck it slurping, making funny noises. At least that’s what I do! And nobody gazing at you whilst this happens.
The rice pilaf with carrots, pine nuts, topped with roasted chicken pieces, celery root with leeks cooked in olive oil, karnıyarık, deep fried whole aubergine, spilt into two and tucked with mince meat then roasted in oven, so yummy!
Kadınbudu köfte, a kind of meatball with rice and battered with egg and fried, a traditional dish as well, which is very delicious and perfectly cooked. Big pots simmering on the hob, all you have to do is ask the daily soup. They have meat, chicken, vegetable dishes, fresh salad, soup, homemade puddings and sweets.
Either you sample as many as you can, or pick one and enjoy with a delicious crunchy green salad. But please finish it with şekerpare, a king of pastry made with semolina, baked in the oven and then sugar syrup poured on top. Just a perfect way to end your feast.
Menu changes daily, but taste stays the same. So does the hospitality, cleanliness, cosy atmosphere. If you are near Kapalı Çarşı – Grand Bazaar- or not, just stop there for a treat.
Address: Nuruosmaniye Cad No: 48, Çarşıkapı
Phone: (212) 522 4762
Service Hours: 10:30am – 4:30pm, closed on Sundays.
Asri Turşucu – Istanbul
Sour, salty, if you want spicy! All indispensable for me! I am talking about pickles here. Crunchy cucumbers, garlic, peppers, cabbage, okra, plum, tomato, stuffed aubergines, carrot, beet, gherkin, onion,green beans, you name it, they have it.
The shop’s display is full of colorful jars which has a rainbow effect on us, like a pickle heaven! Approach the counter and choose your selection of pickles, mine is always a lot of garlic, cabbage, cucumber, plums, hot peppers and of course spicy pickle juice to accompany them. While waiting you can enjoy a glass of pickle juice and top it with your favorite pickle. The juices are served in beer glasses so it means a lot of cabbage pickles for me!
Istanbul’s one and only Asri Turşucu is serving its finest since 1938. They close down around June-July till September to make pickles. and in September they reunite with the neighbourhood. Every vegetable or fruit has a different way of brining and a different duration to become a perfect pickle.
Pickles are good for anything! Enjoy them with your drinks, your meals or solo and spoon some of the juice in tarhana or ezogelin soup. You will thank me later!
Address: Ağahamam Cad. No:9/A, Cihangir, Istanbul
Phone: (212) 244 4724
Damla Dondurma-Boza – Istanbul
One of the hottest days of Istanbul I hit the road to Kurtuluş. For some ice cream and talk. The small, white, compact shop was my stop and I stayed there for hours chatting, eating ice cream and watching the locals, the kids of all age popping in for a treat.
The kids run in, toss a lira on the glass counter, clang, they order, the ice cream scooped to the cone, dipped into the hot chocolate pool and then nut. Then another screaming kid comes in, then another one and another one…
The elders of the street stop by for some chat and a ball of their favorite. The shoppers stop to buy a kilo, couple of cones put in to the bag, there will be a very happy family tonight, tucking in the ice cream while watching their favorite show.
The tutti frutti and the plain milk, kaymak were just the right tastes for me. The ice cream is made from raw milk obtained from dairies, so when you linger along the sweet taste, you get that milk taste you miss. All the fruit flavors are made in the house from real fruits. Fuat Brothers buy the fruits when they are in their best behaviour then they prepare fruit purees to use for the ice cream. Summer and winter their varieties are the same, during winter ice cream is still sold but not in demand like boza or salep.
Fuat Brothers have been running their business in Kurtuluş since 1994. The mini shop attracts ice cream lovers from around the city, and during winter time same is valid for boza and salep.
Every neighbourhood needs an ice cream parlor like Damla Dondurma, a sweet gem.
Address: Kurtuluş Caddesi 110, Kurtuluş
Phone: (212) 233 4925
Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası – Istanbul
If you feel like you are lost, and this place is so wrong for a fish restaurant, it means you are in the right place. Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası is located in Karaköy, in a rumble place. This place was used to be a fish tradesman restaurant, in the good old days. At this small lokanta you eat fish, the best grilled fish from a big eighty years old charcoal grill.
You enter from the mini door, with a display on your left side with the prepared fish, all beautifully lay in front of your eyes making you more hungry, shellfish on skewers, big full parchment papers, colorfully surrounded with tomatoes, peppers…
There are couple of fish served everyday, seasonally what is available. Muharrem Usta is the man, the grill master. He mostly got his fish from Büyükada. He choose the fish, cleans, prepares, cooks. I told you, he is the man! And he is the only man in İstanbul for me who can grill fish perfectly, flawlessly, dreamy. Muharrem Usta has been a master for 21 years now. Being a master, a real master is not easy, he started his way in the kitchen from washing dishes, cleaning, being a commis. He learned grilling from the real master, earning his way up to the grill.
Muharrem Usta greets you, if he is not already busy on the grill, we say his and ask for the fish, already written on a small board right in front of us. We order salad, prawn on skewer, sole again on skewer and sea bass in parchment paper. We feel safe and happy, leaving everything to its master, we sit at our table, nearest one to him if possible.
First he put the small custom made bread on the grill, then he sends it with the simple, fresh salad, topped with olive oil from Ayvalık. So the feast begins. We tuck in the humble green, arugula and tomatoes with that bread. Oh, that bread! Then comes the big prawns with their tails on, grilled to perfection, drizzled olive oil.
Then comes the sole. Beautifully curled fillet, the sole is tender, seared on the outside, grilled fast to keep it moist and one bite it is bursting with the real flavor of the fish, the sole is out of heaven. You never ate anything like this! For me this is the signature dish.
Followed by the silky sea bass in parchment paper, cooked on the grill, the tomatoes did not melt but only left their flavors on the fish, olive oil is the finishing touch. Melt in your mouth, you never want it to end. We ask for more bread, mopped and scraped the juices, left with the paper and literally had to stop ourselves from licking the paper.
As fish needs its sweet, so did we, so he sliced us a thin piece of helva with pistachio, coming from Manisa. Just the right amount, the right taste, mellow with the oil of sesame.
Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası is only open for lunch and close around 3.00pm, so act up, prepare to wait if busy and don’t sit at my table!
Address: Tersane Cad. Kardeşim Sok. No:45/A, Karaköy
Phone: (212) 251 1371
Köfte & Piyaz – Büyükada
In Büyükada, you supposed to eat fish, right? Wrong!
The lining restaurants at the seaside, which apply different fees to different kinds of customers, you never know which one you are till you get the bill, you may end up paying an unexpected amount of money, to an unworthy meal. The annoying-greeter-employees, standing in front of the restaurants and shouting ‘buyruuun’ trying to grab us and everyone else walking before them, inside their restaurants… being a local and rather hating this kind of behaviour, we escaped…
Since Büyükada, is an island at the end of the day you have couple of options to eat a decent meal and we decided to sit down at the small restaurant to try the köfte and piyaz. In the middle of çarşı, a small, intact, clean restaurant.
You may order soup, piyaz, köfte so we ordered one piyaz to share and 2 köfte. Actually after we tasted piyaz we understood it was a mistake, you want to eat more of that silky beans, danced in vinegar and oil, leaving you with a mellow robust. There I said it, it was wrong to order just one piyaz. While we were there couple of customers, locals just came to eat piyaz and left.
We were half way through by the time our köfte arrived. Köfte was accompanied with a pepper paste, and a slice of tomato. Later I learned it was specially made for Köfte & Piyaz. It was not one of those industrial paste’s, it was mild hot, peppery-of course- yet smooth and silky, I spread it on my bread and enjoyed it, then finishing what was on the other plate.
And köfte was so delicious, I can not forget it. It was cooked perfectly, a little pink in the middle, juicy, yet seared perfectly. But it is not only the cooking what made it so good, the meat was top quality, seasoned perfectly, as Bülent Sönmez, owner of this humble gem, telling me,” no secrets, the meat is beef and it is good…” Well, it is very good!
Little chitchat, we sat there watching the locals arrive, ordering “the same”, enjoying their meal, with their hands full of shopping bags… We were in the right place.
Life is good on the island, since you have Köfte & Piyaz.
Address: Şht. Recep Koç Caddesi, No:4/B, Büyükada
Phone: (216) 382 7184
Istanbulfood maps: It is one of these days, because of the Google issues we are facing in Turkey, I could not map the location. Just hang on…