Istanbul trip 2023: 'East meets West' food tour
Part 2 of 2
About a month before the trip, someone reminded me of the existence of food tours. I quickly researched and booked an 8-hour food tour for Istanbul.
We met early, 9am, in the historical district. A taxi wound through the narrow streets near the waterfront, depositing me between a food-and-magazine vendor and an entrance to the subway. It was a little awkward at first, since I was the first soul on the scene, 15 minutes early. Various Turkish folk passed, going about their business, a few of them glancing curiously at me. I felt conspicuous until the other ‘white people’ started showing up, 7 of us total.
Our food tour guide appeared, introducing herself.
We all mispronounced her name from the email. Gonca. We took it like “Gonka,” but she told us it was “Gonja.” Turkish consonants.
And then, we were off to our first stop.
Tea! Turkish people drink tea with their breakfast. Coffee is its own thing.
Gonca had purchased “simit” for us, a bagel-like bread that’s a staple in their diet.
The tea place was down this alley. You see the tree trunk? I sat right next to it when I drank.
A cat clawed up the trunk and perched.
The above sort of mise-en-scene is so interesting to me. The blending of junk and beauty. There was a lot of that in the historical district.
Our breakfast was good enough. I like bread, so I liked simit — bland, like a bagel is. The black tea was fine, but immediately after this, she took us to an even better spot.
She explained things about how the tea was made. I do not remember the explicit details. Something about the clarity of the tea — holding it to light, you can see when it’s quality.
Then we sat down and had our breakfast-breakfast. (Our second breakfast.)
Turkish food is delicious. Easily some of the best food I’ve had anywhere in the world. Yes, doing this food tour increased the likelihood of me saying that (because I was being exposed to higher quality things), but I really dig the Turkish cuisine profile. It’s Mediterranean. Healthy.
Kahvalti - the Turkish breakfast. It’s cheeses, meats, pastries, vegetables, honey, boiled or fried eggs.
When Kristin and Mac took me to breakfast on my first day in Istanbul, they recommended kahvalti. I was thinking, “I’m on vacation, I want pancakes,” but I caved and did as the Romans do. It’s all delicious and fresh. So much of the food in Istanbul is the sort of freshness and health we pay extra for in the States, but it’s cheap there.
Below is rose honey… so good. I dipped the bread in it.
After this we continued our walk through the historical district.
Gonca took us to a store that made baklava. She bought some for us to have with coffee, but she left it somewhere at some point. So I didn’t actually try this stuff, which looks pretty great. (But I had a lot of baklava while in Istanbul.)
Another store. People were lined up here, purchasing their lunch.
I think we stopped at this store primarily for their restrooms, but it was cool to see the variety. There was a whole section of the store for olives.
We hopped in a ferry and crossed the river for our “East” portion of the tour.
(Note: this was a geography thing, an homage to Istanbul being the doorway between continents. We didn’t change up the cuisine.)
We ate kabobs. These were amazing. The meat, the vegetables, the bread, a perfect union. I could eat these every day.
Then we had this dessert… a pasta-like bread (striated, like lasagna).
Put some powdered sugar on top… so good.
Below, this was one of my favorite meals. I ate this my first night in Istanbul, and had it a second time here. I wish I could recreate this in the States. Maybe I can, but over there it’s just street food — abundantly available.
It’s a rice, bloated with butter, with chickpeas (yellow) and shredded chicken on top. Bland, so you spice it with pepper and fresh chilis. Delicious.
After this, we strolled through the market and saw many things. I’ll just share the highlights.
These, above, were almonds sitting in ice. (Looking at this photo, I’m realizing other nuts are sitting in the ice too. This must be about having them damp and cold.) It’s an interesting way to serve nuts, right? The skin came right off, because of the moisture, and they were soft to chew.
Muscles. Ganca couldn’t purchase these for us because of the risk of food poisoning, so we bought them on our own. She showed us how to squeeze lemon onto them.
The muscles are pre-packed with rice and spices. I don’t like fishy-tasting things, or squishy texture, so these were a good way to say I’ve tried muscles. You’re mostly experiencing the rice.
Mid-afternoon, we stopped for Turkish coffee…
Gonca described to us what makes some Turkish coffee more quality than others. It’s about the foam on top. Coffee is served with Turkish delight — that one there is flavorless.
I really like Turkish delight. I like chewy sweet things (like gummy bears).
And then, pizza! This was called something else, but it’s essentially cheese pizza.
For our last stop, we went to this courtyard restaurant. The roof rolled back to show the tree above. (You can see the trunk there; the canopy is full of beautiful leaves.)
We tried raki — Turkish alcohol. It was good! Kind of like vodka.
The whole tour was 8-9 hours of walking around, so I went back to Kristin and Mac’s stuffed full and exhausted.
It was a great experience. In the future, I’m going to do food tours in places I visit (time permitting). I always wish I’d try more food, and this is a way to knock that out.
Next post, I head to Morroco!