2010 Trip: Istanbul Day 3
5th May, 2010
Today was a day of gastronomical pleasures!
Today we headed off to the Asian shore, catching a ferry across the Bosphorus to Kadikoy. We wandered through the streets and even a car park, eventually we found what we were looking for, what Simon had recommended. A small bazaar, selling the best of Turkish produce and products. In the middle of this hub of culinary goodness, is a famed restaurant, Ciya Sofrasi. They have the most magnificent traditional Turkish food! Firstly they had a fantastic pay-by-weight salad bar. Stuffed tomatoes and green figs, spiced augrula salad, yoghurt dishes, bulgur balls, excellent tahini, tabbouleh of various types, preserved vegetables, and exciting things I could not even name. Secondly they had a bar of cooked dishes, from creamy chickpea and lamb stews, to really excellent falafel, to stews, and various kebab meats. Delicious!
After gorging ourselves on this, mopped up with chunks of good bread, we moseyed around the nearby shops, trying good dates, marvelling at the fresh fish, and tasting halva. The Turkish people really know how to present food - decorated with laurels and small branches, out in front where they are actually visible to the passes by… A visual and auditory delight!
We were to meet Simon later that afternoon, so in the mean time we decided to wander the streets. Passing the ubiquitous pictures of Ataturk and the actually rather appealing Turkish flags. We wandered down a highway that was banded by an ancient and overgrown Ottoman cemetery. We saw a huge blue and white building ahead of us, too big for a supermarket and too ornate for a warehouse; decorated with labels such as Marks and Spensers.
It turned out to be a large and rather fancy mall, the home for the upper middle classes. On the ground floor we found a large French supermarket. It was incredibly exciting inspecting the rows of produce. A place where selling realistic sized bags of rice, beans, and pulses is common place. A place that has a baklava and deep fried sweets counter as a matter of course. A place that has a FULL selection of not only Turkish, but also European chocolate and sweets! Sub-tropical fruits, piles of strawberries, loquats, and melons of all different types, not to mention the awesome selection of different types of vegetables. I don’t know, this excites me. It was also very interesting to see the global brands that are familiar from home and how they have been re-branded for a different country and language.
After exploring the supermarket and wandering through the mall, we caught up with Simon who had finished work for the day. We headed off by foot and metrobus (concertina buses) across the Bosphorus Bridge to a suburb called Ortakoy. Here we ate massive baked potatoes with all number of toppings (cheese, green olives, black olives, corn, gherkin, carrot, olive tapinade, beetroot, yoghurt, tabbouleh, and other salads), not to mention waffles with even more (preserved fruits, sauces, nuts, chocolate, fresh fruit etc).
We also played on an exciting playground of psuedo-gym equipment (which the girls were besotted with) and observed a beautiful little mosque nestled below the Bosphorus Bridge. Very picturesque, especially during the sunset and when the lights came on, slowly illuminating the bridge across the entire spectrum of colours.
We came back chilled for the rest of the night. Later in the evening, I munched on simit, olives, and peyniri. Peyniri is an awesome type of Turkish cheese which not only tastes delicious, but is also stringy. It can be split like pulling apart a flax or grass (best analogy I could come up with!).