I love street food! Love it! Simit, chestnuts, çiğ köfte, döner, kokoreç… You name it, I love it! So I have my stops at various neighbourhoods for different bites depending the time of the day… They are dear to me with their food, with their Ustas and their personalities! Simit… You…
And LA Times! Long time food critic and food writer S. Irene Virbila of LA Times visited Istanbul with her family. So I had the privilege to take her out on my famous Kadıköy Food Tour. Also we dined together some of their nights, having great food at my favorite places…
We were in need of good food and a bottle of wine, we did not have a reservation but lucky enough we got a table. By the time we settled down, the place gave us a sense of relief. We were at Yeni Lokanta, Civan Er’s new restaurant. The restaurant itself consists…
In Istanbul we are lucky that we have artichoke sellers in our neighbourhoods, that you know from my posts. And I want to show you how it is indeed prepared. And, yes, another new category! First the leaves: How to prepare an artichoke, part 1 from Tuba Satana on Vimeo….
Ramadan brings different tastes to our tables, after pide there comes güllaç worth waiting for whole year. Güllaç! Güllaç is a dessert made with rice starch sheets which are layered with walnuts and soaked in a lukewarm milk syrup. Usually rose water is also added to this milky syrup, but…
Finally the tomato season kicked off! All I want to eat is tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and olive oil! An easy task, after visiting the organic market held at Göztepe Özgürlük Parkı on Wednesdays, I got the first heirloom tomatoes of the season. All from Nar Çiftliği, from farm to table,…
Don’t know about you but I want to dip in the ice cream maker these days. when ever I pass Baylan, I sit down to have a slice of Adisababa, or a Kup Griye. Adisababa is made from parts of different creams, patisserie cream and whipped cream with some candied fruits pistachios, sponge cake and chocolate,…
I crave for lahmacun, all the time, every time! The abusive smell of the mincemeat mixture, the crispiness of the dough and the first bite! I love lahmacun! Who doesn’t?! But I don’t settle for any. Here are my four lahmacun restaurant in Istanbul! Halil Lahmacun at Kadıköy Balık Pazarı. Tiny shop with…
In Gaziantep fruits are a big part of the cooking. Kebabs get their share as well, not to mention they change seasonally. Keme mantarı –desert truffles- announces the coming of spring, then yenidünya kebabı -loquat/medlar- follows, last for spring is sarımsak kebabı – the whole bulb of garlic-. Keme mantarı after being…