Döner kebab -for the beginners- is a meat dish consists of deboned meat layered on a vertical spit, roasted rotating on its axis, then cut -shaved- thin slices with a special long knife aka döner bıçağı… Served as pide sandwich, wrapped in lavaş, in half loaf of bread or plated on…
The ultimate carnivorous street food, the one and only kokoreç, is an adventurous taste as well as the name! Watching usta prepping your order, chopping, placing it on the grill for the extra crispy sweetbread, then some chili flakes, some thyme… cumin for me… I am drooling here… where was I, oh, here is how you…
It was a very hot summer day in Istanbul… Me, Daniel and Mirra of The Perennial Plate strolled all day long… I took them to my favorite places, introduced them to my favorite people… We ate, we talked, had a good time and they shot their video… I was happy…
Good, clean and fair fish… As Fikir Sahibi Damaklar of Slow Food, we had started our well known campaign to save our Lüfer of Bosphorus for the next generations on 2010… It wasn’t just any campaign but it took guts; guts to challenge, question, defy against the fishmongers and authorities…
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…