48 hours in Istanbul – where to eat?!
48 hours in Istanbul is never enough! You think you will be thorn in between the Hagia Sophia, a Bosphorus tour, may be a Princes Island getaway, what about Chora…
Asım Usta’s döner as the best
fast feast of Europe!
On the phone with Asım Usta -to me-: Where have you been?!! The nature of our conversations, meetings have always been the same, the same kindness, sincerity, friendship coming from…
Mantı as a second lunch in Urla
While we were at the Aegean coast, Sibel and Filiz planned a trip to Urla, Filiz being a local since she moved there so I left myself, my senses, my appetite in…
Istanbul’s coffee shops: Mandabatmaz
Turkish coffee is more than a tiny cup of caffeine for any Turkish people. It is a social event, a time well spent, an office gossip, a morning newspaper, a…
Katmer for breakfast
at Ünal Kardeşler, Urla
Just a usual morning for me, asking the waiter if I can visit the kitchen and chat with ustas… For me, as I always say, watching the true masters, this experience…
Sorry, but no: Yengeç Restaurant – Urla
So proud to serve 102 kinds of meze, they forgot that the food should be fresh, for one thing. Fresh for another. The ingredient quality is one of the key…
Istanbul’s Coffee Shops: Kronotrop
I am a coffee nerd. I can not live without coffee. But not any coffee, I only drink the best there is, after the perfect bite, this time perfect coffee…
Offal minds in Istanbul
Offal, you either love it or hate it. I love it. Every piece of it, sweetbreads, brain, liver, intestines, heart, testicles, tripe, trotter… When growing up I had the best…
Pideban, Butter and Old Radios
They all ordered kıymalı pide and a big jug of ayran, 5 workers in uniforms… Fortunately we had arrived before them and ordered our share of pide. With each order…
Where to eat the best döner kebab in Istanbul
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…
Turkish Coffee enters UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List
He was excited, Özgür, he has been my partner in coffee crime for more than 15 years, ‘I have some great news for you, about Turkish coffee…’ He has been working…
Introduction to Alancha of Kemal Demirasal
Actually I would have let the photos talk for themselves, but that would be unfair and incomplete… Last week Bade and Ayşe of MSA send me a notice stating Alancha…