Best of Istanbul

In 2007 to celebrate my brother's graduation from college, the family was off to Turkey. We stayed in the Sultanahmet for the first 5 days, the ‘old town’ of Istanbul among grand mosques, bazaars and palaces. Our culinary adventures were unlimited—spicy meatballs and flaky fish, baba ghannouj and calamari. Everything was fresh, Mediterranean and delicious!

We were taken to the restaurant Set Balik, far north along the Bosphorus, more than halfway between Istanbul and the Black Sea. This meal likely ranks in my top 25 between the spicy raw beef meatballs and cacik (I adore Greek tzatziki, a mixture of yogurt, cucumber, mint and garlic, and the Turks call their similar dish cacik, sometimes adding in spinach.)

The dessert was a fascinating wafer of cheese wrapped in shredded wheat, drizzled with honey and pistachios. An odd combo of both flavors and texture.

The New York Times featured a story on cooking classes in Istanbul, so we spent a day in the kitchen with Cooking Alaturka. While I chopped the tips off green beans and diced beef and lamb so fine it cooked up to look like it had been ground! We made a vegetable dish that involved layering chopped garlic, diced tomatoes, green beans and onions.

The meal kicked off with a lemon yogurt soup with dried mint followed by zucchini-cheese fritters dipped in garlic yogurt sauce. The main dish was lamb and beef stew cooked inside an eggplant.

We topped off the meal with dried figs first soaked in boiling sugar and clove water, then slit open and stuffed with walnuts.

Our class, enjoying the meal.


The bazaars in Istanbul were incomparable.

Spices

Turkish Delight

Olives

Dried Fruits


Our hotel, like many an Sultanahmet, had the restaurant on the roof to take in the city sights.
Breakfast was filled with yogurt and fruit compotes

And humor