Princes Islands & Heyamola Restaurant, Istanbul, Turkey

Getting the ferry to Princes Island

On our last full day in Istanbul we visited Heybeli island, part of a small group of islands an hour and a half lazy ferry ride from the city. The sleepy islands are a popular escape from heat of the city during the summer. Quiet towns, restaurants on the sea front and horse drawn carriages are the main draws for day trippers and tourists alike.

If you want something faster paced you need to head to one of the island's private clubs which seem to have monopolised the beaches, swimming pools and sun loungers on the island.

Approaching the Islands

After a short walk round the village and up to the monastry at the top of the island (sadly not open to the public) we headed to Heyamola restaurant which was recommended to us by Megan, our guide on the Instanbul Eats walking tour.

Heyamola occupies a prime location on the sea front and looks like the sort of place you could very happily while away a couple of hours in the sunshine.

Meze at Heyamola on Heybeli Island

We were initially given menus and then when the Megan connection was made they were taken away again and we were treated to a wonderful array of ten meze dishes.

Roasted aubergines with tomato and garlic, spicy tomato, roasted peppers with garlic, olive oil and parsley and four different types of yoghurt started us off. The selection of yoghurt meze included aubergine, a sweet carrot dip that was thick like mayonaise, dill and mint and a nutty (almond?) yoghurt.

 Three types of seaweed Meze

We also had three types of seaweed meze, very appropriate given our location. None of the seaweed dishes were too salty. The pale green seaweed at the top of the picture flavoured with lemon and olive oil was a favourite. Some mackeral with pickled cucumber and olives completed our selection.

Mackeral stuffed vine leaves

After the meze selection some mackeral stuffed vine leaves appeared at our table. The vine leaves had been finished in a frying pan and were slightly chewy. The vine leaves worked well with the lemon and raw red onion which cut through the richness of the mackeral.

Slightly nervous of how much more food might come out, and knowing that we had an epic meal to come in the evening, we asked for the bill after the vine leaves, very content with what we had eaten.

I enjoyed our lunch at Heyamola. The only thing that would prevent me from recommending the restaurant is that they seem to have an English and Turkish menu. In my brief look at the menu I didn't spot any of the wonderful meze on the English version. If you do visit Heyamola, make sure they know your keen to try some of the local dishes.


The map of all the places I visited in Istanbul is on my maps page here.

Heyamola
Mavi Marmara Yali Cad.
(Mavi Marmara Motor Iskelesi karsisi)
Heybeliada
Istanbul

Turn right when you get off the ferry. Heyamola is the last restaurant on your left.

Eating Istanbul: The collective

The food in Istnabul was pretty epic. I've already blogged about the food tour, best kebab and pide in Istanbul as well as my favourite meal at Ciya. Here's a wrap up of everywhere else that we ate during our week in Turkey.

Antiochia, Asmali District

The small Antiochia is located in the Asmali district. If I had more time in Istanbul I definitely would have liked to have eaten in more of the places in Asmali. I picked up some tips of side doors which led up to third floor restaurants that only the locals knew about, but sadly one week wasn't enough time to try them all.....

Antiochia serves feed from the city of Antakaya in Southern Turkey. We were both pretty stuffed with plane food so decided to share a lamb kebab which came served with four small meze of yoghurt, aubergine, humus and red pepper paste. I remember fresh, light and well balanced flavours.

Aubergine ice cream

For dessert I couldn't resist the aubergine ice cream on the menu. What arrived turned out not to be aubergine ice cream, but some sweetened dried aubergine served with a clove ice cream. 

Antiochia
Asmalı Mescit Mah.
Minare Sokak No:21
Beyoğlu
Phone: +90 (212) 292 1100


Zubeyir, Beyoglu / Taksim

We went to Zubeyi on second evening after Somer tipped it as being the Istanbul version of my local Turkish Meze Mangal.

The multi level restaurant has charcoal grills cooking food to order on both the ground and first floors. When we arrived both these levels were full so we had to take a table on the far less atmospheric second floor. I also forgot my memory card which meant no photos of the evening (apart from the above dodgy iPhone pic).

We shared a mixed grill, of which the kofta was the most enjoyable. All of the meat definitely had quite a lot of smoke which was great.

My local Meze Managal is fantastic and I was hoping that because we were in Turkey this place would be even better. I think I prefer London's finest which isn't a bad thing as it is much closer for me to get to when I fancy some grilled meat!

Zübeyir Ocakbaşı
İstiklal cad. 
Bekar sok. No:28 
Beyoğlu 


Sofyali 9, Asmali

 Calamari salad, ground walmuts with cinnamon 

covered in ground chickpeas and yoghurt
 

Sofyali 9, located just round the corner from Antiochia, was probably my favourite place in this 'round up' list of restaurants. Somer described it to me as 'his local' when he's in Istanbul and with their excellent meze it isn't hard to see why. 

No sooner had we sat down than the waiters were at or table with an enormous tray of cold meze to choose from. I found this a little unnerving and would have preferred to have been able to look at the main menu first, but we got stuck in and chose the three cold meze you can see above.

Once we'd had a little longer to look at the menu we added three additional warm meze and a salad from the menu.

 Chard leaves stuffed with meat and rice

The stuffed borec was the standout dish. The card (not vine) leaves were also enjoyableas was the special meze of ground walnuts with cinnamon covered in a thin coating made of ground chickpeas.

Follow Somer's advice of sticking to the meze and avoiding the main courses and you should really enjoy this place.

Sofyali borek (meat filled borek pastry)

Sofyali 9
Asmalımescit Cad. 
Sofyalı Sok. No:9 34430
Beyoğlu


Khorasani, Sultahamet

Festiki (pistachio) kebab

Khorasani is located right in the heart of the Old Town and less than five minutes walk for the Aya Sofya and Blue Mosque. As you'd expect in the heart of the tourist district the restaurant has adapted to the Western style. Out is the concept of small meze to share and in is the more familiar - for the Europeans - starter, main course and dessert.

The presentation might be Western, but the flavours were all pretty on the money. I enjoyed the Festiki (pistachio) kebab. While the Gavurdagi Salatasi / Mountain Salad of fine cut tomato, parsley, onion, walnuts and pomegranite sauce not only looked a treat, but tasted pretty good too.

You could definitely do a lot worse if you are in Istanbul's Old Town and want to avoid the mediocre tourist food.

Gavurdagi Salatasi

Khorasani
Alemdar Mh.  
Ticarethane Sokak No:39
Sultanahmet


A big thanks to Somer from the wonderful Efendy restaurant in Balmain, Sydney, who provided me with lots of suggestions and recommendations before I headed to Istanbul. Without Somer's help I don't think I would have eaten nearly as well!

Why not check out the map of all the places I ate, visited and stayed while in Istabul?

Ciya Sofrasi, the best restaurant in Istanbul

Sunset over the Bosphorus

Before going to Istanbul I emailed Somer from Efendy in Sydney asking him for some foodie tips. Top of the list under "must go" was Ciya Sofrasi on the Asian side of the city. We made a reservation for our last night and certainly weren't disappointed.

We arrived early in the district of Kadikoy to have a stroll round the suburb before dinner. There was a really enjoyable buzz to the area. While the Old Town is touristy and Beyoglu has an modern feel, Kadikoy felt like we were mixing it with the locals. There were a lot more people on the streets enjoying their Friday night walking, talking, shopping and drinking in cafés. I liked it.

Before heading to the restaurant we walked down to the quay to watch the sunset over the city. We were accompanied by fisherman and young couples enjoying themselves on the rocks as the sun went down. We had some fantastic views during our week in Istanbul, but this was probably the best.

Ciya is located on the bustling, restaurant filled, pedestrian stip of Caferaga Mah. Ciya have captured a little corner of the street with the original restaurant on one side of the road, a dedicated kebab shop opposite and a restaurant/kebab shop hybrid a few doors down. We decided the original was the best so headed there.

The restaurant is a lokanta, which would loosely translate as a buffet style restaurant. A buffet has become a byword for mediocre food in the UK, but it Turkey the lokantas serve some of the best food in the city, which is certainly true at Ciya.

Selection of cold starters

We started with a selection of self serve cold meze. I think the restaurant manager was slightly surprised at how restrained we were taking only a small taste of six different meze. I just wanted to make sure I didn't flag later in the meal!

Starting at three o'clock we had a wild thyme salad, a combination of lemon thyme, chilli and sping onions. The lemon helped cut through the chilli and the spring onion gave a nice crunch. Next up we had a stuffed pepper filled with creamy rice and chilli. The dried stuffed aubergine was next. I don't think I've had dried aubergine before and the skin had an interesting texture. Again the aubergine was filled with rice.

Completing our cold starters was a couscous, walnut paste and sweet and sour balls. The bulghar wheat balls were similar to the one we ate on the Food Tour.

 Elazig (casserole)

After our cold mezes we were invited up to the hot counter to select which main courses we'd like. There were around ten dishes on offer. We requested small portions of four different mains so that we could try more of the food.

My favourite was our first dish, the Elazig (casserole), consisting of green beans, lamb, bulghar wheat, tomato, pepper paste and herbs. The sauce had a real freshness from the herbs (marjoram? oregano?) and rich tomatoes. I only found one piece of lamb in the casserole but it was surpassed by the vegetables so it didn't matter.

Karisik sebze kizartmasi and Falafel

The chef thought I was bonkers ordering only one each of the karisik sebze kizartmasi and falafel.

The karisik sebze kizartmasi was a moist lamb ball. I couldn't work out what the casing was as it tasted like breadcrumbs but we didn't think it was. The falafel was made of fava beans, chickpeas, coriander, parsley, onion and garlic. It was one of the best falafel I've eaten and I was able to taste all of the individual spices.

 Tursu asi (stuffed eggplant)

The tursu asi (stuffed aubergine) was Kish's favourite dish. The aubergine was stuffed with a beef/lamb mix and came served in a spicy tomato sauce the packed a punch compared with the milder beli kirik (below).

 Beli kirik

Our last main was the beli kirik a mix aubergine, beef mince, tomato, onion and spices. The sweet onions and tomato permeated through the whole dish.

Main courses over we spied that there was a free table outside on the pavement and asked to move for dessert. A request our waiter was happy to accommodated.

 Hatay (pumpkin dessert)

Some people might describe ordering three desserts between two people a little excessive. I just wanted to try everything before I left Turkey at around £3 per dessert why not?

First up was the hatay a pumpkin dessert. Breaking into the curve of pumpkin uncovered a sweet liquid that came rushing out. The outer casing had a firm texture and a mild pumpkin flavour. Tahini paste and crushed walnuts were scattered on top. It was different to any other dessert I've had before.

 Ice creams

Next came a selection of goat's milk ice creams. The small bowl contained four scoops of ice cream including the best mint ice cream I've ever tasted. Completing the set were almond, cherry and pistachio ice creams, all of which were very good.

Kilis Nizip (dough parcel)

Our final dish of the night was the kilis nizip (dough parcel stuffed with pistachio) which I'd seen heading to other tables and thought looked interesting so decided to order it too. After such a great meal it was a slight downer to end the night on our worst dish of the evening. The parcel was quite dry, overly sweet and the pistachio taste didn't come through.

Drinking tea outside Ciya

After dinner we sat soaking up the atmosphere with some complementary thyme tea. The first time I've had thyme flavoured tea and it was a lovely end to the evening.

After dinner we rolled back down to the quay for a night time ferry ride over the Bosphorus to the Old Town. A perfect end to a rather perfect evening.


The map of everywhere I visited in Istanbul is here.

Ciya Sofrasi
Caferağa Mh.  
Güneşli Bahçe Sokak 43
Kadikoy
Istanbul
Turkey

Mosques and Hamams: Final morning in Istanbul

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Mosque of Suleymaniye the Magnificent

On our final day in Istanbul we had mid afternoon flights which left plenty of time to fit in some last minute sightseeing.

We decided to check out the mosque of Suleymaniye the Magnificent which is a pleasant twenty minute stroll north of the old city past the Grand Bazaar and University. The mosque was practically deserted when we visited and it was simply stunning. You enter through high walls into a lawned area which creates a tranquil and relaxing place.

Roofs of the Kulliye

From the eastern side of the gardens you get a great view of the kulliye (mosque complex) built outside the mosque walls. The kulliye is made up of a series of small buildings which run round three sides of the mosque. With their small domed roofs and the odd tiny minaret they make the area surrounding the mosque look even more impressive.

I was a big fan of the mosque with its simple and geometric lines. The absence of crowds meant that you could stand back and take it all in. It was a real contrast to the the hustle and bustle of the Blue Mosque which wasn't nearly as relaxing. I can't understand why it isn't more of a tourist hot spot, but I was pleased for us that it wasn't.

 Relaxing at the mosque

At the start of the week there were a few "should we, shouldn't we?" conversations about whether to check out a hamam while we were in Istanbul. We'd resolved not to go, but then with our time running out we decided to change our minds!

The 18th century Cagaloglu hamami is one of the most recommended hamams and was also close to our hotel which made it the obvious choice. On entering the hamam men and women are separated and I was shown into a private cubical where you change and are able to leave all of your possessions.

After changing it was straight into the hararet (hot room) to lie on the marble slab, relax and frankly start to sweat! The hot room was pretty stunning with marbled walls and small pieces of glass set into the roof to let in stars of light.

After a few minutes relaxing on the slab a masseur arrived to give me a massage, followed by a wash and, the bit I was fearing the most, an all over body scrub. None of it was as brutal as I was expecting and the exfoliation didn't hurt one bit.

After the wash it was into the sauna, which I couldn't take for too long as the heat was making me a little lightheaded, so I returned to the marble slab for some more gazing at the stars. Once I'd had enough I ventured out of the hararet and returned to my little cubicle for a lie down. I also needed some time to cool down before I could face putting my clothes back on!

What prevented the experience from being totally relaxing was my masseurs blatant and assertive attempt to get a generous tip, something that I never like and puts me on edge. The masseurs obviously have a bit of a system going and I was pounced on by the barber as I left my cubicle asking me to "take a seat so my masseur could say goodbye". My lack of interest in hanging around set the barber off shouting and running into the hot room to let the masseur know his tip was heading for the door. I didn't hang around.......

You can check out my map of all the places I visited in Istanbul here.

Istanbul: Culinary Secrets of the Old City: Part 2

Now that's what I call a moustache

We left the first part of the Culinary Secrets of the Old City tour with yours truly having made his first pide. I'm still not quite if the owner was planning to sell it or discreetly bin it once I was round corner! I'd like to think it went to a very satisfied customer.

Rose flavoured Turkish Delight 

Stepping through the doors of Altam Sekerleme we entered a fabulous old sweet shop. Glass cabinets and huge bell jars filled with Turkish sweets lined the walls. It reminded me of a traditional English sweet shop. However, instead of a huge variety of boiled sweets on offer, there was an acre of Turkish delight and a small section of halva too.

The shop owner makes all of the sweets upstairs. He was a quiet and smiling man who was happy for us to taste a range of his sweets. The rose flavoured Turkish delights had a deep red colour and lovely fragrance. My favourite was the pistachio flavour which had a lovely nutty crunch in the centre. I've previously found Turkish delight overly sweet, but these weren't sickly sweet in any way.

 

Inside a Han

We took our purchases, crossed the road and entered a traditional Han through a small wooden door. Two storeys of small rooms hidden behind arches, surrounded a large and bright courtyard. This han appeared to be desserted apart from a few men drinking tea around a small table.

It once would have been filled with bustling trades people, but had since fallen empty. We had a wonder round the upper and lower level, poking our heads through doors and marvelling at the place. There was an elderly gentleman shuffling round one corner of the upper level and I got the impression he might have lived there permanently.

Back downstairs we gathered some low plastic stools around a shady corner of the courtyard and enjoyed a cup of tea, some halva that we just bought and I couldn't help dream what a fabulous place the han could be if it was restored.

The best doner kebab you are ever likely to eat

On leaving the han we had a welcome walk - time to digest some of the food! - further into the backstreets. We really were getting into areas of the city that you would never hope to find on your own.

We arrived at Bereket Doner which sells the most amazing doner kebab you are are ever likely to eat. Everyday the owner of the shop spends two hours making the kebab by hand layering lamb, lamb fat, pepper, tomato and spices to create the dreamy kebab. 

You can find out more in my Best Kebab in Istanbul post.

Vefa Bozacisi

On leaving the kebab shop we started to head toward the Kurdish district of the city, but before we got there, we stopped in Vefa Bozacisi for a fermented millet drink.

The shop has been open since 1876, and the deeply worn stone step, gives an indication of how many people have entered the store ove the years. The interior of the shop was very special with elaborately designed tiles, dark wooden shelving and old mirrors on the walls. It reminded me of some traditional French cafés I have visited with a very Turkish twist.

A glass of boza

There is a plaque on the wall which claims that the boza drink aids digestion, helps milk production in pregnant women, is recommended for sportsmen and can treat cholera! Somehow I don't think it can be all true....

Our guide Megan promised that the drink that it would slip down regardless of how full we were. Thick like custard, cinnamon was the main flaovur and the roasted chickpeas added a textural crunch (even if a few of the chickpeas were a little chalky in the centre). I wasn't expecting to enjoy fermented millet so much!

Yunus the meatball usta

The penultimate stop on our food tour was at a cig kofte stand run by the smiling Yunus. Traditionally a cig kofte contains raw minced beef. The healthy and safety police seem to have put and end to the raw beef these days, but cig kofte are still known as 'meatballs'.

Today bulgar wheat provides the substance with red pepper paste and isot adding a subtle heat and rich complexity. Yunus rolled the meatballs in spring onions, flattened them out with the palm of his hand and then served them to us in a crisp lettuce leaf. The lettuce adding a freshness and textural crunch.

 

Making the false meatballs

On leaving Yunus' stall we walked round the corner to our final stop, lunch at the Siirt Seref Buryan Kebap Salonu restaurant. In the heart of the Kurdish district, the restaurant was located under the shadow of a enormous Roman aqueduct. 

Just like Sydney's Porteño, Siirt Seref is known for their whole roasted lambs. When I ate at Porteño I found that the side dishes were the star of the show, easily eclipsing the pork and lamb that everyone raves about.

I found the same to be true to Siirt Seref, but this time it was the desserts that stole the show.

 Perde Pilav

We started with a perde pilav. A thin layer of dough / pastry enclosed rice, chicken, shaved almonds and currents. I didn't find the rice had a distinctive flavour, but once I'd spooned over a healthy amount of the tomato, pomegranate molasses and parsley sauce that was on our table it definitely perked up a bit.

 Slow roasted lamb

We were served the pit roasted lamb both on and off the bone so that we could try the difference. I preferred the lamb off the bone which was quite heavily salted and served on Turkish bread that soaked up all of the juices.

Overall I found the lamb was neither as tender of smokey as I expected considering it was pit roasted over coals.

Knefe

We had two desserts. First up was some walnut baclava specially made for the restaurant by a nona who lives a few streets away. Rapidly slipping into a food coma I found the baclava a little too sweet for my tastes.

Our final dish of the tour was knefe, which I can only describe as a sweet toasted cheese sandwich. A shredded wheat coating encased a gooey centre of Turkish cheese. Heated so the cheese was oozing, covered in a sugar syrup and sprinkled with pistachios this was a new and slightly strange combination for me. It definitely worked, but I couldn't decided if I was eating a sweet cheese fondu or Turkish cheesecake!

With that our awesome food tour was over. Despite my slightly grumpy start we had a wonderful six hours eating our way round Istanbul's old town. It won't surprise you to hear I didn't eat for the rest of the day!


A final thought on value for money....
At $125 per person the tour was the most expensive thing we did in Istanbul by quite a long way. During the tour we didn't want for anything. There was more food that we could eat, copious bottle of water were bought for us (essential on a hot day), toilet stops were paid for and I was even given a copy of the Istanbul Eats book. However, food in Turkey is cheap and I doubt the expenses on the day came to much more than $25 per person. The guide need to be paid, but that is still quite a healthy profit margin.

The real value of tour for me, was that we ate food and had experiences that we would never have done otherwise. Megan was very generous with her time and recommendations for places to go in the city. The shops we visited gave us inspiration for some excellent gifts for friends and family too. My advice would be to take the tour - which I whole heartedly think you should do - as early as you can during your holiday. This will allow you to maximise the tour's benefit during the remainder of your stay.

You can check out all of the locations we visited on my Istanbul map.

Istanbul: A day of palaces

Outside the Dolmabahce Palace

Reading my friend John's travel blogs from New York, I remember thinking the idea of moving hotels mid week was excellent. It gives you the chance to try out two different areas of a city. The only the risk is if your second hotel is a lemon and you wish you'd never moved!

Despite my nagging concerns we decided to split our time between the old and new towns of Istanbul. Our first hotel in the new town two tram stops from the Dolmabahce Palace, and our second hotel was a short walk from the Topkaki Palace. It seemed rude not to visit both on the day of our transfer.

The Dolmabahce Palace was built by the Sultan between 1843 and 1856. It truly is an impressive building built on an vast scale. The palace can be roughly split into three areas; public rooms, a central ballroom and the private quarters of the palace.

Grand entrance gate of the palace

Access to the palace is only available through a rather disappointing guided tour. You can buy a ticket for just the public rooms and ballroom, or for the whole palace. I decided to go for the full monty.

Both tours route marched us through room, after amazing room. My museum tolerance isn't that high, but even I would have liked to have learnt more about the carpets, furniture and ornaments than our rather tight lipped guides deemed to share with us. As one of the cities premiere tourist sites with rather high ticket prices I found the standard of the tour incomprehensible. Surly it can't be too hard to do better?

Even without much commentary you can't help but be impressed by the palace and it's furnishings. All of the rooms are on a grand scale and even the private quarters (which the guide books seem to be unfairly rude about) struck me as rather smart.

Inside a courtyard at the Topkaki Palace

After checking into our new hotel and a short siesta it was time to hit the Topkaki Palace, which was home of the Ottoman Sultans until the moved out in 1856.

Unlike my morning experience, Topkaki was a self guided experience and we were free to roam the grounds of the palace and in and out of the various buildings that were open to the public. It was also distinctly Turkish compared with the Baroque / Neo-classical styles of the Dolmabache Palace.

Door and mosiacs in the harem

We spent the majority of our time in the harem, wandering round the private quarters of the palace. Some of the mosiacs, tiles and frescos in the bedrooms were fantastic. Although beautiful you can see that the quarters might not have been the most practical and the Sultan was yearning for some modern luxuries and so decided to build a new palace.

The Baghdad pavilion in the Topkaki Palace

After the harem I was approaching my 'culture quota' for the day so we headed for a look round some of the gardens. There are great views of the Bosphorus and Golden Horn from some of the terraces which overlook the water.

One of our final stops was the Baghdad Pavilion. I'm not quite sure of the origins of the name, but it certainly was a mighty fine summer house.

Istanbul: Culinary Secrets of the Old City: Part 1

Spices

We decided to book the Istanbul Eats Culinary Secrets of the Old City walking tour while we were in Istanbul. Run by a group of bloggers they promise to take you off the beaten track and show you some of Istanbul's gems that the ordinary tourist won't find.

It's the sort of thing that I absolutely love, which makes it all the more odd that I woke up that the morning in a bit of a grump.

We met our friendly guide, Megan, and fellow walkers near the Spice Market. Our first stops were a cheese shop, a place selling olives and butchers located just outside of the market. It was in one ear and out of the other as I was silently harrumphing that this was neither secret nor a back street. I'm not quite sure what my problem was!

After the shops we headed to a coffee warehouse tucked away just off the Spice Market. The entrance was almost hidden and the type of place thousands of tourists would walk past every day without even noticing. Small plastic stools were pulled up round a low table, newspaper laid out and breakfast placed on top. It was dark, authentically Turkish and a little bit grubby. This was more like it!

Simit and kaymak with newspaper as our tablecloth

Once thing you notice in Instanbul is that shop keepers, in fact virtually everyone, is permanently drinking tea. Tucked under the stairs of the warehouse, near our makeshift table, was a small tea house. Orders were being shouted in and bells ringing. All the time the men in the tea house were unhurriedly making drinks and calmly carrying them out to their customers on trays. I had been wondering where all the tea came from and now I had the answer.

As I tucked into our breakfast of simit and kaymak, Megan explained what was in store for us during the rest of the day. We were going to be a meeting group of ustas (master craftsman) who were all real characters, passionate about what they do and some of the best cooks in the city. The other thing that was clear we had a lot of food heading our way. My grey mood was definitely gone and I was excited.

Simit is the breakfast of Istanbul. Shaped like a bagel, the best ones are crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. Dipped in grape molasses and covered in sesame seeds simit are a good morning filler. What really bought these simit alive was the dreamy kaymak that we dipped them in. Cream made from the milk of water buffalo the kaymak had been doused in honey. The taste came from the beautifully scented honey, but the texture was all from the clotted like cream. Kaymak is the sort of thing you want to eat every day of your life, even if it will take you to an early grave.

Balancing out the cream (?) we had some Balikesir cheese. A firm and salty cheese without a lot of flavour (which seems to be how the Turkish like their cheese).

 Gorkem the kokorec usta

Our first stallholder of the day was Gorkem the kokrec usta. Gorkem gave up the opportunity to go to university to learn how to become a master of the kokorec sandwich. The kid certainly has some flair with his shiny black shoes and pink shirt. Not your usual scruffy street stall vendor look. He apparently drives a suped up Corvette imported from the US too.

Kokorec cooking over wood

Kokorec is offal wrapped in an intestine and cooked over wood. Once cooked the kokorec is finely chopped and fried on the grill with some wild thyme, chilli and salt. It is finished in a roll with some fresh tomato.

Eating the sandwich I had an upfront hit from the wild thyme with chilli building as I ate more. I found that the offal was a (pleasant) textural element and I didn't get a strong taste of the sweet meats. The bread had a soft crust and chewy inside. A great snack beyond my expectations.

Kokorec sandwich

After the kokorec I was already full and it was only our second stop!

After a short walk through an area known for selling sacks of all description we stopped in a cave like locanta for a red lentil and bulgar soup similar to the one I made on my cookery course.

The soup is a popular Turkish dish, but one that is a little lost on me. It requires a healthy squeeze of fresh lemon to bring out the flavours of the soup. I'm not sure if it is traditional but I added some hot paprika too.

We ended the first leg of our tour with the best pide in Istanbul.

Istanbul: Blockbuster day in the Old Town

Aya Sofyia

I posted a quick blog after I'd been in Istanbul for a couple of days. I was enjoying myself in the New Town, but Istanbal was feeling like any other southern European city with modern shopping streets and young teenagers in western dress. I was struggling to work out what was uniquely 'Turkish' about Istnabul.

On my third day in the city I headed to the Old Town for the first time and it was a blockbuster. Nothing like a bit of history to help you get the feel of the place.

The roof of the nave in Chora Church

My first stop was the Chora Church in the Western District. It was originally built as a church and later converted into a mosque. In recent years the church has been sensitively restored to it's Christian roots and is now open as a museum.

The small church was busy with tourist groups when I visited. Tour groups all staring skywards and gazing at the frescoes and mosaics could make the small church difficult to navigate.

During the restoration where the decoration couldn't be saved, the bricks were been exposed and beautifully pointed. I think I preferred the expert brick work more than anything else.

High on the city walls

After the church I headed to the nearby city walls. Climbing up onto the walls was an exhilarating and stomach churning experience at the same time. As high as a four storey building the walls were totally exposed with no safety rails to speak of. The views of the city were definitely worth it. Just don't look down.

Inside the Aya Sofya

My final stop before lunch was the Aya Sofya in the heart of Instanbul's historic quarter. The Aya Sofya is like the Chora Church on steroids. A church was first built on the site in the third century and it was the largest cathedral in the world for over a thousand years before being supplanted around 1500 AD. The huge basilica is breath taking.

Seemingly like most Christian buildings in Istanbul it was converted to a mosque before being secularised in the 1930s.

Chandelier in the Aya Sofya

The building still feels like a mosque with large Islamic symbols dominating inside the central dome. The nave is a little more Christian with exposed fescoes. You are able to look round the upper gallery too which is accessed via a long and winding ramp rather than staircase.

I was pleased that I had visited the Chora Church before the Aya Sofya as I think it would have been a little underwhelming to see second.

The Blue Mosque

Across the Sultan Ahmet Park from the Aya Sofya is the Blue Mosque. I have found visiting Mosques in other countries a slightly intimidating in the past; hawkers and hasslers ruining what should be a tranquil and reflective experience.

I'm pleased to report that the Blue Mosque was nothing like my preconceptions and was welcoming to guests outside of prayer times.

Roof of the Blue Mosque

The roof of the mosque was impressively painted. However, the enormous hordes of people meant it was almost impossible to stop and stare without being constantly jostled.

A beautiful building ruined slightly by the crowds.

Inside the Roman cisterns

My final stop of the day before my cookery course were the Roman cisterns which once supplied Istanbul with it's water supply.

My gosh the Romans were good at engineering and the cisterns are in great condition two thousand years later. The vaulted cisterns are the size of several football pitches. They provide cool respite from the heat of the day and are delightful to drift around.



View Istanbul July 2012 in a larger map Key: Yellow sights. Green visited on the Istanbul Eats food tour. Red eaten at and reviewed (outside of the food tour). Blue places stayed.