So much to say about Istanbul, so of course I will start with food. Turkey has elevated street food, or fast food, to a high place. And this is something I really appreciate. In many ways it is more useful and attractive to me to have a wide variety of tasty street food than a host of sit-down, pricey, but good restaurants. When I leave the house to eat it is likely because I am too tired to cook, want my food fast, and don’t want to pay very much. Finer foods I prefer to make myself at home, in my kitchen. Leaving my apartment here in Istanbul presents me with a large range of cheap yummy that tickle my tongue and dance lightly on my wallet. So here’s a rundown of the things I’ve eaten in the last week:
Savory:
Dürüm – dürüm literally means “wrap,” and is made from a bread they call “lavash”. To my mind, lavash and (wheat) tortilla are twins of the bread world. Here in Istanbul, dürümler (that’s the plural form of dürüm!) tend to be filled with döner kebap meat and cheese, then grilled so that it all melts together. This is perhaps the only food that I’ve seen combine a bread, meat, and cheese here. To an American meat and cheese just seem to naturally go together, but just as that first delicious street taco in Mexico can teach you, properly spiced and seasoned meat, when prepared well, needs no cheese. So it is with many of the delicious eats described below.
Dürümzade – a dürüm shop featured on Anthony Bourdain’s show, and for good reason. It’s hard to say which is the star of this production, the wrap or the meat inside. Both go over a charcoal grill, and get a delicious smoky flavor. The wrap is brushed with oil and spices, and has a great crumb and chew. The meat in the style of Adana kebap, a long skewered piece of lamb grilled over charcoal, smoky, spicy, addictive. Kebap, I learn, basically refers to anything that is a meat dish or food that features meat. Thus if you say you want a kebap, it could mean all sorts of things here. If you talk about “döner kebap,” this means shaved meat from a döner machine (the machine that rotates the big slab of meat), but does not mean a particular preparation. That is specified by the bread in which you eat your döner kebap – typically pide (pita) or dürüm (wrap). Pide and dürüm don’t always feature döner, pide can be prepared as a pizza, and dürüm as mentioned above can simply be a grilled chease.
Islak hamburger – also on Bourdain’s show, also incredibly addictive, this literally means “wet burger”. Imagine a slider whose buns have been soaked in a tangy marinara sauce, and yet somehow maintain structural integrity in your hand. How they do it, I have no idea. Imagine a really good sloppy Joe that doesn’t reduce your hands to a disgusting mess. I don’t want to think about the meat’s origins.
Lahmacun – Turkey’s pizza, very thin crust, what in the States we would call “cracker crust” only it is somewhere tantalizingly between chewy and crispy, and is obviously made by people who know how to make super thin crust pizzas, unlike most “cracker crust” pizza-makers in the US. Typically topped with a lamb, tomato, and parsley mix, perhaps a lemon on the side to squeeze.
Kokoreç – in Philadelphia, where my girlfriend had her first cheesesteak, she said that Turkey makes something very similar – kokoreç. True, both are chopped meat mixed with onions (etc.) prepared on a flat griddle loaded with grease. Differences: rather than beef, kokoreç is made with lamb intestines and offal. It is also heavily spiced, and is quite spicy. No cheese. Verdict: ridiculously good.
Gözleme – Turkey’s quesadilla. Really good.
Kumpi – One thing that surprised me, Turks really like stuffed baked potatos. Basically they are twice-baked, then stuffed/topped with anything you could possibly think of. End result, a giant potato bomb. Bake a potato once, I am not interested. Bake it, scoop the stuff out, add lipids and herbs, stuff the potato with this mixture, bake it again, and then top it with things that tickle my palate? Sign me up.
Börek – fried layered pastry with sucuk or feta and parsley inside. Crispy, tangy, classic.
Sucuk / paprika – Turkey’s sausage, the two things main qualities are beef and paprika. Paprika here is a particular thing. It looks like crushed red chili, but it has a flavor halfway between red chili and Hungarian sweet paprika. I’m salivating.
Iskender kebap – Shaved kebap with tomato sauce, over croutons that melt and get soft, with peppers and yogurt. One of the “refined” kebap dishes. Kind of like Turkish Thanksgiving meal.
Mantı – described as “Turkish ravioli,” but I think they more closely resemble steamed shumai. Typically topped with yogurt and sumac.
Sweet:
Mado ice cream – Mado is a mini-chain, their ice cream is better than American style ice cream and on par with gelato. The trick here is orchid flour, or the ground up tubers of the orchid plant. It thickens the ice cream and adds a slight but distinct texture that I find really enticing. And the flavors are remarkable, including the pistachio, which to me defines gelato and yet is exquisite in the Mado form. Gelato was always my pinnacle. I am rethinking this – a major statement coming from me.
Ekmek tatliler – literally “sweet bread”, it is bread and honey but more accurately described as honey coagulated into a solid form, more “want some bread with your honey” than the other way around. Those without a serious sweet tooth might be wary. Best topped with “kaymak” – Turkish cream, which also goes great with honey on bread for breakfast.
Simit – simit is a circular bread, something of a mix between a bagel and a pretzel, which when stuffed with chocolate also adds a dash of pain au chocolate to the mélange.
Baklava – sublime. Enough said.
Profiterol – the French puff and cream pastry gets topped with semi-sweet chocolate sauce here. Decadent yet somehow not particularly sweet and thus endlessly edible.
Turkey really, really knows how to make pastry and desserts, so I have a long way to go down the dessert aisle.
