Yemek ve Içmek

I was talking to a couple of my friends today over lunch and coffee, telling them about Istanbul and just how lovely it is (yes, the trip is over unfortunately...I am still a bit dazed as a result of all the moving and unpacking so it hasn't quite sunk in yet I guess)......anyway, the food in Istanbul, I told them, is a good enough reason to visit the city.

Before I left, Elizabeth (thank you!) told me to eat everything and said she'd probably be hunkering in front of her computer with hunger envy once I was in Istanbul. Well, I haven't posted specifically on the food there, but I really ought to, so here goes.

Staple Turkish fare - Döner Kebaps. Cheap, yummy and available every hundred meters.

Balık. At the Eminönü docks there is a row of stalls that sells fish sandwiches. Simple stuff - freshly caught fish, grilled, sandwiched in bread with some salad leaves.

In Istanbul balık is sold everywhere - Istiklal, Kadiköy, Karaköy. And people fish everywhere too. The bridges on the Golden Horn, the shoreline along the Bosporus is always lined with people with their fishing rods, waiting patiently for a fish to catch.

Kokoreç. It's brilliant. (For some reasons the LP says it should be avoided at all costs. I think they are out of their minds.) I like the ones you get on the streets in Beyoğlu. There it's made on horizontal skewers around which the intestine is wrapped. When you want to eat, a sections of it is cut and chopped up along with tomatoes, chillies and spices.

Patlican. I don't think any country loves a vegetable more than the Turks love their eggplants. It's used in every possible dish. In the most innovative ways and is always, always just really yummy. There's even, most amusingly, a web portal called patlican.com.tr (the site has nothing to do with aubergines though). Which made me wonder whether the Indian equivalent would be bhindi.com? Anyway, I have to confess that all my life I hated baingans. This probably has to do with the fact that the only eggplant dishes I ever got to eat were baingan bharta and baingan aloo. Not very appetising. So I was stunned by just how yummy the vegetable tastes in Turkish and Middle - Eastern cooking. By the way, I love hunkar beğendi. Yum.

Türk kahvesi. I love the taste of the coffee towards the near end of the cup. When you can taste the dregs and the liquid of the coffee.

How much çay did I drink in Istanbul? Loads and loads of it. Sade çay, not the elma (apple) flavoured one. Early in the morning, around noon, after lunch, in the evening - a couple of times, anytime I wanted to just sit down and rest. How much çay must be consumed in the country I wouldn't venture guess, except to say it would probably be some mind boggling number. They drink çay like water - only more probably.

Karpuzlar. I think it occupies pride of place among all the fruits sold in the summer months. Stalls selling fruits were all over and the watermelons always looked so mouth wateringly delicious; especially in the heat.

People always say Indian desserts are ridiculously sweet, but Turkish desserts are about a hundred times sweeter. I adore them though. The gazillion types of baklavas (my favourite is sütlü nuriye, but I like fıstıklı also), sütlaç and yummy dondurma. It's a minefield for someone with a sweet tooth like mine.

Other stuff that I need to mention - simits (which were eaten for breakfast everymorning), mısır (corn on the cob) and those amazingly delicious mussels stuffed with rice you get on the streets. Tamam. I need to stop now before I become a mass of drool just thinking about all that food.....sigh, Istanbul.