Istiklal Caddesi (translated to Independence Street) is arguably one of the busiest streets in Istanbul, and with good reason. Day or night, Wednesday, or Saturday it is always full of life and people.

You can find anything here: shopping, street entertainment and lots of lots of food. Most of my favorite, albeit not-too-Turkish, foods can be found here like waffles, kumpirs and wet burgers.

With family in town this week, a visit to Istiklal was in order. So what are our favorite things to do while there with our visiting tourists?

1. Check out historic sites on the way:
There are tons of older buildings here and things tucked away just off the main street. I love this facade in front of St Anthony's Catholic Church, which is also worth checking out. It is the largest Roman Catholic Church in Istanbul.



2. Stroll down the Balık Pazarı
Besides the fishermen on Galatasaray bridge, this is a great place to fish shop. Here there are all kinds of fish, big ones, small ones, spotted ones, and whatever else the fare is! Even if you don't eat fish (like me) it's fun to "window shop".


3. Find a little bar and have a glass of rakı
Rakı is a popular drink in Turkey and you will see lots of people indulging in it with their dinner. A bit like Greek ouzo, it is a clear drink that clouds up once you mix it with water. And you will definitely mix it with lots of water.


4.Sample the fares from the street vendors
Here you can find mostly simits (the bagel like bread) and kestanes (roasted chestnuts), but also roasted corn. There are lots of vendors to choose from, so take your pick!

This week I was so excited to host some of my co-workers in Istanbul.  I always love showing off a bit of my new hometown.

They were staying on the Asian side, which I will say I have not had much experience visiting before.  Yes, sure we got off on a stop on the Bosphorous scenic cruise, but I wouldn't REALLY call that a jaunt into Asia.

So we decided to be adventurous. We hopped on the ferry to head over to Kadıköy and wandered the cobbled streets a bit before finally landing upon our destination. Because I had no idea where to eat, I had done some research before we left and turned to good old google to find a good recommendation. One restaurant showed up in several of the search results and blogs, so we decided to give it a try.

Everyone was right. It was delicious, authentic Turkish food. Unlike a usual restaurant, they have almost a buffet downstairs where you can see the food for the day and then pick what you want in either regular or large size.  We decided to split all kinds of things among the four of us and once it was set on the table, we realized it was quite the spread: beef and artichoke, turkish meatballs breaded and fried, rice, Brussels sprouts with something else, a garlic and vegetable dish, stuffed eggplant, and more.




Looks delicious, huh? Want to give it a try?

Çiya Sofrası
Guneslibahce Sokak 43
Kadikoy, Istanbul 
+90 (0) 216 330 3190

One of the questions I get all the time from family and friends about living in Istanbul is 'How's the food?'

While my response may vary based upon my mood (or last meal), I almost always have a positive response. That is, as long as we forget that one time, where I may have said something along the lines of if I have to eat one more doner....

Like I said, almost always. Normally, I'm down for a good durum, kumpir, or especially a waffle! Waffles are my absolute favorite - it's like an ice cream store where you pick out toppings and sauces, but it all goes on a waffle.  Carbs are my friend.

We are just getting to the best part of Istanbul food though. You can get almost ANYTHING delivered.  Not just your normal pizza, but doners, McDonalds, Italian, or even beer. The corner store definitely knows us when we call now. Perhaps it is that we always order the same thing, or perhaps our rudimentary Turkish.  I'll go with the same order though and hope that they think we just like to order 19 beers every time we have a party, instead of the fact that we can't count to 20 yet.

Anyways, back on track. This is the best service. As much as I like to cook and have enjoyed having more time to do so over here, there are always those days where you just didn't make it - or want to make it - to the grocery store. And on those days, I am happy to know I don't have to scrounge the fridge to eat well!

After weeks of winter weather, we finally had a gorgeous weekend here which we used to our full advantage.

Saturday, after a hearty American breakfast of pancakes and the last of our contraband bacon, we decided to head down to Bebek. It's a neighborhood right on the water, an easy, albeit steep, walk down from Etiler. We also wanted to give the pup a chance for some good exercise and to see the water. We sat and enjoyed the views (Belle loved all the ducks), then wandered a bit. We found a nice, little fenced in "dog park" where you can let your dogs off their leashes. It isn't big, but it's nice so that you don't have to worry about them bothering non-dog lovers. After tiring Belle out with a new acquaintance and promises of future doggie play dates, we headed back. Man was it a rough walk back up. Istanbul is much more hilly than Texas and it will take me awhile to be in shape enough to do that climb back up without rest stops!


Good thing we worked up our appetites because Saturday night we got to do our first traditional Turkish Meyhane dinner. It's a family style meal that can last for hours - you just sit back and enjoy the food and conversation. You start off with lots of appetizers - cheese, eggplant (served hummus style), cabbage rolls, bread, and tons of other things I couldn't identify. And of course, a glass of Raki. Later you get salad, then meat (we had liver & onions and beef & potatoes), then finished up with fresh fruit for dessert. A meyhane is not complete without traditional Turkish music. The band goes from table to table playing and taking requests. All in all, we were there three hours and enjoyed ourselves, thanks to our Turkish hosts!

Last Friday, we headed down to Taksim to get a final fitting on Paul's custom suit.  We had talked about trying out an Indian food place with friends, but after getting proded and measured, we trekked back out to find that it was snowy and windy again.  That put us in the mood for a nice fire inside, so we decided to hurry home.

On the way back, the guys were talking up a storm about "soggy burgers." Sounds appetizing, right? But, they swore they were much better than they sounded, so we ducked into what I expected to be a hole in the wall shop off Iskital in Taksim.



After this, I no longer feel like it's a hole in the wall even if it is by some standards.  However, I can say, I felt pretty excited to have stumbled upon this little gem.  And the soggy burgers were pretty good too (note: apparently, the correct name is wet burgers, but I still like soggy burgers better).

New goal for 2012 (okay, my FIRST goal of 2012) - find more great Istanbul restaurants. I've been enjoying learning the art of cooking with all my new found time in my new Istanbul life, but with that, I have missed out on chances to explore my new city.  Hopefully by the time we get more visitors, we will have more of these great gems to take them too!

When we came to Turkey for Paul's interview, I had noticed some baked potato stands and thought - hmm, that's an interesting concept.

After coming to Istanbul, I decided I just had to try one of these delicious looking baked potatos. I did some online research, and it comes to find out that these spuds are a bit famous in Turkey - they are known here as Kumpir.

There are Kumpir stands in various parts of town, but probably the most number of these are in Ortakoy, a little shopping area right on the Bosphorous on the European side.  Saturday we decided to get in some Christmas shopping and we went hungry so that we could have one of these delicious treats!

When you first walk into Ortakoy on the north side, you see a whole row of these stands - they all sell the same thing, so everyone is calling out to you trying to get you into THEIR stand.