How does a small, modest establishment survive amidst a string of luxurious waterside mansions, several state-of-the-art shops of international coffee retailers and expensive fish restaurants? The answer is simple really: With its staff of five jumpy waiters, a boisterous and jovial cook and a pleasant smell of fresh ground Turkish coffee oozing out of small, uneven, wooden windows, Emek Kahve defeats capitalism in one quick blow.

Located beautifully by the Yeniköy pier on the northern part of the Bosporus, the front part of coffee house hosts bands of local shopkeepers, cabbies, grocers and unemployed men, who perch on their chairs all day playing cards and sipping tea. Out in the back of the coffee house, though, lies a more fascinating and quite obscure dining hall, which initially seems to be merely an extension of the kitchen.

One must follow the smell of eggs scrambled in butter to figure out that this dining hall stretches out towards the waterfront and can seat 40 people on its old, wooden benches under a cascade of vine leaves. Sorry Starbucks!

I usually go there on a weekday morning and after securing a nice chair by the water, I order the menemen, an authentic egg dish, dunk some crisp white bread in its juice and wash it down with some freshly brewed Turkish tea.

As I unroll my newspaper, I listen to the sound of the leaves bristling overhead- only to be interrupted by the giggle of one of the older waiters of Emek. I don’t know if he enjoys picking on regulars but he almost always attempts to play tricks on me.

Once, after acknowledging that I am annoyingly picky about which ingredients I wanted in my menemen and yet unbearably hungry, he brought before me an omelette containing a huge chunk of sucuk, a spicy Turkish sausage. Confused, miserable and somewhat angry, I looked up and quipped, »This is not what I ordered«. He coolly shook his head and said »Oh yes it is. It’s omelette with extra sucuk. Now eat it«! I was aghast! While I babbled quite ineffectively, he began chuckling and eventually broke into laughter. He gave me a friendly pat on the back and handed over the brass pan containing the correct order. In his broken English, he admitted that he enjoyed laughing with foreigners.

’Laughing at or laughing with’ I wondered as I watched him walk away. Towards the end of my second cup of freshly brewed tea, he was a few tables away, pulling someone else’s leg…

EMEK KAHVE, Daire Sokak No:17/1 Yeniköy, Istanbul

Some friends of mine have this habit of jogging the Belgrade forest and get all sweaty early on Sunday mornings.

I’m no particular early bird, so I save my efforts for the second leg of the ordeal: The brunch at Cuppa in the Cihangir district. While they go on about how great their exercise was, I get my self lost in the incredible list of fresh juices and smoothies.

Should I go for the ’S.O.S juice’ with apple, lemon, lettuce and orange or the ’Energizer juice’ with strawberry, banana and orange, or should I take two and also ask for the ’Vegi-rizer juice’ with beetroot, carrot, parsley, red pepper and spinach? It’s not an easy call, and then comes the choice of breakfast.

Here I tend to stick to the bread rolls with smoked salmon, poached eggs and sauce hollandaise, but the traditional Turkish egg dish, menemen, and the yoghurt with muesli are also extremely tempting.

Regulars to Cuppa bring their laptops and have the coffee last for hours while they shift their attention between their emails and the Radikal newspaper – a favourite reading with Turkey’s leftist and globalised intellectuals.

CUPPA, Yeni Yuva Sokak, 26/5, Cihangir, Istanbul

Dilara Sabra Cadabra is a food magician living in Istanbul.  Recently she opened a new restaurant that she calls Abracadabra, right on the Bosphorus water front. She has previously run her own restaurants along with doing consulting and creative styling for kitchens all over the city.

Dilara is know for her traditional Turkish cuisine with a mashup of flavors she found on her many trips around the world. She travelled and lived in India, South America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and did a apprenticeship at the Tribecca Grill Restaurant in New York in 2001.

Dilara Erbay's lovely personality and charm shines out over the delightful restaurant as she roams the kitchen with a loud laughter.

The food is displayed and served on large wooden paddles, placed right on the table. Each board gets a small food installation with a variety of dishes, snacks, sauces and drinks.

Located right by the water with an outdoor terras, the combination of the breeze from the Bosphorus, the hot Istanbul summer and the magic dishes served from Cadabra's kitchen is pure joy.

One can almost smell the garlic oil from the above snails and with the local beer Efes, some cheese, some nuts and a Raki on the side makes a tear come to the eye. 

View from the top window of the restaurant overlooking Bosphorus and the bridge, connecting the East to the West.

Dilara Erbay also has a degree from the Economical and Management Sciences from the Galatasaray University. Her thesis was on “The Role of Non-Government Organizations in Turkish Political Life, and the Bergama Event”. In other words, if you come to visit Dilara at her place, you will be able to talk to her about other things than the spectacular view and what you are eating.

Links:

www.abracadabra-ist.com

www.dilaraerbay.com 

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’Home made food’ or ’Ev yemekleri’ in Turkish, is sometimes a somewhat overlooked chapter of the Turkish kitchen by foreigners. The restaurants of this kind usually offer a broad variety of cold dishes involving a lot of vegetables, soups, olive oil, yoghurt, köfte meat balls and occasionally börek pastry.

A place with a well proven track record in excellent home made food is Helvetia in Istanbul’s Beyoglu neighbourhood. Amidst a couple of fancy, and a few not so fancy restaurants, the Helvetia stands out as one of the most popular.

From the counter inside costumers get an easy overview of the ever changing selection of dishes – just as any Turk would venture out in their parent’s kitchen to lift the lids off pots and pans and check what’s on offer.

In Helvetia the high turn over guarantees a fresh and abundant selection, and the seating outside is a perfect place for people watching in the always crowded Sofyali Sokak. With its food and pleasant service Helvetia is the perfect Turkish family you never knew you had.

Helvetia; General Yazgan Sokak 12, Beyoglu, Istanbul

The Ciya Empire keeps expanding in Kadiköy on Istanbul’s Asian side as it’s one of the district’s most popular restaurants among locals. The restaurant now fills three locations in the same small pedestrian street as well as a fair part of the street it self.

The area is located a short walk from the Kadiköy pier and bus station and by it self a trip well worth given the very lively atmosphere and high quality at a low price selection of fresh fish, honey, vegetables, herbs and anything else you would want for self catering.

Should you choose to let Ciya cater for you, you may choose from the daily variety of ready made soups, meats and vegetables cooked, mixed and presented in the tastiest fashion. The dishes represent as many as nine different kitchens including Armenian, Ottoman and Syrian.

There is no written menu and no written explanations at Ciya, but the guy behind the counter is happy to repeat him self endlessly when people ask what’s in each pot or pan. Three dishes are probably too much food for one person, so you may want to ask for half portions in order to get a broader taste of the offerings and have room to taste the very Anatolian fruit in gel-desserts.

Ciya; Caferaga Mah. Güneslibahce Sk. 43, 44 and 48/B Kadiköy - Istanbul