Adventureist

A Whole Meter Of Kebab

Martin Selsoe — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:20:00 GMT

The Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi restaurant represents by all means a corner in Turkish cuisine. This is where you will find kebabs of one meter, burning clay pots with the most tender chicken or lamb and a load of other pleasant surprises. It’s located on a horrible boulevard between the conservative Fatih and the run down Aksaray districts of Istanbul, where few tourists venture unless they are in a taxi taking a detour to the airport.

Hatay is the name of the province clinched between Syria and The Mediterranean which has been under Ottoman, French, Syrian and now Turkish rule as well as heavy Armenian influence. All have left their mark on the local kitchen and the Hatay Sofrasi has taken the best of Hatay and added extravagant designs so that the food is not only a show of excellent taste, but also a show by itself.

The best among equals is the Pasha Kebab that stretches over one full meter and is served on an equally long skewer. It’s made of hand minced lambs meat, pistachios and Hatay spices, and is probably the tastiest kebab you will find in Istanbul.

Given it’s location in a conservative neighbourhood it’s a no alcohol restaurant which attracts Turkish families with head scarf women as well as diplomats from Arab consulates, but it’s very much a love all, serve all kind of place.

Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi, Iskenderpasa Mahallesi, Ahmediye Caddesi 44/A, Fatih, Istanbul

Go further: Read here about Munck & Zemanova's (kebab)revelation in Mumbai.

A Basement Bargain

Martin Selsoe — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:53:00 GMT

I had never heard of or seen Retro until my younger sister came to visit. Tucked away in a basement down an almost deserted passage it sure doesn’t scare anyone off by aggressive marketing. Three model figures dressed in true retro gear and a couple of the shop’s bags pose at the entrance in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district. That’s all the advertising the shop has and that’s why I didn’t take any notice for months.

This cave of hidden fashion treasures sits down well below street level without any windows and sports thousands of hangers tightly packed with fabulous dresses, skimpy t-shirts, well worn trousers, loads of shoes, feathers, pearls and glasses all kept in a myriad of small and large rooms. The costumers are a mixture of people who wants fancy clothing at a low price, others who want retro stuff to combine with their new designer ware and professionals looking for just the right dress for their play or movie. It’s all there, just waiting for someone to come and dig it out.

Retro is also happy to serve a cup of tea in one of their couches, well placed in the midst of it all.

RETRO, Istiklal Caddesi, Suriye Pasaji 166/c, Beyoglu, Istanbul. It’s between Odakule and Tünel Square, next to Sultanahmet Köftecisi.

Heavenly Smoothies In Istanbul

Martin Selsoe — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:10:00 GMT

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

Take A Walk Down Memory Lane In Büyük Londra Otel

Martin Selsoe — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:32:00 GMT

My best advice to visitors looking for a hotel in Istanbul is to avoid Sultanahmet. The historic peninsula is a must in terms of sight seeing, but a disaster when it comes to restaurants and nightlife. Only tourists go there, and the food in the restaurants reflects what they think tourists want instead of what Turkey really has to offer.

Visitors are much better off by staying in Beyoglu, where the Turks go out and where the best of the night life and many of the city’s best restaurants are located. One recommended hotel is the Büyük Londra Otel with reminiscence of Istanbul’s Pera area as it was one hundred years ago.

The hotel maintains an elegant décor that must have suited very well the travellers arriving with the Orient Express. Today hotel’s pretty run down, but its location and views over the Golden Horn are well worth to consider.

The roof top bar has a splendid view and has become a favourite meeting point of Istanbul’s young and younger artists whenever they have something or somebody to celebrate.

BÜYÜK LONDRA OTEL, Mesrutiyet Caddesi 117, Beyoglu, Istanbul

Go further: Find more hotels in Istanbul here and read more about the city's many rooftop bars here.

A Dragging Night

Martin Selsoe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:02:00 GMT

Cahide is probably your most unexpected experience in Istanbul. It’s yet another of the city’s well kept secrets, this time hidden in Macka Park, below Taksim Square, where a fabulous drag show takes stage.

The drag queens are a peculiar mix of artists in all sizes, some of them more fascinating by their big bellies than by their dress and some probably better performers than singers.

So what make the show such a marvellous experience, is not the artists themselves, but the combination of drags and the huge enthusiasm by the audience. The age of the spectators vary from youngsters in their early 20’ies to seniors of 60 or 70 years, and despite the fact that Turkey to a large extend is considered intolerant towards sexual minorities, the crowd has nothing but love and affection for the drags.

After their show, they are treated like rock stars when they circle the floor to collect hugs and have their pictures taken with members of the audience. The cabaret also features some of the city’s best belly dancers and other shows, but they all remain a side act to the drags.

Cahide, Kadirgalar Caddesi, Macka Parki, Macka, Istanbul. The show is only on in winter

A Trip To Another World

Martin Selsoe — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The Büyükada Island is a short 45 minutes boatride (with a fastferry) from Istanbul’s European shore, but a world apart. It’s the major of the Prince’s Islands in the Marmara Sea and an oasis alone to the fact that it has no cars.

Arriving in Büyükada is like arriving in any Turkish fishermen’s village, aside from the fact that the Asian side of Istanbul with its smog and high rise buildings is clearly visible across the water.

One has to hire a horse carriage, rent a bike or simply walk to get to the other side of the island – or to the Greek monastery on the hill top – to really appreciate the getaway and enjoy the rare silence.

Since horses are the main means of transportation and as abundant as taxis in mainland Istanbul, you may for once relax and not feel like a lazy tourist when sitting in the carriage. Just enjoy. The many horses in the island not only provide access to the far corners, but also a very rural scent of horse dung.

Although the island has no real beaches it’s a favourite weekend destination for Istanbullus eager to get their minds far away in a short distance. Either they go for daytrips or stay in rented houses or hotels while spending their day time in one of the plenty private swimming pools accessible with admission.

Büyükada, conventional and fast ferries leave Istanbul’s European shore from Kabatas, and the Asian shore from Bostanci.

For further info go here.

Breakfast With Smokey

Martin Selsoe — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:31:00 GMT

It doesn’t matter how early one heads for breakfast at Leyla in Beyoglu’s Tünel Square - one seat is always taken. Smokey the cat is a part of the inventory and can usually be found in of the chairs under the first or the second table, and from its chair it does not move.

Smokey owes its name to its colour, but it’s hard to miss the reference to the lack of smoking ban in Turkish cafes and restaurants. Smoking is, until the summer of 2009, allowed everywhere.

The smoke in Leyla is by all means not heavier than the well nourished cat, and Leyla is no better or worse than most other places when it comes to smoke, but when it comes to a variety of breakfast, Leyla’s sure better than most.

If one is in a Scandinavian mood there is the Oslo-plate including smoked salmon, if Spain is your thing the Madrid-plate comes with chorizo and fans of British food may opt for the Londra (London) that offers bacon, eggs and more. If one of those isn’t enough there is also a choice of seven different omelettes.

I am very picky with my coffee and sorry to admit that neither Turkish coffee nor Nes-coffee floats my boat. It has to be filtered or espresso, and they do both pretty well at Leyla.

Leyla; Tünel Meydanı No. 4 Beyoğlu, Istanbul

The Next Level In Turkish Cuisine

Martin Selsoe — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:02:00 GMT

Cezayir means Algeria in Turkish and stands for excellent cuisine in Istanbul. The restaurant with the North African name is well hidden behind the Galatasaray High School and offers a state of the art blend of couscous and kebabs modernised and improved.

I bring my visitors there when they think they know all about what Turkey has to offer in terms of grilled meat, fish and mezze starters. Cezayir takes them to the next level.

Take the crispy pastry rolls (börek), which you will find in many Turkish restaurants. In Cezayir they are as thin as a pencil, twice as long and they come with pastrami served sticking from a small glass with a shot of a slightly spicy tomato sauce. And then, oh boy, there is the chicken liver pate made with whisky and pistachios. Usually it goes down very well even among those of my friends who don’t appreciate chicken liver or whisky.

From the list of main courses the sirloin with yoghurt and pita as well as smoked salmon with dried rose petals are all time favourites.

It all comes with an extensive wine list and an unusually knowledgeable and pretty good English speaking staff.

Cezayir, Hayriye Caddesi 12, Galatasaray; Beyoglu; Istanbul

Pure Eye Candy

Martin Selsoe — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:53:00 GMT

It’s beyond me what has happened to Turkish architecture over the last 100 years. Until the end of Ottoman empire Turkish-Ottoman architects build fabulous palaces, houses and mosques, but for the last century all but a few new constructions have only been build for their purpose and not for their beauty.

So even the most die hard visitor to Istanbul stands a chance of getting tired of all the ugly concrete and dirty, broken streets that happen to fill Istanbul.

When the fatigue hits me, I head out to Kanyon Mall, an architectural pearl a few metro stops from Taksim Square. Together with other Istanbullus craving for calm, coolness, soft curves and place to spend their buck, I window shop at the very pricey designer stores and then spend my lira at Wagamama or The Kitchenette restaurant, along side the westernised bankers and insurance brokers working in the vicinity.

Kanyon is the hyper modern Turkey that is just as much a part of the country as the sunny beaches and the sultan palace, but much less recognised.

Go Further:

Searching For Freezing: Finding The Mall

Next Time, Do Bring A Woman

Martin Selsoe — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:02:00 GMT

Navigation among the calling touts of Istanbul’s Nevizade area is not an easy thing to do. The selection of restaurants and bars is vast, and you don’t even have to look for fish and mezze to eat, or beer and raki to drink – they will look for you, thanks to the multi linguistic waiters.

Nevizade is very crowded on weekends, even by Istanbul standards, but not all the city’s nightlife is equally amusing. I usually head to Peyote, located on a side alley to the main street of Nevizade, where amusingly enough it’s not a question of managing a tout, but more to convince the doorman to actually let one in.

Peyote doesn’t accept men only groups or male individuals on weekends. They believe women will be able to control otherwise uncontrollable men, and don’t give a damn whether you are a regular, a foreigner, sober or well dressed. Guys only groups cannot enter. Period!

If you are a man who doesn’t have female company, you can try to sneak in with a group who does, or try to convince any female coming in or out or passing by, to accompany you through the door. Once inside the GT’s on the roof top terrace are a pleasant, but strong reward. It’s the genuine and relaxed atmosphere on the roof that has earned Peyote its name among Turks in their 20’ies and 30’ies and expat residents.

Peyote, Kalyoncukulluk Caddesi. No. 42, Beyoglu, Istanbul

Go further: Read Mashup Culture's guide to the best roof top bars (including Peyote) in Istanbul.

A Coffee In The Global Village

Martin Selsoe — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:48:00 GMT

When you roam the narrow, winding streets of Cukurcuma and zigzag between its many antique stores in search of dusty Ottoman glass ware, a retro lamp or a piece of Chinese porcelain you may very well crave for a good cup of coffee or a spicy tea.

In that case the tiny Kiki Cay Evi – Kiki Tea House – is a most welcome oasis with a great arm chair inside and a few tables outside on the street. The walls are tastily decorated with an intriguing mix of coloured tea pots, a red Swedish horse, an Indian relief carved in wood and all sorts of artefacts originating from just about all around the world.

Somehow the female owners have managed to arrange it so the tea house doesn’t look like a souvenir shop in the global village, but rather a very cosy and unique café, not only by Istanbul standards.

The Cukurcuma-district is well located between the touristy Beyoglu-district and the Bohemian Cihangir-district, but still Kiki is likely to remain a hidden oasis as only few people venture down this way.

Kiki Cay Evi; Faik Pasa Caddesi 30/A Cukurcuma

The Turkish Family You Didn't Know You Had

Martin Selsoe — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:10:00 GMT

’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

Go To Asia For Lunch

Martin Selsoe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:12:00 GMT

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

Istanbul's Proudest Belly Dancers

Martin Selsoe — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:59:00 GMT

To many Turks belly dancing is seen as a kind of striptease and thus not something for decent people to attend to. That’s probably why it’s mainly served to tourists when they flock the crowded restaurants in Istanbul’s Kumkapi-district or at so called ’oriental shows’ designed to give visitors a glimpse of Anatolia’s variety of cultures. That said, almost all Turkish women know how to do the belly dance, but they generally prefer to do so with out dressing up in a glittery bikini.

Should you wish to see really good belly dancers who seem to enjoy what they do (that is not always the case in Kumkapi) you would want to get your self a table at Al Jamal in Istanbul’s Macka-district.

The food is top notch Lebanese mezze, the décor is outrageously decadent and the belly dancers are the perfect fulfilment of any visitor’s dream of the Orient. Feel free to stuff your bank notes any where in their dresses and feel free to join the dancing at any time.

With a ’drinks included set menu’ this won’t be your cheapest night out in Istanbul, but it could be one of the best.

AL JAMAL; Taşkişla Cad. No: 13; Maçka Demokrasi Parkı Ici.

This Is Not What I Ordered

Martin Selsoe — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:37:00 GMT

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