Eating Istanbul in 21 days

As in much of the Middle East, real Turkish family cooking is the preserve of the home and with the exception of upscale restaurants, eating out is the domain of men. There can be no better indoctrination into working-class Istanbulli society than to sit cheek-by-jowl with bus drivers scoffing kebabs and köfte or slurping bowls of garlicky braised vegetables with the local men’s club on a break from smoking and playing cards.

For a dizzying glimpse of Istanbul’s modern side - head to the northern hipster neighbourhoods of Cihangir, Çukurcuma and Nisantasi for rosewater cocktails or goat’s milk and tahini ice cream.

The following guide is the result of three weeks’ scouring the streets of Istanbul. From a crude barbecue peddling fresh mackerel sandwiches to a centuries old milk shop where old men breakfast on crusty bread spread with kaymak and honey one needs only to walk a few paces in any direction here to find something delicious.

Kaymak and honey

Modern Istanbul

You didn’t come to Istanbul to sip gin and tonics and surround yourself with Euro-wannabes but if its your first time to Middle East, the places below are a soft landing before you dig deep and get your hands dirty with the real Turkey:

Changa and Muzdechanga: Still going strong after 10 years, the menus at ultra-modern Changa and Muzdechanga are created under the watchful eye of Kiwi chef Peter Gordon. Peter Gordon was the founding father of London’s fusion movement as head chef of iconic restaurant The Sugar Club so you can expect creative modern interpretations of Turkish food with lots of surprises. Start off with a Turkish caipirinha made with Bodrum tangerines and bergamot.

Siraselviler Caddesi 47, Taksim and Sakip Sabanci Caddesi 22, Emirgan

Mikla: Owned by Mehmet Gurs, a Finnish-Turk with an obsession for good ingredients, Mikla is located on the rooftop of the Marmara Pera hotel with sweeping views of the Golden Horn and the Bosporus. Mehmet has recently hired one of my dear friends to spend months scouring the Turkey countryside to source produce for the restaurant so you can expect to find only the best quality ingredients being used in the kitchen.

Mesrutiyet Caddesi Tepebasi

Limonlu Bahçe: Winding up the hill to Galatasaray square you’ll notice a small, nondescript sign for Limonlu Bahçe - the lemon garden. Feeling like an intruder as you grope your way through the dark corridors what looks like someone’s townhouse, you eventually reappear in a beautiful garden cafe full of lemon trees. A great place to sip a fresh lemonade and escape the heat.

Yeniçarsi Caddesi 98, Galatasaray

Ciya

Pure Turkish

Çiya: A small collection of three restaurants owned by Musa Dagdeviren, Çiya is a must for anyone visiting Istanbul. Musa is renowned in Turkey as a 'culinary anthropologist' due to his extensive work in travelling across small villages in Turkey and eating with families and recording their recipes. The walls of his restaurants lined with jars of homemade pickled walnuts, chunks of pumpkin and quince in syrup and there are pots of some of Çiya’s repertoire of over 300 recipes of rural Turkish home cooking bubbling away on the stove. You’ll taste ingredients and food here that you won’t find anywhere else including many of the 'forgotten dishes' that Musa is actively resurrecting through his work and travels.

Güneslibahce Sk 43, Kadiköy

Claypot baked rice in a dough crust

Siirt Seref Büryan Kebap Salonu: Forget Texas and the deep South, when it comes to pit barbecue it’s the Kurdish who have been masters for generations. Located in a predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Istanbul, this restaurant specialises in only 3 things - pit roast sheep, claypot baked rice in a dough crust, and lots of fluffy hand-stretched flatbreads to mop it all up with. Wash it down with a copper mug full of their house-made ayran (salted drinking yoghurt) and pat your stomach full of mutton before heading out into the square for tea in one of the many tea salons.

Itfaiye Caddesi 4, Fatih

Canteens and kebabs (Lokantasi, Köfteci and Kebap Salonu)

The old-world, cobbled neighbourhoods of Fener, Fatih, Balat and Kasimpasa are all great areas to explore on foot and uncover the blue-collar canteens, köftecis and lokantasis that keep everyday Istanbullis alive and fed.

Memorise a little Turkish, take a deep breath and head straight for the kitchen where the chefs will happily show you what is available that day and let you point out your selection.

Köfteci Arnavut: Mürselpasa Caddesi 139, Balat

Doyuran Lokantasi: Ordekli Bakkal Sok. 10, Kumkapi

Kastamonu Sultan Köftecisi: Leblebciler Sokak 14 Balat

Soup shops (Çorbasi)

Turkish soup shops are an institution. Most are open 24 hours a day and are perfect for a late night feast, early breakfast or surefire hangover cure. This is the kind of food that your granny would have made for you. Try iskembe (tripe soup with garlic and vinegar), mercimek (red lentil soup with melted chile butter) and kalle paça (sheep head and foot soup).

Sehrazat Iskembe Salonu: Muallim Naci Caddesi 51a, Besiktas

Lale Iskembecisi: Tarlabasi Bulvari. No: 13 , Taksim

Meshur Balat Iskembe Salonlari: Mürselpasa Caddesi 273, Balat

Meshur Fetih Iskembe Solonlari: Leblebiciler S 14, Balatkarabas M. Fatih

Apik Iskembe - Dereboyu Caddesi 79, Dolapdere

Hasan Fehmi Özsüt

Milk bars (Muhallebicisi)

Ditch your lactose intolerance and surrender to Turkish milk bars. Many have their own flocks of cows, goats and water buffaloes that supply the milk that goes into the puddings, clotted cream, ice cream and impossibly thick yoghurts that many of these family-run places have been making for over a century.

Most muhallebicisi will sell you their own milk and products by the kilo and can be persuaded to ladle yoghurt into takeaway cups drizzled with honey that you can take and enjoy while you ride around on ferries all day.

Özkonak: Akarsu Caddesi 60, Cihangir

Hasan Fehmi Özsüt: Yemisçi Hasan Sk. No: 9/1, Karaköy

Besiktas Kaymakci: Koyici Meydani Sk, Besiktas

Boris’in Yeri: Ordekli Bakkal Sk. 17, Kumkapi

Sweet shops (Sekerleme)

Forget those plastic wrapped boxes of Turkish Delight being peddled to tourists along Istiklal Caddesi and head to a proper Turkish sweet shop. As soon as you cross the squeaky wooden threshold and set your eyes on the slabs of halva, glass jars filled with spoon sweets and trays lade out with sugar dusted lokum, you can unleash your own Charlie in the Chocolate Factory fantasies. The Turkish are generous with giving samples so taste a little of everything before you make your selection.

Itimat Sekerleme: Kantarcilar Kibleçesme Caddesi 112, Eminönü

Coffee houses and hidden tea gardens (Kahvehane and Çay Bahçe)

Mekteb cafe

Drinking tiny cups of ‘black mud’ and glasses of strong, sweet tea is a national sport in Turkey and Istanbullis devote several hours each day to nursing a cuppa with family and friends. On summer nights the city is overrun with outdoor çay bahçe (tea gardens), many of which stay open past midnight and fill with the musical sounds of tinkling glasses, careful slurping and the crunching of patrons working their way through paper cones of nuts and sunflower seeds.

Inci Cafe: One of Istanbul’s best kept secrets! Take the ferry to Kasimpasa and walk left along the waterfront behind a collection of military buildings and you’ll find signs for this cafe and watersports centre. Order tea and a narghile pipe and sit back and watch the local rowing teams gliding up and down the Golden Horn. Get here just before dusk for the best sunset view of Istanbul.

Denizcilik Spor Kulübü Tesisleri Tersane Yolu Camii Kebir Sk 62, Kasimpasa

Mekteb-i Cafe: This corner cafe is the perfect spot to get a sense of the magical, ‘frozen in time’ neighbourhoods of Fener and Balat and to taste the best coffee in Istanbul. Located on the ground floor of a woman’s house, this adorable cafe is decked out with lace and antiques and has just two wooden tables on the street outside. Ümran, the owner makes the coffee in a copper ibrik (a Turkish coffee pot with a long handle) and pours it at your table. A tea or coffee here is a perfect way to energise before exploring the surrounding warren of cobbled streets or to watch Fener street life as locals congregate on the opposite street corner and chide each other about football.

Akçin Sok. No: 3/A, Fener

Cafe Pembe Kösk: A fantastically rickety, fun, open air cafe on the top floor of a wooden house high on the hill in Balat, this quirky cafe has great music, backgammon sets, narghile pipes and fantastic views of the Golden Horn districts and the nearby Haliç Bridge. When you walk in you might stumble upon the young owners watching tv in their living room - if there’s something good on they’ll invite you to find a spot on the couch and have your coffee with them!

Ahmet Rufai Sk, Balat

Giritli Idlilika: A tiny cafe with handpainted wooden furniture, this is a great place to while away hours playing backgammon and reading underneath the awning of grapevines in the shadow of the Firuzaga mosque.

Behind Firuzaga mosque, off Aga Hamami Sokagi

Moda Seafront: Not a cafe as such, the Moda seafront fills with young locals and families who gather on the boulders each evening to watch the magnificent sunset over Sultanahmet. Buy a tea, coffee or ice cold Efes from the peddlers who patrol the promenade and a packet of roasted chickpeas and you have the makings of a wonderful evening.

Take the ferry to Kadiköy and turn right walking along the seafront past the large yellow ‘balloon’ cafe to the Moda promenade. Find yourself some rocks and let the tea vendors come to you.

Secret Carpark Tea Garden: This Eminönü hideaway, sandwiched between a ferry dockyard and a construction site is worth seeking out. Set up by some enterprising Kurdish guys in a car park for ferry employees, this tea garden made up of a dozen tables and chairs has some of the best views of the Bosporus. Wander to the end of the Gulhane Park behind the Topkapi Palace until you come to the end at Kennedy Caddesi. Walk along the seafrontside of the road and watch out for a car park on your right hand side. Look for a crude hand-written sign saying ‘ Çay Bahçesi’ and follow it until you arrive at the tea garden.

Live like a local: food markets

Kasimpasa Kastamonu Pazari

While eating out is all fine and good - if you really want to go local, rent yourself an apartment or splash out a few lira for a portable Turkish barbecue and you’ll have all the tools you need to explore the local markets. Here are some of the better ones:

Kasimpasa Kastamonu Pazari: A chef friend in Istanbul tipped me off on this early Sunday morning market which has to be one of the most unique in Istanbul. A group of farmers from the province of Kastamonu in the Black Sea region fill their trucks with fresh picked fruit and vegetables, wild mushrooms, homemade cheeses and jams, and ornate loaves of stone baked bread and load it into their vans to sell at this weekly market. A great chance to rub elbows with some of the city’s top chefs and enthusiastic foodies who gather at the market’s start at 5AM to pick through the best products.

The market is in a small car park in the Kasimpasa district, on Piyalepasha Boulevard, just behind the first Shell station on the right hand side heading north. Every Sunday from 5am to 10 am.

Fatih Çarsamba Market

Fatih Çarsamba Market: An enormous, rough and tumble market selling clothing, household gadgets, seasonal fruit, vegetables, eggs and nuts. This market is so huge that it the council employs 16 garbage trucks to clean up afterwards. Almost completely free of tourists, this is great opportunity to enjoy the feel of a bustling, weekly Istanbul market. The surrounding streets are filled with delis and butchers selling cured salamis, pastirma, cheese, yoghurts and honey. Ignore the vendors claiming ‘indirim yok’ (no discounts) and haggle away.

Along Fatih Caddesi just behind the Fatih Mosque on Wednesdays from 5am to 9pm

Galatasaray Balik Pazari: An admittedly touristy and overpriced market whose main purpose is to sell farmed seabass and defrosted calamari rings to clueless tourists in its myriad of restaurants, there are still a few old school fishmongers among the crowds. Scout hard and you’ll unearth wild seabass and turbot from the Black Sea and gilt-head bream from the Aegean, all at a fraction of London prices. The fishmongers will be a little shocked to see you buying anything so catch them off-guard and net yourself a bargain.

Mesrutiyet Caddesi, off Istiklal Caddesi

Street food

Istanbul is a city of street food. You can scarcely walk for tripping over vendors’ carts while lopsided trucks trundle the streets selling mackerel sandwiches, roasted chickpeas and chewy Turkish ice cream. Nearly every street has a wood-fired oven selling oval-shaped, bubbling pides and flatbreads spread with spicy lamb or sweetened tahini to take away.

Here’s an overview of some of the best and tastiest street food snacks to watch out for:

Lahmacun: A thin crisp, pizza-like dough topped with a spicy lamb mixture and eaten rolled up with a squeeze of lemon, a freshly baked lahmacun is one of the tastiest things you can eat. At lunchtime in Istanbul you can scarcely see a taxi driver without one - usually alternating between mouthfuls of lahmacun and long drags of pungent Turkish cigarettes.

Pide: Every street has its local 'pide salonu' where the dough master rolls and shapes mouthwatering oval-shaped pide breads and fills them with lamb, sujuk (a spicy Turkish sausage), cheese and eggs and expertly slides then straight onto the stone oven floor with a scorched wooden paddle. Cut into slices, these are the perfect snack to take to the beach. Watch for the crafty Turkish women who bring their own fillings and get a stack of several dozen pide baked for their Sunday family picnics.

Tahinli: Either shaped into spirals or baked as flatbreads, nothing is more delicious than these flaky treats spread with layers of tahini, yoghurt and sugar and baked until bubbling.

Fried Mussels with Tarator: Visit any of Istanbul’s fish markets and follow the thick scent of oil to find stalls frying skewers of mussels and pushing them into soft rolls with a thick drizzle of garlicky tarator sauce.

Simit: Simit are Turkey’s answer to the bagel. A sesame encrusted bread ring peddled everywhere by street vendors who sell it from carts or baskets perched high on their heads, a simit is the perfect hunger killer eaten either alone or dunked into a glass of ayran, Turkey’s national drink of salted yoghurt.

Balik Ekmek: It is impossible to cross the Galata Bridge without noticing the teems of boats selling barbecued mackerel sandwiches. While the fish are more likely to be pulled from Norwegian freezer boxes than caught locally in the Bosporus, they still make for the quintessential Istanbul lunch while strolling along the waterfront.

Dondurma: A thick, chewy ice cream made with sahlep (ground orchid root) and mastic gum (a kind of pine resin), a good Turkish dondurma can be eaten with a knife and fork. Worked it by hand with a long paddle, dondurma sellers show off the quality of their ice cream by suspending it from a stick to show that it has been made with lots of sahlep and gum which give it a stronger flavour and keep it from melting in the intense Turkish summer heat.

Jennifer Klinec runs a cooking school in London called Eat Drink Talk and writes a twice-monthly newsletter called 'Yum' with recipes, tips and travel guides. She's also released the first of a new series of cooking applications for the iPhone and iPod touch; click here to download an app for lighter than air flatbreads.