Another interesting day in Istanbul. Combine the fact that many businesses are closed in the "old" section of the city with stricter than typical eating restrictions for
Ramazan (especially so at restaurants away from the tourist haunts) and one challenge after another line up daring you to supersede them.
After sleeping late and hanging around my hotel room until after noon I set-out to visit yet another of the historic mosques - that of
Suleyman the Magnificent . . . which was, for the most part, off-limits due to major renovations. The walk to the mosque was a couple of miles, after which I walked maybe 3.5 miles to locate a restaurant that features Uighur food, but to my dismay, after finally locating the community center housing the small restaurant I found it closed.
So, off I was for an additional mile or so walk until, like finding an oasis in a desert, I found my “Plan B” - the pocket of the city where its Kurdish community centers itself –
Kandinlar Pazarii, a lively plaza and surrounding neighborhood off the beaten path enough for just about all foreign tourists to be uninterested. The search was worth the effort, though.
Kandinlar PazariiPeople moving back and forth at the busy plaza marketplace - maybe one of the busiest Sunday markets in the old section of the city - were more surprised to see someone such as I than I was to see such a beehive of activity as they created. I was warmly welcomed with broad smiles, children and some adults trying-out the few words of English they knew, some joking at my expense by teen-aged boys, etc.
Because of
Ramazan, restaurants were not going to serve any meals until 8 p.m. I was there at 4:40 p.m. and since I hadn't had breakfast, or lunch, I was hungry after all of the walking. I didn't even see anyone drinking tea. Folks were either shopping or sitting and waiting for the next call to prayers at the mosque, or otherwise killing time until evening
Iftar. An ambitious restaurant waiter spotted me, though, and speaking reasonably good English asked me if I wanted to have something to eat at his restaurant. I asked if I could sit at a sidewalk table and he said "No" because passersby would get angry if they saw me eating (and the restaurant serving) before 8 p.m. Not to worry, though, because the restaurant has a second floor dining area where meals are served out-of-sight. I considered waiting until 8 p.m. and walked around some more, but there's only so much one can do to kill time and I went back to the restaurant to have my meal.
Restaurant Sur Ocakbasi –at the heart of Istanbul’s Kurdish CommunityI'd learned of this neighborhood from an article appearing on the
Istanbul Eats website. The restaurant featured in that article didn't interest me after seeing the upscale nature of the place (new location, new building, very modern, slick, etc. and not serving until 8, under any circumstance they told me). There must be 30/40 restaurants with sidewalk seating bordering the narrow, rectangular park. The entire square is probably only 1/4 mile long.
Perde PilavI'd never heard of
perde pilav before this trip. Rice pilaf with nuts and chicken and spices baked in a thin pastry shell - an unusual addition to my prior selections of "pot pie." Though the pilav lacked moisture, I enjoyed it. The meal included large chunks of what appeared to be chicken breast.
Büryan KebapBüryan kebap is what draws the Kurds to most of these plaza restaurants - you see them (Büryan) advertised throughout. Restaurant customers eat them like people in Chicago eat hot dogs, tacos or White Castle hamburgers. The Istanbul Eats article (
http://istanbuleats.com/2009/06/siirt-seref-buryan-kebap-salonu-the-lamb-underground/) describes the meat and cooking process better than I could/can and what I experienced was similar to the description therein.
A nice relish tray, including sliced onions, pickled cabbage, a tomato/cucumber salad and an eggplant relish accompanied the meal.
I had little if any idea of what
Turkish food consisted of prior to this visit. But thus far I've learned that it's something as difficult to define as contemporary
American food is - a great mixture of many cultures and regions. Today I tasted the Kurdish side of the equation.
Sur Ocakbasi RestaurantItfaiye Caddesi No. 27
Faith, Istanbul
Tel: (0212) 533-80-88