One of our favorite experiences from our trip to Turkey was our walking food tour with Istanbul on Food - Taste of Two Continents Tour.
After a long day of traveling from Texas we arrived in Istanbul, checked into our hotel & headed straight to dinner. We went to a little sidewalk cafe & upon being handed the extensive menu we looked at each other & said "What the heck do we order?" Even though the menu was in English we were still so lost as to what each dish actually was. We proceeded to ask the very patient & kind waiter what many of the dishes were & settled on ordering a couple different entrees to try. After our first ordering experience we realized how thankful we were to be going on a food tour the following day.
Our first full day in Istanbul we chose to spend it by going on a 7 hour food tour called the Taste of Two Continents. This was absolutely the best decision we made! Not only did it help us learn the lay of the land from walking to each of our 10 stops we also learned about many Turkish dishes & were able to sample them to know whether or not we would like to order them again. This was our first ever food tour & we loved it so much that we plan on trying to find similar experiences when we travel to new cities & cultures. We truly believe that food is one of the best ways to immerse yourself in a new country as food is so integral to customs, traditions & culture.
Istanbul is such a unique city in the fact that it spans onto two separate continents. The Old City which is the historic heart of Istanbul is on the Europe side & Kadıköy, the more residential area, is on the Asia side. Most tourists never leave the European side of Istanbul & go exploring on the Asia side even though they are simply separated by a 20 minute ferry ride across the Bosphorus. Our tour started at 9am on the Eurpoean side of Istanbul & we met our guide Ibrahim and the other five people who would be enjoying the tour with us. We loved that the tour is capped at seven people so you have a much more personal experience. After everyone was gathered we set off for our first stop of the day: Turkish breakfast.
Stop 1: Turkish Breakfast
I am someone who can eat American breakfast for any meal of the day & I now can say I would happily add Turkish breakfast to that same sentiment. This became my favorite Turkish cuisine & I made sure to never miss it during our entire trip. Also a little fun fact: we found it to be pretty standard at Turkish hotels that your room rate included a breakfast buffet.
Anyway, back to the tour! After meeting Ibrahim we walked to the edge of the spice market and picked up some of the components of our delicious breakfast spread from various vendors. Then we stopped at a food cart & grabbed some Simits. A Simit is a crispy, circular bread topped with sesame seeds. It is very similar to a bagel & they are sold out of food carts all over Istanbul. This became my favorite Turkish food from the whole trip & the best part is they typically cost 1-2 Turkish Lira or about $0.20 in American currency. Cheap & delish!
After gathering all of the breakfast goodies we walked into a park where a set table was waiting for us. Upon sitting down, other Turkish men arrived with the hot dishes for the meal including Menemen. Menemen is scrambled eggs with tomatoes & green peppers. We laid out the rest of items which included :
clotted cream & honey (bal & kaymak)... so delicious as well
hazelnut cream spread (findik ezmesi)... basically Nutella without the chocolate
dried beef similar to prosciutto (pastrami)
goat's milk cheese (tulum peyniri) ... similar to feta
cow & sheep's milk cheese (ezine peyniri)
olives (zeytin)... the roasted ones were the best
three nut butter spread ... like a chunky version of nut butters you find in the grocery store
And of course no meal in Turkey is complete without Turkish tea. Turkey is responsible for about 10% of the world's tea production. On average, a Turk will drink 15 - 20 cups a day and tea is the drink of choice when it comes to hot beverages.
Knowing we had nine more stops for the remainder of the tour was the only thing that kept us from filling our plates for seconds. With already full & happy stomachs we were off to stop #2 for the day.
PS: My favorite way to enjoy a simit is to break it apart & dip it into the findik ezmesi (the hazelnut cream). It can not be that good for you but who cares when you are on vacation.
Stop 2: Lamb Soup
Thinking we would have some time in between our stops we were hoping that our stomachs would have a break to digest but after wrapping up breakfast we walked for about 5 minutes & had arrived at our next stop. We were served lamb soup which takes 12 hours to prepare. While I enjoyed the taste, it was not my favorite dish and I wanted to leave room for the other goodies in store so I let Spencer finish the remainder of my soup. He really liked it & said it was one of his favorite dishes we tried.
Stop 3: Lokum
Into the famous Spice Market we went! Not only is the building beautiful itself, upon entering you are surrounded by vivid color & smells. Every where you look are baskets full of vibrant colored spices, more spices than you even knew existed!
We walked down the main corridor & headed into one of the stalls that sold lokum (turkish delight). We learned that there are two types of turkish delight & one of them is considered to be more high end than the other. The only other time I had seen turkish delight was in the film The Chronicles of Narnia and come to found out the kind portrayed in the film is the type that is considered cheap. Which I guess makes sense, since in the film the queen that serves the turkish delight is ultimately trying to kill Edmund so why pull out the expensive version for your enemies. The "cheap" kind looks like little jelly squares covered in powder sugar. Ibrahim taught us that if you bring this version to someone's home it can actually be insulting to the host because you are sending a message that they are not worth the expensive version. The version that is considered acceptable to give looks like a rolled up cinnamon roll before you slice it to bake it. It comes in a wide variety of flavors that include fruit, nuts, or floral flavors. The most traditional flavors are pistachio, hazelnut, rosewater & orange blossom.
Before coming to Turkey, I always thought that Turkish delight did not look like something I would enjoy for dessert. However, after trying the real deal, I am happy to report that it is way better than I would have imagined. We even brought some home for our family to try so they could experience what it is supposed to taste like. And don't worry we purchased the high end version for them!
Stop 4: Iskender
After leaving the Spice Market we caught a ferry to venture over to the Asia side of Istanbul. After landing in Kadıköy, it was so evident that this was where people actually did life and was not catered towards tourists or designed to be a tourist trap. Ibrahim even mentioned that we could explore on our own on this side & not have to worry about being upcharged for a mediocre meal because we were tourists. Truly we found that the better food was on this side of the river & was more authentic hence why the majority of the tour took place on the Asia side of Istanbul.
Up next was kebabs, a dish that is most often associated with Turkish cuisine. Kebabs, or iskender (as they are called in Turkish), is like pizza to Italy or tacos to Mexico. Because of this there are restaurants a dime a dozen that serve kebabs but that doesn't mean all of them are great. To experience great kebabs why not go to the place that invented them!
Kebapçı Iskender is still run by family members of Iskander who in the late 19th century took roasted lamb to new heights by turning the spit upright – the modern vision of döner – and shaving the meat over chopped pita bread, adding a hot tomato sauce and serving with melted butter. Ultimately naming the dish after himself it is now one of the most popular Turkish dishes around.
Stop 5: All things pickled
When you think of Turkish cuisine, I never thought of pickled food but it is very popular. We tried pickled olives, carrots, garlic and of course took a shot of straight pickle juice!
Stop 6: Ciya Sofrasi
Ciya is the restaurant I would most recommend visiting when visiting Istanbul! It was even featured on Netflix's Chef's Table series. We watched this episode & it gave us so much more insight into the mission of the restaurant & its owner.
We got to try a wide variety of dishes while here but my favorite was a dish served of cherries & kebab meat served over some bread that was soaked in the cherry sauce! So different than anything else we tried and so tasty! It was like you were eating home cooked food but in a local restaurant!
Stop 7: Midye
Next up was a food cart with stools & a bar to eat at that was absolutely packed when we showed up. I had never tried midye (mussels) before so I was not sure what exactly to expect but they were actually pretty good! They had two kinds, regular or spicy. Both were served with a little bit of rice & a slice of lemon to squeeze on top. Ibrahim told us that this was the late night food of Istanbul. If you have been out drinking this is what people eat to help sober back up.
Stop 8: Baklava
Out of the two choices of dessert in Turkey, turkish delight or baklava, I would choose baklava. We tried 4 different flavors of baklava - traditional, pistachio, hazelnut and pistachio with cream. Our favorite was the hazelnut! We went to Bilgeoglu Baklava and I would say it was the best baklava that we tried out of the whole trip. Other places we tried, had a much more dry version which resulted in less flavor but at Bilgeoglu it was perfect!
Stop 9: Kokoreç & Ayran
After dessert it was back to a main course of lamb (kokoreç) and a drink of ayran. Ayran is made from yoghurt, water and salt and served chilled with a light foam on top. It kind of reminded us of Butter Beer in Harry Potter. It is one of Turkey’s most common drinks and has even been promoted as their non-alcoholic national drink. Unfortunately, it was not our favorite. We love salty things but even this was too much for us.
Kokoreç is basically lamb intestines wrapped around a little bit of meat on a skewer and grilled over a charcoal fire. It is one of the most popular street foods of Turkey. It is served with salt, oregano, cumin, and spicy red pepper flakes sprinkled on top. We both tried it & it wasn't our favorite dish but it also wasn't the worst!
Stop 10: Dondurma
Who doesn't want to end their day with ice cream! Turkish ice cream (dondurma) is a little different than western style ice cream because you eat it with a knife & fork. It tastes just like normal ice cream but it is stickier & thicker due to the addition of a special type of powdered orchid bulb. It also does not melt near as quick! We tried vanilla, chocolate and pistachio. The chocolate was my favorite!
After all 10 stops of our food tour we were sufficiently full, happy, and more educated about the foods of Istanbul! We even returned the following day to the market to pick up the hazelnut cream spread & nut butter to take home with us because we couldn't stop thinking about them!
We received a media rate for the tour, but we would not hesitate to recommend The Taste of Two Continents Tour for anyone visiting Istanbul for the first time - this is the best food tour in Istanbul and is well worth every penny. The tour takes place every day rain or shine & they tend to sell out early so make sure to book ahead to guarantee your spot! Trust, us you will not regret it!
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