I’ve been to Istanbul recently with my family, and I want to share with you, a brief of what to do and eat in Istanbul.
Well, you didn’t hear from me the last three weeks, because I had the chance to visit Istanbul. I couldn’t write new posts, or new recipes after all what I had! And I desperately needed other few days for rest, after the crazy hectic days in Istanbul.
I’m not a travel blogger, but my trip to Istanbul was phenomenal, and I thought it’s worth sharing with you. It’s a great city for foodies, since everything there is so yummy. I regret that I didn’t bring the professional camera with me. I wanted this trip to be pure fun, and I had no intentions to post this recap, since I didn’t want to worry about the photos quality. But everything was so beautiful, and needed to be documented. Mobile photos don’t do justice to this city, so lesson is learned the hard way. However I still want to share with you, what you need to know about Istanbul and what to eat too.
Why I loved Istanbul
I can say that Istanbul is a cosmopolitan city, that has a mix of Islamic old mosques, and other European buildings especially with ones with french style. The area “Takism” where we stayed, is a very active one, and almost doesn’t sleep. Most of the buildings have same length, and structure. but you can see a different style on the other side of the street, especially hotels. Some people find this annoying, but I believe that this what gives this city it’s beauty, uniqueness and identity. This city is authentic, and have soul in it.
It’s the largest city in turkey, and among 25 urban areas in the world. Also I love that is so easy to move around and within the city for affordable prices . It’s very clean even when some areas are very crowded, and you can see up in the photo, the bosphorus strait, that looks so beautiful with a great color, even it’s in the middle of the city, now that’s kudos to Istanbul for moderate pollution level.
Where to go in Istanbul
If you are a foodie or museum fanatic, you will enjoy your trip. Unfortunately, this time I couldn’t explore museums as I usually do with my husband. I was with my family and my son, and it was hard to keep my kid under control with the vast crowded streets especially in the old region (Sultan ahmet) of museums and mosques. But blue mosque, hagia sophia, and topkapi palace are the top places there . However the food there adds such a pleasure. Bazaars , and farmer markets are must to go too.
This was in the Atras , a small opened bazaar in the “Sultan ahmet” area. It has local products of Istanbul , like traditional delights, cotton clothes. linens, and shawls.
We went to Borsa, a large city that is one and half hour away from Istanbul. We went by ferry, it was a good one, but a little bit slow, it took us two hours to arrive Borsa. This was in the farmer market, it was late afternoon, as you the sun is hiding, but it was busy one with so many fresh fruits and vegetables, and local olives and cheese.
And here is the famous teleferik in Borsa, which is really high, I’m not good with numbers, but the view was quite fascinating. I regret that I didn’t do the final ride, where the cable car touches the clouds as I’ve heard. For me, when we stopped to rest, it was fun, but little cold for me. I started to feel dizzy, because it was too high, and we just continues to go down again by teleferik.
What to eat in Istanbul
What I ate mostly was traditional food like bread (simit) , Kabab (Kebap), yogurt, bulgur, fresh orange juice and pomegranate, local cheese, local ice cream, grilled fresh corn, and local chestnut, baklava, and lots of Turkish tea.
As Turkish cuisine is rich of different pastries like borek, I found most of them are poor with fillings, and has so many layers of dough that tastes like plain pasta. However, they do love fill pastries with Nutella, some were really good and some has poor taste. I might be biased, I’m not a bread person, and I might not chose good shops.
I loved that the platters are healthy, let’s say you order kbab, you won’t find fries on the side, or some white- mayonnaise based dip, but bulgur, grilled tomatoes, yogurt, or mashed eggplant, or some kind of salad. But I was disappointed not to see authentic salads , just some assortment of veggies with no clear identity.
Here in the photo: Frothy yogurt (Ayran) , Knafeh made on charcoal, chestnut still in it’s shell, and some local soups and stews, healthy and very tasty.
Desserts
Many traditional Arabic sweets comes from Turkish origin. The one is to die for is “baklava” and many pistachio dough based sweets. While most desserts are drenched in sugar syrup, they are totally worth it, especially that Istanbul is generous with long clean streets to walk in for several miles without being bored.
Real baklava looks million times better than this, but I’m sorry I didn’t get a decent photo
Here is the number one sweet shop, that you must go and buy some bakllava, and be sure to visit before noon , or you won’t find any!
Remember in my post Arabic sahlab drink I mentioned that a chef and food writer had the real tubers of sahlab that she got from turkey. Well, I thought it’s hard to find, but I found them in the famous Misri Bazaar (Egyptian bazaar) well they are kind of expensive, but you suppose to use just a little. I didn’t use them yet, I’m gonna wait colder days, to warm up with real sahlab. Here is a photo for long necklaces of dried sahlab flower, and I will add a better photo soon.
What to buy
Fresh local cheese, sweets, dried fruits, chestnut, and spices. I found some sweets that didn’t stay very fresh with travel like nouga unfortunately. but lokums and baklava stay fresh well. So aim for more dry form stuff to carry, and east as many you can fresh stuff. Don’t forget to walk and run if possible, to burn the massive calories!
I might be exaggerated, but I fell in love with Istanbul, and I can’t wait to go back again! It was an unforgettable trip! Istanbul should be your next destination!
