You can eat very, very well in Istanbul. Even with zero language skills, the point-and-nod method can get you amazing kebabs, shwarma, roast chestnuts, the donut-shaped pastry known as simit, and enough baklava to put you in a honey coma. And the street food scene has excellent company with a handful of modern restaurants serving what they call New Istanbul, … Read More
Quick Snack: Cereal… with a Treat
Presented nearly without comment…. Methinks many people in this unnamed hotel in Antakya, Turkey, are NOT eating cereal. These flakes must be several years old. This bug is slightly newer, but had a very nice life in the plastic tube of breakfast-y goodness. Perhaps he ate himself to death. Thankfully, I saw him before I ate him. But there may … Read More
Kebab (of course!) and Baked Hummus in Adana
As our plane made its late-night descent into the Turkish town of Adana, I turned toward my seatmate, a young airplane mechanic who grew up here, in the Southern part of the country. “What’s the one thing I’ve got to eat while I’m in town?” I asked. “Adana Kebab, of course!” He replied. “It’s the best in the whole country. … Read More
Grazing Along the Turkey-Syria Border
The border between Turkey and Syria is 500 miles long, dotted by hundreds of little villages and anchored by small, fully-functioning cities (complete with airports). There’s plenty of street food: kebab stands, men slinging long footprints of cheese or meat-strewn pide (flatbreads), little storefronts and carts where you can grab a cone of chewy, dense Turkish ice cream for under fifty cents. … Read More