Norah and I love doing food tours and when we are visiting a new city we like to book a food tour for our first day. Not only do we love trying the foods and learning about the local culture, we also view it as an “orientation” to the city we’re visiting - it’s nice to get the lay of the land, ask our guide any questions we have about our trip, and to get recommendations. For Istanbul we settled on the company Culinary Backstreets and ended up doing two tours with them - both were excellent! The first tour we did was the Two Markets, Two Continents tour that explored both the European side (Karaköy) and the Asian side (Kadiköy) of Istanbul. The tour is a long one, about 6.5 hours, but we love having an immersive experience and we had enough days in Istanbul we could devote a day to this tour. I’m so glad we did - both of these tours were highlights of our time in Istanbul.

Today we started our tour in Karaköy, meeting our guide Ugur down by the fish market adjacent to the Galata Bridge. We walked through the alleyways selling fishing equipment, tools, and other hardware to reach Kursunlu Han. Kursunlu Han was a caravanserai built in the 1500s above the ruins of a church. A caravanserai was a roadside inn along trade routes that served as an inn, as well as a hub for commerce and trade. They had a central courtyard surrounded by rooms and shops for the merchants and artisans. Today Kursunlu Han is undergoing a transition with artisans setting up shop in the rooms. We met a few of the artisans as Ugur walked us around the courtyard and building before we settled outside a small tea shop. This was not a tea shop that served the public in general, but served the merchants in the building and area. Ugur showed us a small bucket of tokens, which are purchased in a set by the customers and used as payment for their tea. He pointed out this system is facilitated in the Grand Bazaar by the small boxes and wires we could see throughout (how the merchants place their order with the tea guy who will then deliver it).

We sat down to have traditional Turkish tea; a black tea served in a small tulip shaped glass with sugar cubes. Ugur had brought along another typical Turkish food: simit. Simit is a ring shaped bread coated with sesame seeds. This was our first time having simit, but definitely not our last - we saw vendors everywhere selling simit from their red carts and we often grabbed one as we were walking somewhere in the morning (we usually got ours with cheese). Ugur also brought along wild thyme, called Za'atar, for us to try. He said this was brought to Istanbul by the Syrian refugees as it is commonly used in their cuisine. It was no surprise that while we were here the cats found Norah - a cute little black and white cat made herself at home on her lap. Much to our delight, cats are everywhere in Istanbul and we had fun spotting them in various places during our trip.

Our next stop was another tea shop that normally just serves tea, but Ugur had a traditional Turkish breakfast laid out from a nearby restaurant. This was a cozy little spot to enjoy a delicious breakfast. This was my introduction to kaymak, a clotted cream made from water buffalo milk, and I loved it. It was served with honey and we also had rosehip and pomegranate jellies, olives, assorted cheese including tulum (which we would later see in its goatskin casing at the market), Turkish pastrami, biber salçasi; (Turkish red pepper paste), and bread. I loved this breakfast!

We had one more stop in Karaköy: Karaköy Güllüoglu. To get there we walked through cute side streets while Ugur pointed out various sights (there were quite a few streets with the hanging umbrellas). This is one of the premier baklava shops in Istanbul and it was already on my list to try, so I was happy we were stopping here. Ugur explained that locals don’t eat baklava for breakfast (although we did get to try a piece) and we instead ate börek, which is basically savory baklava. We had two varieties: meat and spinach/cheese and both were tasty.

By this point we were quite full on our three breakfasts, so it was good that we now had more time to walk around Karaköy as we made our way back to the docks to catch the ferry to Kadiköy. We had about thirty minutes on the ferry to take in the views and watch the sea gulls trailing the ferry. We were also pleasantly surprised to spot dolphins. When we disembarked at Kadiköy we headed straight for the market. We passed by the flower market, walked down the streets full of shops and stalls, and learned about some of the common vendors we were seeing (kokorec: sheep intestines and tane midye: mussels with rice inside) on our way to our first stop at Fazil Bey'in Türk Kahvesi. We got seats upstairs to drink traditional Turkish coffee and try the pudding Ugur picked up. The pudding was firm and sweet with some stringy texture and when we couldn’t guess what gave it that texture, Ugur revealed it was chicken breast. We were eating tavukgögsü, a traditional Turkish dish that has been around for a long time (it was served to Ottoman sultans in the Topkapi Palace). I definitely was not expecting that!

As we walked around the market Ugur pointed out various things; the tulum cheese ripening in its goatskin casing (this was one of the cheeses we had at breakfast), long strands of dried eggplants and peppers used for dolma (the Turkish love stuffing things), the offal store, a traditional lokantasi (a casual eatery serving home-style cooking cafeteria style, originally to tradesman and workers in the neighborhood), and seasonal goods like green almonds (I had never seen these before - they are immature almonds still in their fuzzy green casing). We stopped at Özcan Tursu for pickles and I wish I could’ve taken some tahin and grape molasses with me (aka the goods for a Turkish pb&j).

Now it was time to commence the “lunch” portion of the tour (we definitely were not lacking for food on this tour!). We first had seafood at Balikçi; Lokantasi. The highlight was a fish casserole with scorpionfish, peppers, and onions that made us think of it as fish fajitas - it was very good! We also had fried fish (I think it was mackerel?), salad, and some dips.

The next stop at Kalkanoglu Pilavcisi Kadiköy was really a delightful surprise. They serve rice, beans, and beef kavurma (roasted beef) - which sounds deceptively simple - but it was so delicious. The key? The pilaf is made from bone broth with marrow and ample amounts of butter. Specifically Trabzon butter that originates in the Yakçukur area in the province of Trabzon on the Black Sea. Trabzon is also where the family business has been based for 160 years, going back to the chief pilaf maker of Sultan Abdulmecit in Istanbul who returned to his hometown to open a shop. The owner of the Kadiköy shop is fifth generation and opened his location in recent years and his brother runs a shop in Beyoglu (we ended up eating there too a few nights later - we loved the dish so much). This was one of my favorite stops, partly because it was unexpected.

We still weren’t done with lunch - we had another stop at Borsam Tasfirin Bahariye. Here we shared pide and lahmacun, two different types of Turkish flatbreads with toppings. Pide has a thicker crust and often cheese with its toppings whereas lahmacun is very thin and crispy and has a minced meat topping, finished with cilantro, freshly squeezed lemon, and red chili flakes. Both are very common in Türkiye and both are delicious. We weren’t as fond of Ayran, the salted yogurt drink that is everywhere in Türkiye.

We had one last stop for ice cream at Yasar Usta'nin Sorbe & Dondurmasi;. The ice cream was creamy and flavorful - I had pomegranate and banana and Norah tried pomegranate and a cookie flavor. A sweet ending to a terrific food tour! I really loved our day - I felt we had authentic experiences, got to try a variety of dishes, and learned a lot about food in Istanbul. Ugur was a fantastic guide and this was a great way to start off our trip.

After our tour we walked around the market more and stopped to pick up some Turkish treats. When we saw the furry looking pismaniye we were intrigued and had to buy it (I thought they looked like miniature tribbles, lol). Although it is sometimes called Turkish cotton candy, pismaniye is made differently than cotton candy and is denser. It was weird to bite into it thinking it would be cotton candy, then finding a different taste. The different flavor is from the flour browned in butter that is incorporated into pismaniye. I thought it was fine, but definitely prefer baklava.

We rode the ferry back to the European side and made our way back to our hotel. There was a small grocery store a block from our hotel that we stopped at nearly every night to get water or snacks. This night there were two guys selling fresh pressed orange and pomegranate juice outside and we were happy to buy some. Especially in Cappadocia we would often see people selling fruit juice and I always liked to get a cup of orange and pomegranate mixed. In Istanbul it was also common to see carts selling freshly roasted chestnuts and corn (in addition to the aforementioned simit).

Our trip was off to a great start!