Sunday, August 16, 2009

Istanbul: my turkish food-oliday..

5 o’clock in the morning the Turkish Airlines flight took off(an hour late).. I sat in it excited on the beginning of my second visit to Europe. In my last trip, I had been a perfect tourist and had done a lot of sightseeing but in the food department, had stuck essentially to Indian food or sandwiches. In this trip the first point in the agenda was experiencing the local food. So enjoy the food accounts. So there I was on the flight. I had stopped my sleep till 5am and was walking like a zombie as I had boarded the flight. As soon as I sat down, I fell asleep. Just after the plane took off my sleep was rudely disturbed by the airhostess who bought the drinks. The attitude of the flight attendants was very cold. The airhostess’s were indifferent and the air stewards were uninterested. Then again as soon as I fell into a deep sleep, she came and woke me up for snacks.. snacks?? 5:30 in the morning!!! They served sandwich with a thick bar of feta cheese. This is a very namkeen cheese, dint like it much. Then again I tried to sleep but in some time, the air hostess again woke me up to fill some health form. And then few minutes later; to give me the night cap and head phones (they dint even switch on the music throughout the duration of the flight). I felt like shouting at her. Again I fell asleep. But how could they let me sleep. I was again woken up for the meal. Third meals in 2 hours, that also at 7 am in the morning. What the hell is wrong with these flight attendants? Finally God listened to me and the air hostess didn’t disturb me for the rest of the flight.

I reached Istanbul at 9:30am. i checked in to the Hotel and immediately left for sightseeing. View from my hotel
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I opted for a guided tour called the Byzantine tour. I covered the Blue Mosque, Haga Sofia and the Grand Bazar. In ten minutes a big Merc wan arrived to pick me up. Wow.. a chauffer driven Merc just for me. I like that the feeling. First I went to the Blue Mosque. The towering towers..
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The prayer was going on inside so we had to wait for it to get over. There was a long queue of tourists waiting on the main gate. Good my guide knew another entrance from the side. There the line was shorter. the shorter line..
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Inside the mosque had beautiful designs on the walls and the domes.
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All over the prayer area hung lamps from the high roof. Other than that there wasn’t much to see. I felt a bit disappointed. Everyone had said that it was a must see place and I was expecting more. I came outside and the guide took me towards Haga Sofia. On the way we passed the Hippodrome. the guide told me that here chariot races took place in Ottomon times and the stone in the photo below had been bought from Egypt.
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Outside I had this local bread which was covered with til. There are vendors with carts everywhere selling these. a water tank on the way.
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Then I went to Haga Sofia. It was a bigger disappointment. Most of the place was under renovation. Inside there was just one wall to see.
as we entered..
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the entry to the church..
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here too there were these long lamps..
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the pillars..
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the only part worth seeing.. the painting on the roof..
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where the alter must have been..
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the whole wall..
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another painting on top of the exit gate..
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the church from the outside..
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the blue mosque from the outside..
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Next on the tour was Grand Bazar but then I came to know its closed on Sundays. Shucks.. I paid for 3 places and got to see only 2. On top of that the tour guide took me to the place selling Turkish carpets where the owner got after my life to buy one. I kept on refusing and after some time left the place. I was feeling hungry and rearing to taste Turkish food. I went to a nice looking restaurant suggested by my guide. I already knew I was going to have kebabs and ordered immediately. I also wanted to try the local drink, Raki. It is made from anise and it pretty strong in taste. The kebabs were served with a bread which was like our kulcha’s. They were just awesome. Cheers to Istanbul..
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I returned to the hotel and crashed for the night. my room was on the 9th floor and i had an awesome view from the window..
the city lights..
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the bridge on fire..
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the fully stocked fridge.. :) but then i saw the rate card lying next to it.. :(
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The next morning I rose up early at 6:30. Had breakfast in the hotel: watermelon, melon, omelet and ham & cheese sandwich with sour cherry juice. Then left for office. Everyone had warned me about the cheating of the Turkish taxis. They said the taxi drivers take longer route, don’t reset the meters, etc. and as a result always charge more. Not knowing my way in the city, I decided to take the bus. On the way I was observing the automobiles. Largely there were the ugly (my personal opinion;no offence meant to anyone) French cars: Renauds’, Citreons’ & Peugeots’; and the omnipresent Hondas’, Suzukis’ & Hyundais’; some Americans: Fords’, Chevolets’ and Opels’ and the German beauties: the BMWs’, Audi’s, Porche’s and Mercs’. The small cars were in majority. There I also saw some aliens in the automobile world. A Suzuki car with bonnet of esteem, boot of fiat uno and name swift. Then I saw a bike with the fairing of Karizma and the body of a CBZ-X. It was named Honda CBF150. This seemed to be the most popular bike in Istanbul. Also there were lots of TVS Apaches. The second most popular bike was.. (guess.. guess..) BMW GS650. Even the police used this bike. I would readily become a policeman in Istanbul if I got a GS650 to ride. I also saw something which is very common in our country. Many bikers weren’t wearing helmets; even the ones riding the superbikes. all i can say is bigger bikes, bigger idiots… The day was spent in office. I had lunch with my office colleagues. We went to a mall near the office where we ate at a Belgian restaurant (or maybe it was French). I ordered tartines, others ordered steaks.
tartines..

Till our orders came, they served us bread with olive oil. The bread was hard as rock. I always say breads in Europe are multipurpose; you can either use them to kill your hunger or to kill your enemies… And with it was olive oil which itself is pretty tasteless. There was a jar of Belgian chocolate on table. Bread in chocolate tasted nice. When I returned to my hotel I saw a white Lamborghini Murcielago parked outside. This was the first time I was seeing this car. My first reaction was its so small. It was as high as my waist. For the evening, a colleague in office had suggested a place by the waterfront called Ortakoy. The city of Istanbul is divided into 2 halfs by a body of water called the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is the 32 km long strait which joins the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea in Istanbul, and separates the continents of Europe and Asia. (Thus half of Istanbul lies in Europe and half in Asia. I dint visit the Asian part). Ortakoy is situated on the Bosphorus. I took a taxi from hotel but the taxi driver crossed Ortakoy and started taking me towards a place called Bebek. I stopped him 2kms after Ortakoy, got down and started walking back along the water. The waterfront..
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somethings you dont see in India..
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the Asian side of Istanbul..
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In Ortakoy I was greeted by a line of shops serving something called Kumpir. I had been told to try this over here. To make Kumpir, they take a big boiled potato and cut it in 2 halves. Then they spread it out and mash the potato in it and fill it with various toppings which you can choose.
the choice of toppings..
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As you are eating you can mix the topping and eat. this is how it looks..
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It was very tasty although I had asked him to put a bit too much of olives paste which wasn’t tasting very good. I took my Kumpir and sat next to the water. the place was pretty crowded. there were people sitting there, eating kumpir just like people sit in India Gate lawns and have bhel puri.
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if you see in the pic above, there is a man standing next to the water, blowing balloons. he was blowing the balloon, tying it to a string and throwing in the water. i was wondering what he is doing. then when there were sufficient balloons, he tied a brick at both ends of the string and throwed them far into the water.
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then he put a table and placed some guns on it and started shouting something in turkish. thats it.. the shoot-the-balloons-with-the-gun game, like one we have in diwali melas, was set.
when i finished the kumpir I took a walk along the waterfront clicking pics and enjoying the crowd.. :)
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the sun setting..
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the church behind where i was sitting..
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throughout the trip i was cursing myself for not bringing a tripod. everyday i went out only after office, till that time light was already low. if i had a tripod i could have had a lot more fun taking the night shots and have captured the lights and decorations of the place.
the kumpir shops..
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There were lots of bars and cafes all around where one can sample the local food and drinks. nice place to sit near the water and spend the evening.
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Then my eyes fell on a place serving Doner kebabs and my legs started walking towards it. Seemed as if my stomach had taken control of my body. To make doner kebabs they grill the meat like shown below and keep cutting the grilled parts which they serve with either bread or duran(roti). I had the mine in bread. It was just out of this world.


The next morning again I had the breakfast in the hotel. I had chocolate croissant, muffins, chocolate cornflakes and fruits with apricot juice. I left for office at 8:30. During the lunch we again went to the mall. This time we ate in the food court. I tried more Turkish food and had cizbiz kofte, meatballs which I found really yummy.

A colleague suggested a local desert, Kadayif. It was made from sewaiyan and pista in chashni. This is how it looked like..

the rest of the day was spent in working in office and i returned to my hotel. I had lots of work to complete so dint go out anywhere. At the dinner time I went to a place near my hotel where there were many restaurants. I chose to eat in a pizzeria called Maci. They started by serving the (stone-like)bread with olive oil. Then I ordered a salami pizza with lemonade. I really love these Italian pizzas with their thin crusts.
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A word of caution about the lemonade. Its really really khatta . And the pizza is a bit too much for one person. I had to take breaks in between to finish the whole thing. Once when I stopped eating the waiter thought I had finished and started pickup my plate. When I stopped him, he felt so guilty that he dint pickup the plate even after I had finished, till I told him to. And, so ended my third day in Istanbul.
Next morning was same as the previous two. I got up, had breakfast, went to office, work. That day in the lunch time, my office people decided to have an extravagant meal. We went to a place called Rainforest Café. The décor of the forest was like that of a rain forest with branches and leaves hanging out from the ceiling. There were trees all around with models of elephants, chimpanzees and alligator on the sides. When they switched the animals on, the chimps started growling and shaking the trees, the elephants trumpeting and the alligator roaring like a lion. see the pics on the link
http://istanbul.hangirestoran.com/Default.aspx?aType=RestaurantImageGalery&RES_RESTAURANT_ID=193&PageNoNormalImage=1
In the menu there was beef and buffalo which I dint feel like eating. So I ordered vegetarian penne. i realized i was having veg for the first time in the trip. But it too was very good. The penne was filled with cheese, which is how I like it. It was accompanied by salad and lemonade. Even that day I had work to do after office so dint go out in the evening. For dinner I again went to the place near my hotel which had many restaurants. A colleague from office had recommended a place called Kebabi. It served a variety of kebab (or kebaps as the locals called them). I ordered shish kebabs. The shish kebabs there were very different in taste than what we get in India. There were small pieces of roasted kebabs with romali roti. It was nice to have roti after having only bread for 4 days. Another warning: water is not free in the restaurants in Istanbul as it is India. The waiter kept water on my table when I sat down and later charged for it.
The morning routine was almost set now. I was eating a lot throughout the day so tried to keep the breakfast light. Some fruits, cornflakes and a croissant or a danish. That day for lunch we went to the food court again. The mall in which the food court was situated was huge. I don’t think one could see the whole mall in one day. I thought I will keep it light, as everyday after over-eating I felt really sleepy in office after lunch. So I decided to try the Turkish pizza: Lahmacun.

It was damn cheap. Just 2TL (1 Turkish Lira is 0.5Euro). Although it looked very big, it was pretty thin and not filling enough. So had another local desert: Muhallebi.

It tasted somewhat like custard covered with chocolate. But this was very heavy. So I ended up over eating at the end and back in office I felt so sleepy that I fell asleep while typing. Had to go and wash my face again and again. that day someone gave a part in office and ordered ice cream. the Turkish ice creams are also peculiar. they are hard as dough and dont melt like ice creams we know. read this article and specially see the video of how they ice cream seller plays with the icr cream..
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/10/legendary-ice-cream-that-doesnt-melt.html
I was feeling so sleepy that when I reached my hotel, I straight away went to sleep. And I slept so soundly that I got up at 10 in night. I was very irritated with myself. An evening wasted. I quickly went outside and picked up a sandwich from a café near my hotel and came back.
The next day was my last day in office. My office colleagues took me out to a restaurant facing the Bosphorus for lunch. I am really thankful to them for taking such good care of me. I ordered Kiymali: black sea stuffed bread. It too was yummy.

In the past week I had become a fan of the Turkish food. It was a really enjoyable lunch with nice food and discussion about bikes and India. Thanks guys..
view from my office..
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In the evening I planned to go to the famous Taksim Sqaure. I was talking to someone in office and he made he a whole list of places i could see and things i could eat in the next 2 days. From office I went straight to Taksim. The Taxi driver took the longest route possible and till the time i reached there, the sun was setting. The whole place was filled with tourists. One almost got the feeling of standing in Connaught Place. I too started flowing along the stream of people. Firstly there was this monument in the middle of the square, each of whose 4 sides was showing up in a different colour. pics of the monument..
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Then the people were moving into the market. there was this main street where everyone was going. it was full of shops (mostly clothes and jewellery, some gift item) and places to eat.
the sea of humans..
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as i passed each restaurant, i was tempted to just rush in and order. An office colleague had recommended a place called Haci Abdullah which served delicious traditional Ottomon cuisine. So as i roamed about, i kept searching for this place. There is a Mosque in the main street. this restaurant is in the street just next to the mosque. i ordered Begendili pilic.. Mashed eggplant with chicken in gravy.. had there been butter naan along with it, it would have been heavenly but i had to contend with bread. but still the chicken was good and the eggplant paste tasted nice with it. link to the restaurant site..
http://www.haciabdullah.com.tr/wp-content/English/contact.html
after roaming around a lot and doing some window shopping, i took a bus and returned to my hotel. the buses are pretty reasonable(costing between 1.5-1.7TL) but they dont give you any ticket.
as the sun set
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Next day was Saturday. my flight was at 7 in the evening so i had almost the whole day to roam around. i decided to visit the Topkapi Palace. i left the hotel early and took a bus to Kabatas and then a train to the Sultanahmet area. outside the station.. runup..
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take-off..
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a better view of the blue mosque..
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the tower of the Topkapi Palace..
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outside the entrance of the palace was this beautiful water tank..
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The entry ticket for the palace was 20TL. the entrance of the palace..
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the roof of the entrance..
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there were guides available for groups of 5 or more and we could also rent the audioguide. i dint trust the guides so took an audioguide which costed another 10TL.
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There is an inner quater in the palace called the Harem. For that the ticket is extra. Take care that if you buy the ticket inside the palace it'll cost you 5TL extra.
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the entrance to the palace..
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the carvings inside..
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although i had reached the palace pretty early in the morning, but still there were lot of tourists around. as the day progressed the number of tourists kept on increasing. mostly there were large groups from south-east and east asia. then some from europe. with my audioguide, i visited the various parts of the palace. there were many rooms in the palace which had different things on display.
the throne room..
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the covering of the throne.. ye chubta nahi tha kya??
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the throne..
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the weird tree..
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another room..
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there were some rooms in which the valuables of the royal family were kept, photography was not allowed. There were some real big stones on display.
one part of the palace overlooked the sea..
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there was such a big rush to get the pic clicked with the sea in the background. it was funny to see people standing in line to get a pic clicked which would anyways be badly exposed as the sun was right behind.
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the room where the sultans sat..
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fountain in the garden..
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the tiles in the palace..
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the water fountains..
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revan kiosk..
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the fountain on the roof..
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baghdad pavalion
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the glass windows of another room..
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more pics from the palace..
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a rose in the garden..
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360 degree view of the palace http://www.360tr.com/topkapi/english/
more details http://www.kapalicarsi.org.tr/eng/index.asp
after hours of roaming around, i left the palace. the blue mosque with all of its 6 towers..
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a fountain in front of the mosque..
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the next stop was the famous underground market: Grand Bazar. It was a few kms from the palace and i started walking towards it. I had been walking since morning and was damn tired. I took a break at a kebab shop and had some doner kebabs with duran(roti). Then I went to the Grand Bazar.
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It is really nice market with shops of jewellery and Turkish items.
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I bought some bullseye stone things, Turkish good luck charms. You get them in form of key chains, bracelets, wall hangings etc. on one side of the market there are cafes and restaurants. One recommended place if you are a non-veg fan is Havazulu. link to the website of the grand bazar.
http://www.kapalicarsi.org.tr/eng/index.asp
I walked from one end of the market to the other and then back from where i had entered. i had to go back to the Sultanahmad station. there is a restaurant called Sultanahmed Koftesi where i wanted to have my lunch. again a 2km walk. when you are walkin for a long time, you get tired.. you keep on walking.. slowly ur legs start feelin heavy.. it takes more effort to keep them movin.. but u keep on walkin.. then there comes a time when u stop feeling anything.. you have been tired for so long that you've gotten used to it.. this describes my state as i walked back towards the Sultanahmet stop.. finally i got so tired that i sat in a lawn opposite the blue mosque. all around this area i had seen these small cute looking cats.
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after some rest i started walking again and reached the restaurant. i had been told this place is very traditional and very famous for its kofte. the menu was pretty short. the only things available were kofte and steaks. i orderd kofte and the local drink called Ayran. Aryan turned out to be namkeen lassi!! but the kofte were awesome.. then i had been told to order the local desert,Irmik Helvasi. that turned out to be sooji ka halwa!! there are many kofte places near by so take care you go to the right one. the link for its website..
http://www.sultanahmetkoftesi.com/
by the time i finished my food, it was time for me to leave for the airport. on the way i picked up my suitcase from the hotel. on the way back i saw people fishing. it was a weekend and the people stand like this throughout the day trying to catch fish..
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the flight back was as unsatisfactory as the flight to turkey. i would not suggest Turkish Airlines to anyone. No one came when i pressed the bell. i asked for water, the air hostess said yes but dint get it. they dint have sufficient blankets for everyone. i was sleeping and suddenly i realised that the plane was landing. normally they wake you up and ask you to put the seat belt. there were tv's on the flight but werent switched on. they dont even play any music although they give us the headphones. and that was the end of my turkey trip...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice written blog of Turkish visit....want to visit that place sometime..hope that i go there some time...

Ananth

Chaitanya Vedak said...

Well Written Blog, and one of my favorites as u have described in detail a lot about turkish food. About the flight, point noted mi-lord. no Turkish airlines. I might just take my bike load it on a ship and go with it. loved your photos too, especially the ones with food in it.

Unknown said...

thanks guys.. chaitanya just ride till there.. :)

Shiva said...

Very foody trip.....:)

ameet said...

Great Pics Sparsh !
Turkey was always on my "must see places" list.
Your blog has just pushed it up on that list.

Ameet