Istanbul Day 2 (Two Continents Food Tour & Üsküdar Walk)

It is very rare for Tim and I to pay for a tour since we prefer to tour on our own, but we will be spending 30 days in Turkey during which we have to eat, and we have no knowledge about Turkish cuisine.  Because of this, we decided to splurge and sign up for a food tour.  

I learned of this tour from an American YouTube couple that now lives in Istanbul.  I watched a few of their videos and decided to purchase their digital Turkey guide where they suggested a tour called "Two Continents Food Tour" with this description:

Ready to taste the best food on both sides of Istanbul? Start with a delicious traditional Turkish breakfast in Europe in the heart of the historic Old City, before you sail across to Asia and explore the vibrant streets of Kadıköy. With your foodie guide, you’ll make 8-9 delicious stops during your walk with a variety of samples at each – enough to fill your belly to the brim with all the fantastic Turkish flavours! ​

The tour is advertised to last 5.5 hours with a maximum group size of 10 with the price of $125 USD per person.  It seemed a bit pricy, but after some research it seemed like it would be worth it.

We met our guide at 9:30 AM with 7 other people  and headed off to for our tour.  Even though it was a food tour, the tour guide Sinan included history and culture and really anything that any of us were interested in.  The mosque in the background is Hidayet Mosque also called the "New Mosque" since it was first built in 1813...in other words...new.

Our next stop was breakfast.  Sinan took us to an olive stand to explain that olives are a very important part of Turkish culture although the only meal that olives are eaten is with breakfast...olive oil however is pour on everything and in great quantities.

Check out all the beautiful colors of olives.  The purple one were actually soaked in blueberry juice and the red ones were soaked in beet juice.  There are also some olives that are actually grilled.  We were given many of these olives to taste and Sinan bought some olives to add to our Turkish breakfast.  Oh...he also purchased some cheeses and sausage from this shop as well.  After that shop, SInan  stopped at a simit stand and bought some of that as well.  Simit is like a big bagel, but it is baked instead of boiled.  The proofed dough is dipped in fruit molasses and coated with sesame seeds.

With olives, cheese, sausage, and simit in hand, we were led to a small restaurant and sat for our first Turkish Breakfast.

Along with the cheeses and olives, we were also served menemen (scrambled eggs with tomatoes,) my new favorite breakfast food to eat.  As a drink there was of course çai (tea).  Turkey is the largest consumer of tea, about 3-4 cups daily. Oh...do you see that red past on the top right side of my plate?  That is acuka, a tomato an red pepper paste an was one of my favorite things I ate all day.

We thought that was enough to start an all-day food tour, but then came the good stuff.  The left plate is Bal Kaymak (honey and cream) and was amazing.  The right plate is hazelnut paste, smooth and chunky.  Turkey is the world's largest hazelnut producer.  Surprisingly, Nutella is actually produced in Turkey.

OK...one meal down...many more to go, but first a walk tonight the Spice Bazaar aka Egyptian Bazaar.  Notice the cat just chilling on the steps as Sinan walks by it.  In the Turkish culture, animals are respected and taken care of.  There are many dogs and cats on the street, but they all are fed and given proper medical attention by the government.  Because of this, they are very friendly and trusting of people around them. 

The Spice Bazaar has been around since 1663 and is made up of 63 shops...quite small compared to the Grand Bazaar not far from here that has over 3,000 shops (we will be visiting there in 3 days).  The shops here consist of mainly spices, teas, and  Turkish Delights (candy).

As the name of this food tour mentions, this is a two continent food tour.  So far we have been on the European side of Istanbul. It is now time to take a ferry to the Asian side.

Welcome to Asia!

Interesting that there is a local donut sho right next door to a Krispy Kreme.  We didn't have any of the donuts although I was tempted to by a donut from the local shop called "Double Caramel.

Next stop is a pickle shop.  Sinan pointed out that Turks pickle everything and from the selection at this shop, it seems so. ​

Time for a cup of pickle juice with a bunch of pickled things in it.  All I could think was that this drink would be better if there was some tomato juice and some vodka in it.  This stuff would make a great Bloody Mary.

Next came our next course for the Turkish Breakfast...soup.  Soup and bread is one of the most popular breakfasts for Turkish people.  Tim is having a bowl of Beyran soup (lamb soup) and i had a bowl of lentil soup.  The lentil soup was served with a wedge of lemon which made the lentils stand out more.  I will have to remember to serve lemon with lentil soup in the future.

Time for some sweets.  We walked about 10 minutes to a shop that is famous for its Boyoz, a pastry made from flour, oil, and tahini.  Boyoz actually has a sephardic jewish origin.  To the right of the Boyoz is a cookie called The Bomb and is filled with melted dark chocolate and nutella.  Both were amazing.

Is it lunchtime already?  I'm sure we just finished breakfast with a bit of dessert, but just 10 minutes later we were seated in Çiya, one of the mose highly regarded restaurant in Istanbul, for a traditional Turkish lunch, a spread of mezzo.  Since we had mezzo yesterday, we were familiar, but this restaurant served different kinds.

In case that giant plate wasn't enough, we were then served some kind of meatball along with an aegean-style artichoke.  Then lastly we were served lahmacun (Turkish Pizza).

mWIth breakfast and lunch completed, all that was left was dinner.  After a 10 minute walk, dinner was served.  This is a fifth generation restaurant and as we walked in, all we knew was that the kebab meat was properly cooked with wood fire instead of the typical electric heaters.

We found our tables and was served İskender kebap, a Turkish dish that consists of sliced döner kebab meat topped with hot tomato sauce over pieces of pita bread with side of yogurt.  We got the plates and thought that was it, but no...the waiter came out with a gold pan and slathered the plates with  melted special sheep's milk butter.   By the way, they were nice enough to make me a plate with roasted eggplant in the place of kebab meat.  So good!

Can we eat any more!!!  No...until Sinan mentioned baklava and ice cream.  There is always room for ice cream.

After a 5 minute walk we were seated and served Turkish ice cream.  Turkish ice cream (Dondurma.)  This ice cream is very different from traditional ice cream in that is made from sheep milk and sugar, and also contains a starchy root of wild orchids called salep and an aromatic resin called gum mastic.  All of this makes for a sweet, creamy, stretchy, and chewy ice cream served with a fork and knife.  Sinan suggested we make ice cream sandwiches out of the baklava and ice cream which we did and were all very happy.

Even though Tim and I aren't coffee drinkers, we took the opportunity to drink our first cups of Turkish coffee...with extra sugar.

Since all the food we were served today was tame, Sinan had a special grand finale planed.  This dish is called Chicken Breast Pudding (Tavuk Göğsü) and is made of real chicken breast meat, cornstarch, milk, rice flour, and sugar. No thank you!

Oy...so full, so time to walk off all that food.  While others took the ferry back to Europe after the tour, Tim and I (along with a couple we met during the tour) decided to stay on the Asian side and do Rick Steves Üsküdar Walk.  We took a bus 20 minutes north of where were were and got off a the Üsküdar station which was right on the waterfront.

These fishermen and women are catching small fish, maybe sardines, on a line with 8 hooks on it.  They cast and then troll back in and magically have multiple fish on their line.

Across the street from the waterfront there was Yeni Valide Mosque, so we walked across the street and popped in.

Rick Steves then took us through a fish market.  These look like the fish being caught across the street.

There was also bread and meats being sold in this market area.

Here we are back on the water front at Shemsi Ahmet Pasha Mosque whose claim to fame is that unlike all the other mosques in Istanbul, there are no birds flying around it.  It is believed that the architect, Mimar Sinan, built this mosque right where the north wind and south wind intersect so the birds can't fly here....hum.

Rick Steves pointed out that taking a photo through this portal makes for a nice photograph...good timing kitty cat.

That is it...we are done.  We took the next ferry back to the European side and snapped a few photos.

Since we haven't eaten or drank anything for 2 hours, we decided to grab a beer (or two) with our new friends Jin and Angela.  Jim found a Mexican themed restaurant playing county music that served beer.

Two beers later and barely able to breathe after all the food and beer today, Tim and I managed to walk home and relaxed watching TV.  All in all, we felt like the food tour was definitely worth taking and we will now be more comfortable traveling around in Turkey knowing what kind of food to look for and what to order.

Tomorrow we have to wake up early so we can get in line to visit Hagia Sofia before the big crowds.  Until then...