I was back in Istanbul! I didn't like this city so much on my first stay, but by visiting the less popular tourist spots this time, our second stay was much more authentic and enjoyable.
Itinerary of the day: Cihangir → Kadıköy Market → Carrefour at Tepe Nautilus shopping mall → Meze by Lemon Tree
Our hotel didn't include breakfast, so we had to fetch our own. The alley behind our hotel was full of small eateries, but I didn't know better and arranged to eat at the famous breakfast place Van Kahvaltı Evi in a nearby neighbourhood, Cihangir.
Turkish baras making bread.
So many people recommended a visit to Cihangir, but I didn't find it to be anything special. The "hipster" shops and the Queen-West-in-Toronto kind of vibe were not really my thing...
With all that climbing in this hilly neighbourhood, I didn't think Van Kahvaltı Evi was worth it. Anthony Bourdain featured this place in his Istanbul episode of No Reservations, so maybe my expectations were too high.
I don't know about this...looked like something anyone could make?
Bread and tea were great, but that applied to every single restaurant in Turkey.
We ordered menemen and another type of pan-fried egg dish with sausages. Both were a bit meh. We've had so many wonderful Turkish breakfasts in our hotels, and I didn't feel like Van Kahvaltı Evi exceeded them.
After this meal, my parents and I decided to make our own breakfast for the last two mornings of our Turkey trip.
We then headed to Kadikoy market, located on the Asian (Anatolian) side of Istanbul. We went there for dinner on the 3rd day of our trip, but didn't have time to fully appreciate the area.
Our hotel was reasonably close to the Karaköy pier, which was conveniently located to catch a direct ferry to Kadikoy.
The Karakoy pier, on the north side of the Galata Bridge.
Simit is a very affordable and convenient food choice for anyone traveling on a budget. Vendors could be found everywhere, on the streets, intersections, trains, ferries and supermarkets. They looked like pretzels but are soft like bread.
Some say the best way to look at Istanbul is from a ferry crossing between the Europe and Asian sides, rather than along the Bosphorus. From this ferry line, we were able to see the Galata Tower, Maiden's Tower, The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The great scenery made the 20 minutes ride felt short!
There is a larger "Kadikoy Market" that's held on Tuesdays that sells clothing, which is not to be confused with the regular Kadikoy market that was right beside the pier.
Kadikoy is very much a local's market, and I loved it! No overpriced crap, nobody "konnichiwa"ed us, and the vendors were so chill. Hardly any of them spoke English. I highly recommend coming here for a true Istanbulite's experience and eat the best value food! The market was also fantastic for photography, but do come early in the day when the fish shops are open.
Turkey's rice pudding, sütlaç, is a cool and creamy treat (5TL each). Unlike the other sweets in Turkey, this pudding is only a little bit sweet. So good!
We bought some vegetables and fruits at this stall, and everything were reasonably priced. The produce were gorgeous and arranged like works of art.
Sheep's head, a common ingredients in this part of the world.
Kadikoy market specializes in seafood, so thankfully I have found several shops selling midya dolma (stuffed mussels) so I could try them before leaving the country. In Sultanahmet, one of these babies sell for 2TL each, and here? 60 cents each. The vendor was even nice enough to give me as many lemons as I wanted.
Midya dolma is one of the must-try foods in Istanbul. The mussels are stuffed with rice and garnished with spices. It was so delicious! A little bit sweet, and even better with lemon.
Not quite satisfied with just mussels, we chose another seafood restaurant packed with locals, Kadi Nimet Balikcilik. The place was very busy, but the waiters were attentive. Because the restaurant double duty as a seafood dealer, the entire place reeked of fish, but that also means they got their hands on some fresh ingredients!
The restaurant wall was covered with photos of Kemal.
We were moderately full at this point, but I wished I was more hungry! Calamari was not plated in the most flattering way, but wow was it meaty and fresh.
Anchovies (hamsi), most enjoyed by the Black Sea residents of the country. Best consumed with lots of lemon and raw onion.
Even though we only tried two dishes, I absolutely loved this restaurant. it was a great place to enjoy fresh off the boat seafood without any unnecessary fluff. With no fancy plating or atmosphere, the price stayed reasonable.
One metro station or 15 minutes walk away from Kadikoy market was a large Carrefour, and this was where we did most of our souvenir shopping of the trip.
The mall is called Nautilus Tepe, and yes we had to go through security check to get inside.
Previous travelers shared that one could buy a lot of the tourist souvenirs like tea, coffee, honey, spices, glasses, chocolates and the likes here, and they would cost a fraction of the price compared to the tourist bazaars. For chocolates, I recommend the local brand "Ülker", especially the ones with nuts in them. Turkey might not be famous for their chocolate, but they are with pistachios and hazelnut.
Look at this price. I bought a small packet of saffron at Sirince for 5TL, and these were only 10.38 TL but about 100 times the volume?! I was totally ripped off!
For the budget travelers, freshly made pides, simits and baklavas could be bought in the cooked food section.
We spent about 200TL in Carrefour souvenirs (Note that they wouldn't accept any foreign currency, so make sure there was enough cash in Lira). Some locals saw our cart full of tea and couldn't help but laugh because it was so unlike what locals would buy!
After taking our souvenirs back to the hotel and rested a bit, we revisit the İstiklâl Caddesi for dinner. It was a weekday and not Kurban Bayramı anymore, and the street was much more vacant and enjoyable. If I have to give one advise to anyone visiting Istanbul, it would be "avoid weekends and holidays!"
Our dinner was at Meze by Lemon Tree, and we had a wonderful meal here. Definitely one of the better meals I had in Istanbul. It was a small restaurant so reservation was recommended. We saw many customers being turned away because they didn't have reservations!
As the name suggested, this place specialized in meze (small tapas sized dishes). First the waiter brought us over to the meze shelf to explain each and every one of them. Then we just choose as many varieties as we wanted. The pricing system was a little bit confusing. For each type of meze, the portion will be served according to the number of people at the table, and priced accordingly.
I pretty much loved every meze here, even though some of them weren't Turkish dishes. The ceviche was latin American, and the seaweed salad reminds me a lot of a similar dish in Taiwan. Probably because we ordered a lot of food, we even got some free stuff - like the anchovy paste on the left of the photo.
We loved the mezes, but not so much the main dishes. My suggestion would be to only order meze here to enjoy a variety of dishes with bread (it's totally normal to only order meze). The portions were plenty enough to keep anyone full.
One of the mains, chorizo with chickpea and chickpea paste, was too hearty at this point and filled us up too quickly.
Köfte (meatballs) were very good, but I felt like it's something that could be had elsewhere.
The best main dish we had was monkfish stewed in cheese, vegetables and red wine. Monkfish had a great bouncy texture, but I could do without the cheese, as it masked out the greatness of the fish too much.
This dessert was so amazing that I was shocked that they would give it away for free! It's their signature dessert of banana topped with honey, walnut, almond, pistachios and clotted cream. Topped with chili, it was not too sweet or oily, but luxurious and creative. Get the meze here, then leave some space for this dessert.
Today's trip report seemed to be all about food, and isn't that what Istanbul pride itself for? A lot of the positive things I've heard of Istanbul, like hospitality and great food, only became noticeable for me today. I finally got a feel for the real face of the city, and it was lovely.
Could anyone possibly come to Istanbul and skip all those historical monuments in Sultanahmet? Probably not, but I strongly suggest to stay in Beyoğlu, tram in to Sultanahmet, and really spare a day to take a ferry to the Asian side.
