mmm-yoso!!!

Istanbul: The Grand Bazaar, Kara Mehmet Kebab, Haci Bekir, Hafiz Mustafa 1864, and Rami Restaurant

That title long enough for you? I considered not finishing the Istanbul posts of our 2011 trip, but thought I should probably do them because they influenced our most recent trip. Of course, probably the most serious omission in our posts was not mentioning the Grand Bazaar, spread over nine acres, with over 60 streets, and over 550 years old, of course we had to check it out, if only for a couple of hours. We decided to enter through the main gate of the Bazaar......

Depending on what your source is, it is said that there are somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000 shops in the Grand Bazaar. That's a lot of stuff......stuff that was also more expensive than elsewhere. I guess the overhead must be pretty high here. since we travel pretty light there wasn't much room for "stuff". So of course we were here in search of something to eat! I'd read a post on Istanbul Eats about a kebab shop in the Bazaar area. The Bazaar itself contains many "Hans", which used to be inns which is where travelers would stay. If you're interested in more about the Grand Bazaar as well as a walking tour, you might want to get this book. And while walking navigating the bazaar might seem a bit of a task, we had little trouble finding CebiciHan....you walk through a short, low ceilinged, passageway and find yourself there......just a few yards in distance, but seemingly a universe away from the bustle of the Grand Bazaar.

In a tranquil courtyard, next to a tea shop with a large group of older men were socializing and playing cards was the shop I was looking for called Kara Mehmet Kebab.

It was a peaceful and relaxing place, the guys running the show were friendly....and quite mischievous. When the borek vendor came by, hands filled with a pile of borek above his head, they started tickling him and slapping his behind....trying to get him to drop all his profits. Funny thing, we later saw a photo of the borek guy in the book I mentioned above!

I started with a refreshing glass of Ayran.

The Missus wanted some tea, which was brought from the tea shop next door.

Ordering for me was pretty easy....I just went with the Karisik Izgara...the mixed grill. The Missus wanted to try the Adana Kebab. Things started off with a nice Coban Salatasi, shepherd's salad, which was quite good as it was dressed with what tasted like balsamic vinegar.

The Missus enjoyed Her Adana Kebab. Though it was milder than She expected, it was very moist and tender........which is where many of the kebab places here in the states fall short.

My mixed grill turned out to be quite a bit of food (duh!).

Strangely....well, knowing me, maybe not.....I really enjoyed the grilled chicken wings which were moist and full of flavor...smokey, salty, sweet, and mildly spicy. The skin was even fairly crisp.

This turned out to be the best meal of our time in Istanbul.

Kara Mehmet Kebap Salonuu
Iç Cebeci Han No: 92
Grand Bazaar, Old City, Istanbul

It was also a lot of fun watching the old men argue over a game of cards......one gentleman slammed his cards down and started to walk away in a huff while all the other guys tried to get him back. Some things are universal and we couldn't help but laugh. The other men were cracking up and pointed at us saying something in Turkish......the guy sheepishly smiled, waved at us, and went back to the table where his smiled disappeared, pointing to another gentleman, the one who probably beat his rear end off, and the game resumed.

Soon enough it was time to hit the bustling streets of Istanbul again.

We still needed to pick up some small gifts to bring back to us. One of the guys back at the hotel told us to get Turkish Delight from Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir.

According to the story, back in 1777 Bekir Effendi created Turkish Delight and this shop has been in existence since then. We were told that it was the oldest continuously run business in Istanbul at over 230 years. I'm not a big fan of lokum, but heck, if you're going to get it, it might as well be from the originators, right?

By the time we were headed back to our hotel the heat and crowds were starting to wear us down. The Missus noticed a shop with a second floor dining area and decided that it would be a great time for a break.

We ordered a snack and some tea downstairs then walked up the narrow stairwell (the norm for Istanbul) to what turned out to be a very nice dining area.

It turns out that the name of the place was Hafiz Mustafa 1864....I guess for when it was established. This was the perfect little break we needed.

While looking at the photo of the street below, I recalled how crowded and busy things seemed.

And yet, when we returned home, we missed the lively, vibrant, and very social environment......much like we missed China when we got back from our trip there.

Of course, right at that moment, I could more clearly empathize with this fellow we passed on the way back to our hotel room.

 This was nothing a nice shower and a short nap couldn't cure and I was ready to go. The front desk folks had recommended at restaurant called Rami to us earlier. It was called very nice and classy...well, we had been travelling with just backpacks and really weren't in the position of visiting anyplace too fancy. We were assured that we'd have no problems with the restaurant which is located in a charming little house a few blocks away.

Well, the house may be charming, but the gentleman who seated us was far from that. The pace was empty, but he was quick to tell us where we couldn't sit....nothing on the second floor, no tables with a view....all reserved, even though the place was totally empty and would remain so during our entire meal.

It did seemed like the spacing of tables were a bit cramped, but of course that didn't bother us since no one else was there.

Our Server promptly dealt us our menus and proceeded to disappear for a good long time. No water, no nothing....... When he returned, I think we made our second "mistake"........we'd had a good amount of food for lunch. To us, it seemed that just have a combination of starters for dinner would just be the perfect thing. His response, "humph......."

We went with the cold starters combination (TRY 29 - about $18 at the time).

All I remember after tasting this was how bland and ice cold this stuff was. It was like cafeteria food.

We also ordered the "Hot" Starters Plate (also TRY 29)......hot was just being used in the broadest of terms I suppose as most of this was also cold and somewhat greasy.

That lahmacun was plain nasty and we quit after one bite each.

Believe me when I say it was far from what as written on the menu.

As we were almost(thankfully) through our meal the Server plunked down some bread at our table......I mean really, if you're going to get all stuffy and pretentious on us, at least show me that you know how to time things and do your job. After all the great experiences we had in Istanbul, this was a rather sad way to end our trip.

As I sat at the window of our hotel room and listened to the last call to prayer for the evening I realized something. I usually work a little harder when researching places to eat when we travel. All the sites and history of Istanbul had taken over and we had stayed with places close to the Old City. I would have to fix that next time we were here. And based on how much we loved Istanbul, there would be a next time.

Sultan- a lunch or two

Yes, this is mmm-yoso!!!, the blog o' food.  Today, Cathy is playing the part usually played by Kirk, who is having a blissful time elsewhere.  ed (from Yuma) is blissfully enjoying his downtime in Yuma. 

Hi. Kirk usually posts about dinners at Sultan. (I've found at least five posts where he has mentioned meals there and that link is to the most recent meal.) As you have read,  He and His Missus are elsewhere and since The Mister and I also eat here and I have photos of  some light/lunch meals, here's another post.

I took this photo early one morning, as we were driving to Kaelin's Market for goodies. You'll never actually see the front parking places empty when the mall is open.

I don't think Kirk has posted a photo of the open kitchen.  I snapped this when I had the chance. That photo montage above the window looks like it's from Kirk's posts about his Turkish vacation. Sultan is the only True Turkish Restaurant in San Diego County. 

We always order a salad when we stop here. This is Koylu Salatasi salad (small, $4).  Cucumber, tomato and parsley.  The dressing is light : oil, vinegar and spices.  This is refreshingly fresh.

We almost always also order Mercimek- ($3) made with red lentils, flour, butter and spices.  This vegetarian soup is so darn good- deeply rich flavored. You would not think it is vegetarian. 

This is the Veggie combo platter ($10). A bit of everything: Start from 11:00-Baba Ganouj (smoky), Hummus(garlicy and lemony), Patlican Salatasi(eggplant, onion, sweet pepper, tomato and parsley),Taze Fasulye (green beans, onions, carrots, sweet pepper and tomato), Tabuli (bulgur, parsley,tomato, onion, cucumber in a lemon-olive oil dressing), Haydari(yogurt, cucumber, dill and mint) and in the center to enjoy with everything if we didn't want to use bread, a roasted eggplant.

Falafel ($7).  Made with fresh garbanzos, tomato, hot pepper, onion and served with the hummus/ baba ganouj/haydari from above.  A very good version.

 On another lunchtime visit... 

As I mentioned, we almost always order the Mercimak ($3). It's that good. 

This time, we chose the Tabuli salad (small, $4).  It's also that good.  Just enough bulgur wheat and always perfectly dressed.

Lahmacun ($3) The house made bread topped with a mix of ground beef, tomato, sweet pepper, tomato, parsley and spices.  This is quite large, thin and very deeply flavored. The lemon, pickled onions, peppers and pickles are nice to add on, but tasting this as it hits the table, it's perfect.

Then there is this.  From the appetizer menu.  Simple.  Peynirli Borek ($3) Feta, onion and spinach. Made fresh, on crispy still warm filo.  This is a perfect food: taste, textures... 

We always get tea at the end of every meal, even this meal of small appetizers.

 

 

 

Sultan Kebab and Baklava 131 Jamacha Road (At East Main and North Second), El Cajon 92019 Website (619)440-1901 Open 7 days 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Istanbul: Lunch, the Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Dinner at Mozaik, and Hagia Sofia

After a pretty mellow time in Antalya we arrived back in Istanbul, ready for the final leg of our trip. By now, we had the drill down pat. Catch the light rail from the airport, get off at the Zetinburnu stop....

Then catch the tram and get off at the Sultanahmet stop. There were times when the tram was packed....like sardines, but since we don't have much luggage; two backpacks, we did fine.

One thing we picked up on right away was to get your tokens when you have a chance, planning ahead one or two trips....this way you aren't at the mercy of crowds in front of the token dispensers while your tram arrives...then leaves without you. This will also prevent what happened to me once...we needed to catch the tram to the airport. While I was walking to the token machine I noticed our tram coming. I quickly inserted my coins into the dispenser hoping none would be rejected. Grabbed our tokens and ran full blast to the boarding station. I hadn't run so fast in years,; make that decades. The Missus was laughing so hard She almost fell over....luckily we made the tram.

We walked to the Hotel Djem, checked in, and decided to just walk the few blocks to Sultan Kosesi. The Missus wanted sahlep again and it was nice to run into our favorite Server.

The Missus combination vegetarian plate was much better than what I ordered.....

which was an Adana Kebab.

We were up and on the move fairly quickly.

The Missus wanted to check out the Blue Mosque and since it is a functioning Mosque, it would be best for us to visit between prayer times. We really didn't want to intrude......

We'd walked the courtyard early one morning, but had never gone inside.

Sultanahmet Mosque, was built by its namesake between 1609 and 1616. Sultan Ahmet's goal was to build a mosque greater than the Hagia Sofia right across the way. It's quite beautiful, especially the exterior at night. It's called the Blue Mosque because of all the blue tilework.

As we exited the Blue Mosque, I noticed a very tall fellow wearing a yellow cap. You can see him to the right in this photo.

It was Kareem Abdul Jabbar....I mean, you really can't miss him at over seven feet tall and surrounded by several bodyguards. I turned to the Missus and said, "I think the Lakers are out of the playoffs (this was last year)." She asked me, "how do you know." He wouldn't be here if they were still in it.

Anyway, a photo of the Blue Mosque.

The area right to the west of the Blue Mosque and Sultanahmet Park is the Hippodrome, yes, that kind of Hippodrome. Built when the city was still known as Byzantium, when Constatine the Great moved the capital to "Nova Roma" (New Rome), which became known as Constantinople heenlarged the seating area to hold over 100,000 people! Undergoing major renovation when we visited, it really didn't look that impressive. A large walkway, with several obelisks. The one to the right is what remians of the Serpent Column which was brought to Constantinople from Delphi. It was once the figure of three serpents intertwined supporting a golden basin.

Notice that the obelisk appears to be buried a bit? The original level of the Hippodrome is actually about 8 feet below the current pedestrian walkway, where the base of this obelisk is located.

The one to the right is called the Obelisk of Theodosius. Theodosius the Great brought this back from Egypt in 390A.D. It is carved from pink granite and is actually from the Temple of Karnak in Egypt and dates back to 1490 B.C. It was cut into three sections, the top section was mounted on a marble pedestal, just where it is now. It look good considering it's over 3500 years old!

This is called the German Fountain and was built and presented to Abdul Hamit II in 1901 to commemorate Kaiser Wilhelm's visit in 1898.

We explored the streets of Sultanahmet a bit more........

And though the days were beginning to get longer, we decided to grab dinner, then head back to the hotel. Metin, from the Hotel Djem recommended a restaurant called Mozaik to us. Funny thing, we stayed right around the corner from the place on our first night in Istanbul.

Though the prices reflected the area....being high traffic tourist oreinted, the food was pretty good.

The Izagara Mantar Salatasi, a mixed green salad topped with grilled mushrooms was probably the weakest dish, bland, and nothing special.

The Missus enjoyed Her Patlican Musakka, tangy tomatoes, sweet roasted peppers, She told it was pretty good.

I really enjoyed my Cizz Bizz Kofte, cute name, huh? It actually means something like sizzling meatball.

I'm not quite sure about the sizzling part, but these were very well seasoned and melt in your mouth moist and tender. The simple stemed vegetables were an afterthought just to take up space on the plate.

The combination of lamb and beef was done well......it had just enough of that lamb flavor to keep you interested.

Turkey is a Muslim country, thus you won't find alcohol in every shop on every corner. Because our days seemed to be flying by, it really didn't look like we'd be able to visit a meyhane. So I decided to try some Turkish Raki, not to be confused with Cretan Raki, this was veyr much like Ouzo. In fact, when you added ice to the drink it turned milky white just like ouzo. I'm not a big fan of anise drinks, but I had to try at least one, right?

The drink set me up for a wonderful night. Right after the last call to prayer I was out. To wake up the next morning ready to go. We took our usual morning walk, then headed off to the Hagia Sofia....only to find a line already at 8am! I'll honestly say, that the Hagia Sofia doesn't really lok as dramatically impressive as the Blue Mosque from the outside.

But this structure was once considered the "Greatest Church in all of Christendom". So something fantastic must be in store. Right in front of us in line were four young people from Spain. One of the young ladies was obviously a dog lover and this one caught her attention. She called him "El Guapo" - the handsome one!

She actually went looking for something to give Mr Handsome to eat and came back with some simit, sesame bread and starting feeding him.

Unfortunately, there's just so much sesame bread a dog could eat! To which she apologized, "lo siento el guapo, nada de carne"......El Guapo seemed to understand an was just happy to be the subject of her affection.

Here's a hint if you're visiting the Hagia Sofia and have time the day before. Buy tickets for the next day the previous evening. There's another line for folks who already have tickets. Anyway, we made it in fairly quickly, before it really got clogged up.

And upon entering I could understand the words of Justinian who supposedly said upon viewing the rebuilt Hagia Sofia for the first time, "Glory to God that I have been judged worthy of such a work." It's just one of those places where photos do not do the subject justice.

Unlike the Blue Mosque, whose interior is somewhat marred by the large pillars used to brace its large domed ceiling, the gracefully beautiful Hagia Sofia is supported by ribs made of hollow bricks made in Rhodes from a special clay.

The Islamic caliphs remind you that in 1453 Sultan Mehmed II, laid seige and conquered the "Center of Christianity". Hagia Sofia became a mosque.

In Islam, images of humans are not allowed, thus all the beautiful mosiacs in the former church were covered in plaster.

In 1935, Turkey's "George Washington", the founder and first President of Turkey, Ataturk, declared Hagia Sofia a museum. And the mosiacs have been or are being restored....to see the light of day once again.

As it is, I've spent a good amount of time on the Hagia Sofia. I cuold probably spend a couple of thousand more words on it, but I'll spare you. I'll just say, that of all the places I've been, there's only one other place I want to revisit......Machu Picchu.

 Light and shadows do add a great deal of atmosphere here as well. You'll be within the shadows of a hallway or stairway. perhaps under one of the beautiful stained glass windows, only to walk into the bright yellows of one of the galleries.

Ok, enough, I'll spare you. Just one more interesting thing. There's a column within the Hagia Sofia, called the "weeping column". It was supposedly brought from the Temple of Artemis.

We were told that water sometimes drips out of the column, thus it "weeps". There are supposedly miracles associated with this column. The Missus was told to stick Her thumb into the hole then spin completely around and if Her thumb comes out wet a miracle will happen.

Her thumb did come out moist, but I'm still here! So no miracle on this day! he-he-he.... also, the fact that a pagan column was being used in a Christian church just sounded a bit weird to me. But who am I to say?

Thanks for reading!

Antalya: A walk around Kaleiçi, Can Can Pide Yemek Salonu, Gul Restaurant, and Marti Borek Manti

We'd had an interesting night in Antalya and I was really enjoying the city. From the hotel, to the the people, it was working out well. After a typical no need to eat until next week Turkish breakfast, we decided to take a walk around "Old Antalya", the Kaleiçi, surrounded by city walls, it is protected from development. There are still Ottoman and Roman style homes in the area.

I was unusually touched as we walked by the Keike Minare (the broken minaret) which is part of the ruins of the Korkut Camii, which was in my previous post. An elderly gentleman, very well dressed, probably in his eighties was walking on the other side of the street. He started toward us, smiled, walked up to me and extended his hand...... I didn't quite know what to say other than to smile and shake his hand. For me, it was such a welcoming gesture......

The streets themselves varied in width, some wider than others, some quite narrow, all of them exuding character.

It was also quite nice that the streets were empty at this hour, which is why we really enjoy our morning walks.

In this day of cookie cutter construction and having seen the "condo farms", buildings sprouting like corn in China, this was quite a change. You could feel the history of the city oozing from the cracks in the walls.

The doors of various building were particularly fascinating. Each one different, they all seemed to have a story to tell.

After a bit we wandered North, then toward the direction of Ataturk Caddesi, the main street in the area, right outside the city walls where the tram runs. To get out of the walls you walk thru Hadriyanus Capisi (Hadrian's Gate) which was build to honor the Roman Emperor Hadrian for his visit to Antalya in the year 130AD.

Walking south, past all the older men drinking tea in the park, we headed down Ataturk Caddesi, past all the shops, banks, and business buildings....and even past the ATM Farm. I don't recall ever seeing a place where competing ATMs are line up in such a manner.

We walked past what looked like government buildings, had a short stop for tea, then around the edges of a very large park.

We ended up here.......

The views were quite beautiful.......

To our right was Hıdırlık Tower, built by the Romans in the first century. I guess to keep watch over the Antalya Bay.

Right to the north was the colorful Roman Harbor.

We walked down to the harbor, past all the colorful tourist boats, then back up what must have been a cliff wall way back when.......

Climbing back up those steps I recall turning around and looking and marveling at how wonderful the "strands of clouds" looked.

 Sort of a like a cloud version of the aurora borealis.......

After this we just kind of wandered around and somehow ended up at the Clock Tower.

Funny thing happened as we walked past the Tekeli Mehmet Pasha Camii.....an elderly gentleman walked out and waved us into the Mosque. I pointed to the shorts I was wearing....I really didn't plan on visiting a mosque. But he just shook his head and waved us in.

Down a nearby street is the Shopping Bazaar, mostly full of tourist stuff.

We eventually made a complete circle all the way back to Hadrian's Gate. By this time I was starting to get hungry. We headed away from Kaleiçi and ended up near a shopping area. We saw this place on the street. I'd read about it somewhere, so we decided that this was the place for lunch.

 This place was doing some major take-out business and the Pide looked really good!

The prices seemed right and the Missus liked the menu which offered a good variety of items.

I'd noticed that the food in Antalya seemed more aggressively spiced than what we had in Instanbul. I actually enjoyed this. I tried a pepper from the bowl on the table and it was indeed fairly spicy.

The Missus enjoyed the dolmasi...one pepper, one eggplant.

But She really enjoyed the Patlican Musakka. It's not like Greek Moussaka. This was spiced stewed lamb on a roasted eggplant.

 I had the Karisik Pide, which turned out to be quite filling.

Those roasted peppers were delicious as well.

Of course, this is Turkey and there was that basket of bread available......

Of course we headed back to the hotel and immediately took a nap....awakening a couple of hours later. After just lounging around for a couple of hours we headed back out. Near the main street and traffic control gate to the old city was this little restaurant.

Folks eat fairly late here, so we had the entire restaurant to ourselves and took a small table in the very pretty tree lined back courtyard.

I'd pretty much had my fill of meat and just wanted a variety of mezes for dinner. The server, a very nice young man was quite accommodating and we just had bread (of course), lavas, and a nice variety of mezes for dinner.

It was a light, but very satisfying meal.

Of course we took an after meal walk. This time we followed the tram line away and west of the Kaleiçi. This took us to a residential/business area that looked fairly expensive.

We followed the road to the water's edge, then turned back.....

By this time the Missus wanted an "after dinner sweet" and this place looked like it would fit the bill.

I had ayran, the Missus had tea, and we settled at the outside table. It was a nice place to people watch as we shared some baklava.

Meanwhile, a gentleman with a handsome dog walked down the steps. He left the dog there while he went to get his hair cut next door. I guess the pooch is pretty well known. The owner of the shop put a napkin in front of him and placed a piece of baklava on it.

I guess it's good being king, or at least a prince. He was so well behaved and waited patiently for his owner. Meanwhile, across the street we saw a beautiful golden retriever, so proud and happy....suddenly stop, turn around, and try to drag his owner in the opposite direction. We wondered what caused this...then we noticed that the dog had stopped a two doors down from a Vet! Of course it was to no avail as the owner tugged his suddenly unhappy dog into the Vet.

One more interesting thing........

This gentleman was the shoe guy right in front of the snack shop. One of my shoes was starting to come apart at the sole. We got him to fix my shoe, which lasted until we got back home!

It's easy to fall into the flow here, but it was back to Istanbul in the morning. We did have a relaxing two days, though.....

One last thing. For some reason, I just loved this sign.......

I'm not sure why......

Antalya: Villa Verde Cafe and Pension and dinner at Guneyliler

After a wonderful time in Chania, passing through Athens, we knew we were in the home stretch of our trip. When doing a bit of research for a side trip before returning to Istanbul, I decided on Antalya. With a population of over a million, it's a very popular resort destination on Turkey's Mediterranean shoreline. I really didn't quite know what to expect and made arrangements to stay in the town's "Old City", also known as Kaleiçi. What was really interesting was after landing we found the shuttle bus stop. No one spoke English, so I just went with "Kaleiçi?", to which one of the gentleman waved me to the front passenger seat. We were driven to the middle of the city, where the driver came out and hailed a cab for us. We then took the cab into the gated Old Town. Entrance and exit is monitored....

The place I picked was the Villa Verde Cafe and Pension and we weren't disappointed. Our room looked very neat and tastefully decorated....probably because half of the couple, Misuyo Kimura Kocaman is from Japan! Yes, here in Antalya, wouldn't you know I'd run into someone from Japan. Apparently Ali Kocaman met his wife while living in Japan and I guess the rest is history.

I wish I took more photos of the grounds, there were lots to see...parts of the ancient plumbing system and such. Ali told me it took years to get approval to build the hotel. Because of the historic nature of the property they had to hire archaeologists to see what needed to be preserved and how things could be built.

Lest you doubt me, here's the view from the window in our room:

Now I don't know about you, but I thought having ruins of a Mosque that dates back to the 2nd century A.D. right out your window sure does add an exotic vibe to your stay......

We actually took a walk around the Kaleiçi, which was small, but full of character and ended up eating lunch at a very forgettable fast-foodish joint on the busy Ataturk Caddesi. When dinner arrived I was starved and I asked Ali for a recommendation. He called a cab, told me this was the place that he takes guests too. Apparently, Guneyliler has two locations. One is fairly close by, but the one we were cabbing to was far better. The restaurant was located in a huge and fairly intimidating building.

The place was packed, maybe 2-300 people, mostly large families were chowing down on what looked like copious amounts of food! Being only two in number, we were guided to a small table in the corner by the salad station.......

Before we even ordered, stuff started arriving.......

I have no idea what this is called...be it a borek, dolmasi, or what. The exterior had the flavor of perhaps ground lentils with a bit of kick. I quickly noticed that food in Antalya had a bit more spice to it....which made it right down my alley. It was filled with a meat mixture...very nice.

Of course there was Coban Salatasi, Shephard's Salad a standard.

We placed our order and even more stuff started coming......

 The procession didn't stop until the long plank with a huge lavas was delivered to our table.....

Man, if ths was the salad and bread, I didn't think I'd survive dinner!

Compared to how things started, the rest of our dinner was pretty anti-climatic. I ended up ordering the Karisik Izgara, which if you've read any of my posts on Sultan, you'd know was a mixed grill.

I don't know how I managed to finish everything.....

The Missus had the Patlican Kebab.

The ayran was light and fluffy.

I don't recall the exact price, but I remember it being very affordable.

We were sitting next to the salad station and the guy behind the counter was hilarious, giving us a big smile and a thumbs up when we sat. Before we left, he told us, "we famous chef, you take picture!" So of course I did. Man, what a hoot! And that was only part of the story for the evening.

After leaving the restaurant, we decided to walk around a bit. We would need a taxi back to the hotel and noticed what looked like a busy street a couple of blocks down. We walked past a snack shop and the Missus got some Turkish ice cream.

We walked to the main street and found a taxi parked alongside the road. The cab driver was a very stately, dignified gentleman. When we handed him the hotel's business card, he put his reading glasses on and still couldn't read the print. So he gave us a hand signal to wait and called someone. A couple of minutes later a young man in his late twenties appeared....the man's son. He told us his father didn't speak hardly any English and his eyes were so bad he couldn't read the business card. He told his dad our destination and we walked to the very nice, almost new looking taxi. And here the fun started. We noticed that the cab was pretty gaudily decorated, pom poms hanging from the roof, a model yellow cab mounted on the dashboard, little twinkly lights blinking on the roof. The man turned to us, pointed around the cab and said, "my son....my son!" I'm guessing his son had decorated the flying carpetcab. As we started driving away, the gentleman turned to me and asked, "mooo-zik?" Then pushed a button on the stereo...and holy crap, the cab had some major sub-woofers! A loud techno song started up BOOM BOOM, "do you like sexy?" BOOM BOOM "I'm so sexy?" BOOM BOOM.....the Missus was cracking up! The guy turned to me and asked, "you like?" I mean really, what could I say. Just then I noticed that he was driving like a bat out of hell, maybe about 60 miles per hour, on a surface street! So here we were, flying down the street in Antalya, Turkey, in a taxi driven by an middle aged gentleman whose vision was so bad he couldn't read the address on the hotel's business card with techno pop blasting away......it doesn't get much better than that!

Man, we were so stuffed and slept soundly. In fact, the Missus didn't want to get up and wasn't particularly hungry. So I went downstairs to breakfast.

Now remember, this is Turkey....they don't mess around with the carbs with breakfast. Remember, this was all just for me.

The Cigara Boregi were pretty good......

Then they asked me how I wanted my eggs! Yikes.....

I took some tea up for the Missus who was still full from dinner.

Of course I opened the window and took a look at the ruins right outside our window. For some reason I found it to be so, well, cool.

I usually don't plug places; but with Madonna Suites in Chania and Villa Verde, we hit on two winners. Here's Villa Verde's website (The Japanese version). You can see some better photos of the grounds.

Thanks for reading!

Recently Consumed: Visits to Sultan, Golden City, Homestyle Hawaiian, Balboa Market, Noble Chef, Pho King, Okan, and Bristol Farm

Here's a collection of one-off dishes and other miscellaneous stuff from the last couple of weeks.

Sometimes a dish will arrive that looks just plain delicious. This was true of the Biber Dolmasi (stuffed pepper) the Missus recently had at Sultan.

I just thought it looked so pretty. I'm no great shakes as a photographer; I just point and shoot and after all our meals at Sultan; heck we're there about every other week. I've pretty much keep my camera stowed.....but this one just called for a photo.

It put my Karisik Izagara (mixed grill) to shame......

Oh and here's a Patlican Kebab for good measure as well......

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Cathy and Dennis have already done posts on Balboa International Market. I'll usually drop by for some dates, walnuts, herbs, ayran, and citrus for the Missus. One day last week I was pretty hungry so I ordered the lamb shank on fava rice (sabzi polo). Love the price....$8.99 and it's a load of food.

Lamb shank was decent, but the rice was bland and dry....still, the price is right.

Balboa International Market
5907 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

I don't know why, but on one of my visits to Golden City I only took one shot of the Kwai Fei Chicken. After snapping the photo, I realized that I've probably taken too many photos of it already anyway. But just for the heck of it......

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Not too many plate lunches anymore.......on occasion there's an exception. Here's the Korean Chicken from Homestyle Hawaiian.

It had been a couple of months. Mo told me that they were going to renovate and clean up the place a bit.....but it was still a no-go on this visit. Hopefully soon.....

Homestyle Hawaiian Island Style Food
7524 Mesa College Drive
San Diego, CA 92111

A couple of other dishes for good measure.....

Shrimp with XO Sauce Chow Fun from Noble Chef......I was lazy and in a noodley mood.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111

I just realize there's an inordinate amount of styrofoam in this post......I guess I've been pretty tired recently......

Here's the Hu Tieu Mi Kho, which I've posted on a zillion times, from Pho King.

Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Here are the only two photos from a recent meal at Okan, the stewed shishito peppers with ground beef.

And buta kakuni......

Which was on the dry and bland side....I'll need to try this again......hope this isn't the norm.

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Cathy's already done a post on Bristol Farms, but recently I was shopping there, really hungry, and lazy to come home and make something. I decided to try out the Tri-Tip Sandwich ($7.99), without the BBQ sauce. The meat is hand cut and it comes with mashed potatoes and gravy which might have just send me into cardiac arrest after eating all that meat. I subbed it out with a pasta salad.

Considering that a lettuce loaded sub with 2 ounces of meat goes for $6.50 - $6.99, this is a pretty good value. The meat ain't great shakes, it is on the chewy side...they do ask you (or at least asked me) if I wanted to trim the fat off.....guess what my response to that was. The sandwich was topped with muhrooms and caramelized onions. Bread seemed heat and eat, but it was toasted. Not bad....

Also, is it just me, or does it seem like Bristol Farms have lowered their prices a bit? Maybe I've been shopping at Whole Paycheck too much recently..... You know, I don't think I'm a cheapo tightwad, who is always looking to get on the better side of the dollar, and like many do believe in the reality of scale. For example a $7.95 dish which is well made from Sab E Lee will not equal to the same dish which costs $19.95 at Lotus of Siam. Of course LOS will be....better be, better, it's 2 1/2 times the price. Still, I do like feeling that I get my money's worth.

Bristol Farms
8510 Genessee Ave
San Diego, CA 92122

My goodness, I just realized something as I was setting up the categories for this post......this is quite a variety of cuisines...maybe I need to stop grumbling about San Diego's limited choice.....

Recently Consumed.......

After a long day, it's always nice to enjoy a good meal....here are some photos of items recently consumed.....

Though not all of it was great.....

I never left hungry.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Istanbul: Sultan Kosesi, Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, and other stuff

We had done a good deal of walking so my appetite was in great shape. Not wanting to go far out of the way nor in the mood for anything particularly fancy, we asked the folks at the hotel for a recommendation. They came up with Sultan Kosesi which was just a couple of blocks away and a bit off the main tourist track of Divan Yolu Caddesi.

The restaurant was roomy and brightly lit, the menu full of the standards with a couple of interesting items. Most fun of all was our Server.....who was so very nice, but kinda looked and sounded like PeeWee Herman. All angles and twitches, he was unable to remember more than two items and when we had questions we got him thoroughly confused! But he was so genuinely friendly, that whatever he did, we could never hold it against the fellow.

This being Turkey, we were of course provided with an entire loaf of bread......

I went with a cup of ayran, the ubiquitous yogurt drink. It wasn't as light and foamy as other versions, but gladly not a salty either.

The Missus saw a couple of items that interested Her. The first one being sahlep, which She just had to try and turned out being one of the most wonderful items we had on this trip. Sahlep is a warm milk based drink that is flavored with a wonderfully fragrant flour made from Anatolian mountain orchids. It is mildly sweet, a bit thicker than plain milk, and wraps you in that comforting warmness that a great cup of chocolate would.

The other item didn't quite work out as well. We'd seen Kuru Patlican, dried eggplant, hanging from strings in shops and had been wondering about the taste and texture. The Missus order the Kuru Patlican Dolmasi - stuffed dried eggplant.

The filling was seasoned nicely, tangy and mildly spicy like ezme. The texture of the dry eggplant was....well, we couldn't cut it with a knife. It was really hard and had a flavor I could recall from my childhood.....cardboard. I don't know if it wasn't re-hydrated enough or what, but this wasn't the best thing I had to eat on this trip.

I ordered the Sac Tava, in this case a very mild meat was used. The Tava is a steel pan in which the food is cooked....for some reason it sort of reminded me of a hub cap.

Nicely flavored, this was quite good with the bread. The menu said that veal was used for this dish.....I can tell you it wasn't lamb or goat.

Overall, the food was decent, the prices a bit lower than many other places....the Server was so nice and kept us in stitches with his antics......and the Missus discovered sahlep. I'd say that this was a pretty good time.

After dinner we decided to take a walk down these back streets. And like I said before, there's history around every corner in Istanbul. At the end of one of the streets we came across this mosque.

This mosque is known as Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, "Little Hagia Sofia". You know, it does look like Hagia Sofia. This was previously the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, built by Justinian I in 527 AD, making it one of the first buildings ordered by Justinian. During the Ottoman reign it was converted to a mosque.

As we walked the grounds....we were eagerly welcomed into the mosque. The older gentleman waved us in......the interior is quite striking.

Climbing up the stairs so we could view the colonnades and the rest of the mosque, I noticed how worn the stone stairs were.......

It made me wonder....how many pairs of feet had climbed up these stairs?

History is everywhere here......

Leaving the mosque, we took a different street back to our hotel. And at the corner of Aksakal and Nakilbent we came across a market......

There are few things we enjoy more than explroing the local markets and bazaars.....

The ones like these....the neighborhood versions show us what folks are eating and buying.

This was a nice little stop for us. After a while we walked back to the hotel....we needed to get some sleep, we'd have to get up at 5am for our transfer to the airport the next morning.......

Istanbul: Bosphorus Ferry Tour, Balik Ekmek, Yeni Camii, and Hotel Djem

After a fairly hectic couple of days in Cappadocia we caught our flight back to Istanbul. We'd be staying one night then heading onward to Athens and Crete. By this time we had the metro and tram system pretty much down pat and made it to Sulthanmet Park and got out and made our way to the Hotel Djem, which is located across the park and the Hippodrome on the opposite side from our previous hotel. We enjoyed this hotel so much that we decided to make it our base for the rest of our time in Istanbul. Walking out into the street, you can see the back of the Blue Mosque rising into the air....there's something so exotic and exciting about Istanbul.

When we arrived the first thing the manager did was offer us tea while he checked on our reservation. The moment he found our reservation he told us to have some breakfast....and typical of Turkey, it was quite a spread.

There was a little guy who worked the breakfast buffet who was constantly in motion....he seemed to always be on a mission of sorts. Watching him work kept us entertained during our breakfasts.

We loved the gentleman who managed the place...when he found out we'd be leaving early the next morning, before breakfast service, he asked, well more like told us that we'd need something to eat...so they would have something ready for us if we wanted. We told him yogurt and some fruit would be perfectly fine....you gotta love Turkey!

While the Missus was freshening up, I asked the young man about cruises on the Bosphorus.......and really appreciated his honest advice. "You just arrived today and are perhaps a bit tired. Personally, I would just take one of the more inexpensive two hour cruises, the all day ones are a bit long......and after a while, all the buildings will start looking the same. You will stop enjoying it." We took his advice...... He would be our best source during our stays in Istanbul.

We caught the tram down to Eminonu as it started to drizzle and looked over a couple of the cruises near the Galata Bridge which I posted on before.

As we boarded it started raining a bit harder.....it was also fairly cold. The chestnut dude was doing great business though!

Here's what the regular ferryboats look like.

It turned out that two hours was just about the right amount of time for us. Here are some of the sights.

Üsküdar the Asian side of Istanbul.

The beautiful Ortaköy Mosque.

The gentleman at the hotel was right....by the time we hit Rumeli Hisari we had peaked and had our fill......though the cruise really highlighted how little we saw of Istanbul during our trip.

There was one thing that kept us form getting bored though....it was this lovely couple.....

Both were middle-aged. Neither sported wedding rings. The gentleman sported a very serious and conservative suit. The woman wore...well, I mostly remember her for the pointy tipped shoes like we saw in the souvenir shops. Both acted like teenagers in love. As the woman walked to the back of the cabin the gentleman trailed her filming her every move. In fact, he filmed just about every move she took. Once, I thought she had her fill and walked out of the cabin....but no, she was just stepping outside so she could do poses right out the window.....yep, you guessed it, just so the guy could film it! It almost seemed like something out of a comedy. It kept our attention for most of the return trip......it was sweet, cute, hilarious, and just plain bizarre all at the same time.

All along the area around the Galata Bridge are boats selling Balik Ekmek, the famous fish sandwich.

The boats have grills installed on them which already gets your attention, but many have eye-catching...well, almost gaudy design and ornamentation. Some of the hawkers even dress up in what I can only guess is Ottoman style garb...all the while yelling out "BAAaaaa-Liiiik". There's an area where several of the boats gather that have a fairly nice looking dining area set-up.

I walked on over and really didn't like the smell of the fish so I passed.

However, as we got off our boat, I noticed this little boat doing some serious business.

So I decided to try one....you can't beat the price, 2.5 TRY, about $1.25! This being Turkey, the sandwich had quite a bit of bread.

I made a mistake when I first got my sandwich; I had a taste of just the fish, undoubtedly mackerel,which tasted just plain fishy and off. Ick. However, when nestled in the bread, the pungency of the onions helped to cut the fishiness and oil. It tasted much better, but I didn't enjoy the aftertaste...it was not among my favorites from this trip. In fact, I'd take "fish curd" and even "fish poo" (fish preserved in it's own intestinal scrapings) that I had in Laos over this any day of the week.

As we walked to the underground crosswalk I saw the infamous mussel vendor. But after my Balik Ekmek I decided to pass.....

Whenever you're near the Galata Bridge, you can't help but notice the wonderful looking mosque across the street, next to the Spice Market.

The name of the mosque is Yeni Camii, "New Mosque", though it ain't that new being built in the 17th century.

In fact, the Spice Market was built as part of the mosque complex to create revenue for the mosque.

We had heard that the Mosque is quite beautiful and though we passed by several times it was suaully around one of the calls to prayer. We wanted to be respectful and not intrude...so perhaps next time.

There are women selling bird seed to feed the thousands of pigeons that flock around the mosque.

 On one afternoon, we saw these men performing Wudu the sacred wash before prayers.

We walked back to our warm and dry room at the Hotel Djem, in need of a shower.....

 And perhaps a nap.......

Man, did we love this hotel.......

COMC: Our new weekly habit.........Sultan Kebab & Baklava

It could be that we're just missing Turkey.......but it's more probable that the food here is pretty darn good. It's now, along with Sakura just about a weekly stop. To the point that we know when the lavas is going to be good (there's a young man you really knows how to make it) and when the kebabs are going to be very tasty (when the owner is at the grill). Not much else to say that I haven't said in one of my previous posts. So here's a COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) post for a lazy Monday.

On one occasion we couldn't believe how busy the place was. And everyone seemed to be eating tons of food. During that evening, the rice that came with the Kuzu Incik (the lamb shank dish pictured above) was covered with tasty stewed white beans. When I noted how busy the place was, the owner's daughter told us, "yes, it's Ramadan." Duh, I should have known.

It is of course:

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Hope you had a great Monday!