I love Istanbul. It’s exotic, foreign, frenetic and exciting. The old city streets are like a rushing river where you are sucked into the current and taken on a bumpy, serpentine ride through the town.
Shopkeepers are hawking their wares and you’ll hear salutations in several languages.
A modern tram connects the old city with the new city. The tram line is my Turkish North Star. No matter where I am, if I can find the tram line, I can find my way back to the Sirecki Mansion hotel.
The hotel is lovely with its understated ottoman décor and basement Hamam. Hamam is a Turkish bath. Yesterday, I had a traditional bath. You start in the sauna, then head to the bath where you lay down on heated marble while your attendant cleans and scrubs every nook and cranny.
My attendant was a blue collar Fabio, complete with shoulder length blonde hair, one earring and intricate tattoos on his pecs. Even though he said he was Turkish, I’m convinced one of his ancestors was a marauding Viking. The tattoos rippled as he massaged my feet. I would have included a picture, however sometimes the memory of a moment is better than the reality of a picture. Ah, but back to the bath ritual.
After the loofah scrub, there’s a warm water dousing, followed by rose scented lather. After the abrasive loofah, the bubbles are quite soothing. There’s another warm water dousing, a five minute rest and finally, a 45 minute oil massage. It’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
The hotel concierge, Okay ( pronounced oh ki) is gracious and knowledgeable. We went with him on two walking tours of the city.
The food tour was a great way to meet the locals and explore the cuisine. We started out with Pide, ( pee-deh), Turkish pizza.
Pita dough is stretched out into a long oval, spread with a topping and then the edges are turned in slightly. The pide is cooked in a wood fired oven. The toppings vary, we had a cheese and lamb sausage pide. Both were excellent. The cheese throughout the trip has been diet busting.
After the pide, there was a fifth generation kofte shop. Koftes are meatballs made wit a combination of beef, lamb and spices. The Icli Kofte is breaded with bulgur and deep fried.
Then we went to a 4th generation gyro stand. The stores are no more than 12 feet wide. Many have steep and somewhat precarious steps leading to seating. All of the small shops in the Sirecki district specialize in just one type of menu item.
Our next to last food stop was for Cig Kofte. It’s a raw bulgur and tomato paste mixture served on lettuce with a big squeeze of lemon. The chef was a large boisterous man who happily sprayed both you and your lettuce leaf with lemon.
The final stop was for Kokorec, it’s a dish from Anatolia often eaten by nomads. Lamb or goat intestines are slowly grilled over a charcoal spit. The “meat” is minced, sprinkled with oregano, and Turkish spices, flavored with tomato paste and plopped on a baguette. It’s suppose to be a hangover cure. You could call it Turkish pate.
The coffee scene has taken hold of Istanbul. Trendy little shops offer Turkish coffee and teas along with other beverages.
Did you know the Turks gave Europe both the tulip and roasted coffee. The last siege of Vienna by the Turks was in 1683. The Polish forces, commanded by John III Sobieski, were the decisive factor in the battle. As the ottomans fled, they left behind a large cache of coffee and tulips.
Tulips had been significant in the Ottoman Empire since the 12th century. The bulbs came from the Anatolia area. The flower is featured in literature, rug patterns and mosaics. A small number of tulip bulbs had been sent by the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s ambassador in Istanbul, who was also a botanist, to Vienna and then to the Netherlands. The large cache of bulbs left after the battle did a great deal to instantiate tulips in Europe.
The Viennese were confounded by the 500 sacks of coffee beans.
Kolschitzky, a resident of Vienna who had lived among the Turks and had served as a spy for Austria Hungary preceding the siege, asked for the mysterious beans as payment for his espionage work. He went door to door, selling Turkish Coffee and eventually, he equipped a large tent with roasters, samovars and tables. His one man effort kicked off the high octane coffee habit in the Austrian empire. The Coffee goes nicely with baklava, but if you want baklava, you’ll have to go to a different shop. Perhaps, you might want something cold and sweet.
Dondurma is Turkish ice cream. The addition of salep and mastic gives it a chewy and elastic quality. Vendors serve the dessert with a long handled metal scoop. It’s a tourist delight as the vendor dazzles the crowd with spinning the scoops through the air and tempting the buyers. Due to the mastic, the ice cream is resistant to melting and makes it an ideal treat for tots and messy adults.
I think it’s a good idea to end any trip with dessert. There’s much more to Istanbul than the few items I wrote about. Despite periodic political issues and erratic leaders, Istanbul loves tourists. If you’re interested in an inexpensive trip to an exotic slice of the world, come to Turkey.