{"id":53281,"date":"2012-05-07T13:19:43","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T10:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=53281"},"modified":"2023-04-06T10:10:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T07:10:39","slug":"homesick-for-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/05\/07\/homesick-for-istanbul\/","title":{"rendered":"Homesick for Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"

It happens every time I go to Istanbul. I visit for a few days and the city embeds itself so far under my skin that I find it emotionally distressing to leave. This is how it used to feel when I left Rome during my bright college years when I was coming and going for thesis research. But back in the early 2000s, I was ballsy and my brain was more malleable, so I could see myself moving abroad (I did!) and learning the language (did that, too). Now, a move doesn\u2019t seem so easy and the complexities and financial sacrifices of relocating makes the pangs of homesickness I feel for Istanbul that much more acute.<\/p>\n

This trip was particularly special, as it is springtime in Istanbul and my friend \u015eemsa and I made the most of it with daily breakfasts and dinners on her balcony. We both enjoyed the ridiculous view of the Bosphorus Bridge and I felt particularly pampered by her extraordinary artichoke-driven cooking.<\/p>\n

I had a few really wonderful meals out, including lunch with Tuba<\/span> at \u00c7iya, a place everyone freaks out over, but which I sometimes find disappointing (world\u2019s worst i\u00e7li k\u00f6fte<\/em>, anyone?). This was not the case on Wednesday. We had some amazing seasonal kebabs like sar\u0131msak kebab\u0131<\/em> (garlic kebab) and yeni d\u00fcnya kebab\u0131<\/em> (loquat kebab).<\/p>\n

Lunch at Kasap Osman in Sirkeci was downright disgusting\u2026they put melted cheese on my doner! Vomitous. So I went across the street to Naml\u0131 Rumeli K\u00f6ftecisi for a nice plate of redeeming, palate-cleansing k\u00f6fte<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Another meaty highlight were the k\u00f6fte<\/em> at Ali Baba in Arnavutk\u00f6y, my ideal comfort food.<\/p>\n

I also enjoyed strolling along the Bosphorus admiring the houses I will never be able to afford.<\/p>\n

Back in the thick of it all, I spent an afternoon in the Grand Bazaar, something I never<\/em> do because the hawkers are so profoundly obnoxious. But this time I went after a good lunch at \u015eeyhmus Kebap Evi with my buddy Ansel of Istanbul Eats.<\/p>\n

Sufficiently nourished and armed with headphones and a stone face, I braved the hey ladys and where you froms shouted by the tchotchke vendors and hightailed it to the antiques section where I window shopped for sugar bowls, marble mortars and copper samovars.<\/p>\n

Then it was back to \u015eemsa\u2019s for another fabulous meal. With a spread like this, leaving seems like a crime against good sense.<\/p>\n

Source : <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It happens every time I go to Istanbul. I visit for a few days and the city embeds itself so far under my skin that I find it emotionally distressing to leave. This is how it used to feel when I left Rome during my bright college years when I was coming and going for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":53282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[102,5457],"class_list":["post-53281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-istanbul","tag-turkish-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}