![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/CB_ist_iskender_GokcenCeylan_1.jpg\" "\\"CB_ist_iskender_GokcenCeylan_1\\"")
<\/p>\nA visit to Bursa \u0130skender Kebab\u0131\u00ae feels as if you\u2019ve stepped right into the war room of the \u0130skendero\u011flu family\u2019s never-ending quest to establish ownership over the \u0130skender kebab, a plate of d\u00f6ner laying on a bed of cut flatbread doused with tomato sauce and butter and served with a scoop of cool yogurt on the side. The tables and walls of the restaurant are covered with literature about what the owners see as their family\u2019s inheritance, but the rest of the world seems to consider public domain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Bursa we ate at the flagship restaurant and, by chance, we found a branch on the side of the road in Susurluk. But in addition to the official \u0130skender kebab, we admit to eating dozens of delicious pirated copies all over the world, so we feel comfortable speaking as an authority on the subject. In Istanbul, though there are many tasty options for this specialty, the best one belongs to its \u201coriginator,\u201d Kebap\u00e7\u0131 \u0130skender in Kad\u0131k\u00f6y.<\/p>\n
As our placemat informed us, the restaurant holds the trademarks for Kebap\u00e7\u0131 \u0130skender, Bursa \u0130skender Kebap\u00e7\u0131s\u0131, Bursa Kebap\u00e7\u0131 \u0130skender, \u0130skender Kebab\u0131, \u0130skender Kebap\u00e7\u0131s\u0131 and Hakiki \u0130skender Kebab\u0131. (A warning to anyone named \u0130skender: steer clear of this restaurant; they even hold the trademark on your first name.) According to the restaurant\u2019s website, the kebab\u2019s inception was in Bursa in the late 19th century, when \u0130skender effendi took roasted lamb to new heights by turning the spit upright \u2013 the modern vision of d\u00f6ner \u2013 and shaving the meat over chopped pide, adding a sauce to the result. The \u0130skendero\u011flu descendants not only claim the recipe as their family\u2019s heritage, but also credit their grandfather with inventing vertically roasted d\u00f6ner.<\/p>\n
A good \u0130skender kebab takes a while to prepare, so we had plenty of time to ponder these claims while we waited for our order. In a recent issue of Yemek ve K\u00fclt\u00fcr we\u2019d seen photos of vertical d\u00f6ner kebab taken in Istanbul in the 1850\u2019s, nearly 20 years prior to the date of invention claimed by the \u0130skendero\u011flu family. Even earlier sources in the same article describe vertical d\u00f6ner kebab being sold on the streets of Istanbul. And what are the chances that those documented preparations of d\u00f6ner were the first in the history of roasted meat? We are certain that once the mosaics of Haghia Sophia are fully uncovered, we\u2019ll see divine depictions of Byzantine-era d\u00f6ner.<\/p>\n
Our senses snapped back to the intense smell of browned butter sizzling in a skillet before us. This is what in Turkish is known as the p\u00fcf noktas\u0131, or the crux of the preparation, in which the waiter drizzles rich melted butter all over the ingredients assembled on the plate. The butter rampaged through, ravaging the yogurt, scalding slices of tomato, softening the green pepper and conspiring with long slices of d\u00f6ner in a conspiracy to soak the slightly crispy pide with otherworldly flavor. Fork in hand, it was easy to forget that this place was on the frontlines of a battle. Dredging delicious smoky shavings of lamb d\u00f6ner and cubes of pide through buttery yogurt, we didn\u2019t even care to estimate the number of hours that must have been spent in the notary office collecting all of those trademarks.<\/p>\n
Above our table, we noticed a framed picture of \u0130skender effendi scowling down at us above several rows of his descendants. We wondered if he would feel honored or outraged by the fact that three other places on the very same street are selling a dish named after him. Despite their efforts, his grandsons may have failed at being the only \u0130skender Kebab\u0131, but by our measure they have succeeded at serving the best one. That\u2019s an inheritance defended in the kitchen, not the courtroom.<\/p>\n
Address: \u202aR\u0131ht\u0131m Caddesi, next to the PTT (post office), Kad\u0131k\u00f6y<\/p>\n
\u202aTelephone: +90 216 336 0777<\/p>\n
Web: www.iskenderkebabi.com<\/p>\n
Hours: 11am-10pm<\/p>\n
(photos by G\u00f6k\u00e7en Ceylan)<\/p>\n
via The Best Iskender Kebab in Istanbul | Culinary Backstreets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A visit to Bursa \u0130skender Kebab\u0131\u00ae feels as if you\u2019ve stepped right into the war room of the \u0130skendero\u011flu family\u2019s never-ending quest to establish ownership over the \u0130skender kebab, a plate of d\u00f6ner laying on a bed of cut flatbread doused with tomato sauce and butter and served with a scoop of cool yogurt on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":57584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[7008,8426,5457],"class_list":["post-57582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-doner","tag-iskender","tag-turkish-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57582","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=57582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}