Turkish cuisine, like Turkey itself, channels cultural currents coming in from every direction, resulting in the delicious culinary chaos that is Istanbul. Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Persians and countless others have passed through here, leaving an indelible stamp on the cuisine. Historians speak of the \u201clayered\u201d nature of the city; we like to think of Istanbul as a stew.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n Our culinary walks in Istanbul, done in partnership with the award-winning IstanbulEats.com, are designed to lead visitors on an eating binge through the city\u2019s lesser-seen historic side streets and authentic markets, taking in countless hard-to-find culinary gems and, in between bites, a select number of untouristed monuments.<\/p>\n We are currently happy to offer four walks:<\/p>\n Cosmopolitan Beyo\u011flu Culinary Secrets of the Old City Two Markets, Two Continents The Kebab Krawl All four walks are designed for small groups and usually last half a day (except for the Kebab Krawl, which takes place at night and lasts several hours).\u00a0Please contact us at istanbulwalks@culinarybackstreets.com\u00a0for more details and rates<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Washington Post Below are some comments that we\u2019ve received from visitors to Istanbul who have taken our walks:<\/p>\n \u201cOur Istanbul Eats culinary walk was one of the highlights of our trip to Istanbul. We enjoyed every second of it. Angelis, our guide, was extremely knowledgeable and a perfect host. Not only did he introduce us to some\u00a0unique food and interesting little restaurants, he also took us to a few historical sites that were off the beaten path. The only problem with our walk was I wish our appetites were larger so we could have had more! It was definitely\u00a0a perfect combination of one-of-a-kind food in a one-of-a-kind setting and we would recommend it\u00a0to anyone who is visiting Istanbul and wants a better\u00a0understanding of the food and to\u00a0visit some non-touristy places.\u201d<\/p>\n Mindy and Brock \u201cThe Istanbul Eats walk was definitely one of the highlights on our recent trip to Turkey. We spent almost five hours exploring\u00a0the places where locals shop and eat. Having never been to Istanbul, we would have gone to the usual touristy spots, and probably eaten well, but never have found the tasty delights that the walk introduced us to.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t just about the food. We saw parts of the city that we might never have seen\u2026 back streets and old buildings,\u00a0traditional shops and family businesses that have been producing amazing foods generation after generation, the kind of places that are disappearing all too fast as the city modernizes.\u201d<\/p>\n Liz and Teymoor, <\/em>Qatar<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe Istanbul Eats walking\u00a0tour was a great, non-touristy experience \u2014 like going out with a local friend who knew all the off-the-beaten-path great authentic markets, shops and eateries we would never have found on our own. To cap it off, we were given restaurant suggestions that were spot on, which made the rest of our week a pleasure.\u00a0\u00a0What a way to sample the fabulous foods of Istanbul!\u201d<\/p>\n Ken Kopelman, NYC<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf you want an\u00a0authentic taste\u00a0<\/em>of the Old City area surrounding the Spice Market, put away your guidebooks and go on an insider\u2019s tour that takes you through the \u2018rarely seen\u2019 secret places and sites on the culinary walk\u00a0<\/em>provided by Istanbul Eats. You will be welcomed into generations-old tea rooms, food merchants\u2019 kitchens and shops, working peoples\u2019 restaurants, hidden mosques and the most intriguing landmarks and curious sights that you won\u2019t find on those tours where the guide rallies a mob of people around an upheld umbrella. At the end of this tour your stomach is full and your expectations have been fulfilled. Walk. Eat. Marvel!\u201d<\/p>\n Lew Sherwood, USA<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEl tour es espectacular, me llevaron a lugares que son muy dificiles de encontrar por tu cuenta. Terminamos comiendo sandia, queso y pan ( \u00a1! ) con unos parroquianos en un cafe inencontrable. La gente es muy amable en Turquia. Recomiendo hacer la caminata los primeros dias al llegar a Estambul, asi despues puede uno moverse con mas soltura dentro del alucinante mundo gastronomico que tiene Estambul. No dejen de probar el Kokorec, una especie de choto Uruguayo superdimensionado.\u201d<\/p>\n Estanislao, Spain<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Turkish cuisine, like Turkey itself, channels cultural currents coming in from every direction, resulting in the delicious culinary chaos that is Istanbul. Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Persians and countless others have passed through here, leaving an indelible stamp on the cuisine. Historians speak of the \u201clayered\u201d nature of the city; we like to think of Istanbul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[5457],"class_list":["post-65361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-turkish-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65361","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=65361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Until recently, Greek, Armenian and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) were the languages spoken in most kitchens of Istanbul\u2019s historic district of Beyo\u011flu. Though the old cosmopolitans who populated the belle \u00e9poque apartment buildings of Istanbul\u2019s \u201cEuropean Quarter\u201d have largely been replaced by a vibrant blend of rural Anatolians and global bohemians, traces of these unique cultures remain, creating a very unique dining culture \u2013 at once rough and refined. With Beyo\u011flu\u2019s cosmopolitan history as a backdrop, on this walk we eat our way through the well-known and unknown eateries of the neighborhood, the old and the new, tasting specialties from all over the country. Beginning with a fresh simit<\/em> and tea and a crash course in Anatolian cheeses, we\u2019ll have a bracing shot of pickle juice and maybe a chicken breast pudding for starters. Winding our way through the side streets, there will be Chechen pastries, sublime Turkish delight, fish markets, street vendors, a full lunch and finally, the best Turkish coffee in the city. Depending on the day and what the walk comes across, there will be several other culinary surprises along the way.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Our \u201cCulinary Secrets of the Old City\u201d walk takes you beyond the major monuments and into the backstreets where all of the serious eating is done. We set off through the atmospheric, lesser-explored market streets around the Egyptian Spice Market and deeper into the untouristed Fatih neighborhood. In Kantarc\u0131lar, a district that has been selling weights and measures since Ottoman times, we visit a local confectionary where Turkish delight has been made and sold for four generations. From there we visit an all-but-abandoned caravanserai, a couple of hidden historical sites, an old-school pudding shop, an Ottoman-era bozac\u0131<\/em> and, finally, a full lunch of traditional pit-roasted lamb in a very local, family-run place next to the Byzantine aqueduct (with lots of other edible treats along the way). These are the city\u2019s quintessential culinary backstreets.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong> Our favorite Istanbul experiences include exploring the eateries of local markets and crossing the Bosphorus on the public ferry. The \u201cTwo Markets, Two Continents\u201d route draws from our best-of list in the European side\u2019s Karak\u00f6y neighborhood and the Asian side\u2019s Kad\u0131k\u00f6y, tied together by a Bosphorus crossing.\u00a0The historic Per\u015fembe Pazar\u0131 of Karak\u00f6y, where this walks begins, might look like a place to buy springs, ship anchors, hardware and paint supplies, but we go there for breakfast at a lovely little\u00a0esnaf lokantas\u0131<\/em> run by husband-and-wife team, followed by a stroll through the atmospheric mariner market streets, where we stop into an Ottoman-era caravanserai for tea. Then we hop the boat to Kad\u0131k\u00f6y on the Asian side and eat our way through that neighborhood\u2019s market, sampling regional specialties such as Mersin\u2019s\u00a0tantuni<\/em>, Gaziantep\u2019s\u00a0lahmacun<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0\u0131slama k\u00f6fte<\/em>\u00a0of Adapazar\u0131. We continue on toward the lesser-explored culinary hotspot of Moda, where we will taste life-changing traditional desserts from Turkey\u2019s Southeast and Black Sea regions\u00a0and, to round things out, visit a neighborhood institution for authentic Turkish ice cream.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s nighttime in Istanbul\u2019s \u201cLittle Urfa.\u201d Follow the wail of the Kurdish Frank Sinatra, \u0130brahim Tatl\u0131ses, blasting from a souped-up vintage Fiat. Puzzle over handwritten Arabic signs in the barbershop windows. Sample the essence of Southeast Turkey in the spice shops selling the region\u2019s fiery peppers. And, most of all, marinate in the fragrant smoke that comes from the countless grill houses that line this neighborhood\u2019s streets. These are among the sights, sounds, smells and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 tastes that are part of an unforgettable guided group dinner in the culinary backstreets of Little Urfa.\u00a0Led by members of the Istanbul Eats team, the Kebab Krawl is a carefully curated nighttime feast of traditional Southeastern Turkish cuisine that changes locations with every course, allowing you to take in the best of this atmospheric out-of-the-way \u2019hood. The Krawl will begin with the gumbo-like masterpiece soup,\u00a0beyran \u00e7orbas\u0131<\/em>, and then detour for skewered liver from a fourth-generation Urfa griller. There will be a stop at a bakery for artisanal\u00a0lahmacun<\/em>\u00a0straight out of the oven and then we\u2019ll belly up to the kebab bar of Veysel Usta, for his exceptionally delicious handmade kebabs, served up with sharp wit. We will not relent until the group has made one more stop, for the neighborhood\u2019s best\u00a0k\u00fcnefe<\/em>, a funky pastry of fresh cheese and crispy shredded wheat spiked with Anteppistachios. As it rolls along, the Kebab Krawl will also make stops at other local food and spice shops for a further taste of local flavor.\u00a0Less a tour than an organized movable feast for the hungry and intrepid, the Kebab Krawl may not replace a bus ticket to Urfa, but it is the next best thing.<\/p>\n
\nSerious Eats
\nThe Atlantic
\nPRI\u2019s The World
\nDinner Party Downloads<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Toronto, Canada<\/em><\/p>\n