{"id":66550,"date":"2013-02-26T09:24:49","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T07:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=66550"},"modified":"2023-04-05T13:46:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:46:51","slug":"traditional-kofte-in-istanbuls-sirkeci-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/02\/26\/traditional-kofte-in-istanbuls-sirkeci-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional K\u00f6fte in Istanbul\u2019s Sirkeci Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Where we come from, flipping burgers is a time-honored tradition among pimply teenagers looking for a summer job and troubled short-order cooks looking for a place to land in between firings. It\u2019s work that promises mobility, not stability.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-66551\" alt=\"cb_ist_filibe_ys_final1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/cb_ist_filibe_ys_final1.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/cb_ist_filibe_ys_final1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/cb_ist_filibe_ys_final1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/cb_ist_filibe_ys_final1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>But don\u2019t tell that to Ziver Usta, who\u2019s been turning the k\u00f6fte \u2013 something like Turkey\u2019s equivalent of the hamburger \u2013 at the grill of the shoe-box-sized\u00a0Me\u015fhur Filibe K\u00f6ftecisi in Sirkeci for the last 30 years. The dough-faced Ziver, in his early fifties, is actually the restaurant\u2019s junior employee \u2013 \u201chead waiter\u201d Mehmet has been there for 40 years \u2013 but his long tenure means he\u2019s only one of a select handful of grill masters who have worked at Filibe over the course of its\u00a0100-year history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust like a shop goes from father to son, the grill goes from one master to another,\u201d Ziver, dressed in a white apron and a small peaked cap that looks like it actually might have been salvaged from the kitchen of a 1950s American drive-in burger stand, says proudly. Does he get bored doing the same thing six days a week? Ziver seems surprised to hear the question. \u201cNever,\u201d he says. \u201cI do it with love. I like serving folks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We definitely felt the love in Filibe\u2019s outstanding k\u00f6fte, juicy little buttons of meat that come off Ziver\u2019s coal-fired grill with just the right amout of char. (Although the name Filibe refers to the Balkan town from which the restaurant\u2019s owners hail, the cook told us it really means \u201cjuicy.\u201d) The piyaz \u2013 white bean salad, served with shredded lettuce and carrot \u2013 that came on the side was impeccably fresh and, as always, provided just the right counterpoint to the little meatballs. The restaurant\u2019s central location, not far from the Sirkeci train station and the bustling open-air \u201cfood court\u201d on Hocapa\u015fa Sokak, further adds to its appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The century-old, two-item menu here is augmented by the presence of revani, an extremely homey dessert made out of a dense white cake that\u2019s been soaked in a sugary syrup. \u201cIt\u2019s good for your sex drive,\u201d waiter Mehmet promised us with a sly nod, Ziver chuckling appreciatively, as if it was the first time he had heard that joke in the 30 years they\u2019d been working together.<\/p>\n<p>Great k\u00f6fte, time-proven service and bawdy humor \u2013 who can get bored with that?<\/p>\n<p>Address: Ankara Caddesi 112, Sirkeci<\/p>\n<p>Telephone: +90 212 519 3976<\/p>\n<p>Hours: 11am-5pm; closed Sunday<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(photos by Yigal Schleifer)<\/p>\n<p>via Traditional K\u00f6fte in Istanbul\u2019s Sirkeci Area | Culinary Backstreets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where we come from, flipping burgers is a time-honored tradition among pimply teenagers looking for a summer job and troubled short-order cooks looking for a place to land in between firings. It\u2019s work that promises mobility, not stability. But don\u2019t tell that to Ziver Usta, who\u2019s been turning the k\u00f6fte \u2013 something like Turkey\u2019s equivalent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":66551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[5457],"class_list":["post-66550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-turkish-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66550","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=66550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}