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Aug 24
Monday
Reviews (Eats)
Meşhur Unkapanı İMÇ Pilavcısı: The (Rice) Freaks Come Out at Night

Rice by night -- photo by Yigal Schleifer
One recent late night, zipping down a busy Istanbul thoroughfare in a taxi on our way home from the airport, we passed by an intriguing scene. Huddled around a brightly lit food cart was a large group of men stuffing their faces in a kind of zombie-like frenzy. It almost looked like a scene out of Night of the Living Dead. What were they eating?

Curious to find out what was going on, we returned several nights later, armed with nothing more than a notepad, pen and an empty stomach. As we made our way up Ataturk Bulvarı, a busy road in the Fatih neighborhood that runs through the Byzantine-era Valens Aqueduct and down to the Golden Horn, the cart – and the crowd – were again there at the same spot. The cart, it turned out, serves up a pilaf of rice, chickpeas and chicken along with ayran (a salty yogurt drink) – comfort food that comes at a very comforting price.

There are probably hundreds of pilav carts crisscrossing Istanbul every day, but this one seemed different. While the owners of other carts usually roll along trolling for business, this one stays put every night, letting the crowds come to him. “We’ve been in the same spot for 15 years,” said the cart’s operator, a hardworking man in a starched white chef’s smock, who would only give his first name, Ayvaz, for fear of getting in trouble with the authorities. “We’re famous – that’s why there’s always a crowd here.”

Indeed, at one point during the night, some 15 hungry customers were gathered around Ayvaz, who was furiously dishing out servings of pilav on small metal plates. “This is the best pilaf. It just tastes different,” said one of the rice freaks, a big smile on his face. Ayvaz certainly knows what he’s doing: the buttery rice in his pilaf was deeply flavorful, tasting like it was cooked in chicken stock. The perfectly cooked chickpeas, meanwhile added texture to the pilaf, which was topped by thin chunks of moist chicken breast. For a final touch, most of the people around us added a squirt of ketchup to their pilaf (a measly 2.00 lira for rice and chicken, 1.50 lira for rice only), something that we also tried, and approve of. The ayran, poured from a small wooden cask that rests on top of the rice cart, seemed like the perfect drink to wash down the pilav.

The crowds that gather every night around Ayvaz’s cart may be the best testament to the power of his pilaf. But there’s another – imitators. Following in Ayvaz’s footsteps, other cart operators have started to set up shop along Ataturk Bulvarı, offering the same basic pilav and ayran combo. But Ayvaz doesn’t seem to be worried. “Those guys,” he said, pointing to his competitors, “they’re not pilaf makers. They’re pirates.”

Address: Ataturk Bulvarı, Unkapanı (near the “İMÇ Carsisi 1. Blok” sign on the east side of the street, on the way to the aqueduct. Look for the crowd.)
Telephone: No phone

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

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4 Responses to “ Meşhur Unkapanı İMÇ Pilavcısı: The (Rice) Freaks Come Out at Night ”
  1. sokak pilavı, it is surely one of the things i miss most when i’m away from istanbul. but i heard that these guys at İMÇ were gone, removed by local municipality i suppose. when did you last see them?

  2. Last time we were there was three weeks ago. They definitely seemed worried about being removed at the time, so we’ll have to check it out and see if that’s what has happened. We hope that’s not the case.


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