Monday

Istanbul’s Top 5 Street Foods: #5 – The Galata Cucumber Man

(Editor’s Note: This week Istanbul Eats is celebrating Istanbul’s vibrant (and sometimes plain wacky) street food scene with a highly subjective look at five of our favorite street foods and some of the best places to get them. We’ll be writing about a different food every day, so join us as we work our way up to #1 on Friday.)

We’ve never learned his name and at this time of the year he is probably preparing for his winter hibernation. But we eagerly await the reappearance in the spring of the vendor we know simply as the “cucumber man of Galata” (pictured above, smoking), a chubby fellow with Coke bottle glasses who sells what may be the city’s simplest, yet most satisfying street food: peeled and salted cukes, a fresh green rebuke to all those starchy and fried snacks out there. Continue…