(Editor’s Note: Although the new year is already upon us, we had so many memorable Istanbul dining experiences in 2010 that we wanted to take one last look at the past year’s culinary highlights. So, before we get to the work of further exploring Istanbul in 2011, here’s our top 10 bites of 2010.)

For us, the best bites are often the ones that are most reliable. Before we review a restaurant for this site, we try to return several times to make sure that that best bite wasn’t a fluke.

1. Pera Sisore was always a reliable favorite of ours. However, after a shakeup in management we’ve noticed a dip in quality and consistency. Luckily, half of the Sisore team, including the kitchen staff, recently opened a new place in Beyoglu called Hayvore. We are happy to report that all of the Sisore favorites are on offer at Hayvore. Perhaps one of our last bites in 2010, Hayvore is definitely among the best.

2. Just down the street from Hayvore is another standard in our playbook, Cukur Meyhanesi. Excellent meze and fried liver aside, this is always one of the first places we head to when the hamsi, or Black Sea anchovies, start swimming. A plate of these tiny fish — skewered and grilled — help us understand the hamsi mania that envelopes Istanbul every winter.

3. Another unforgettable fish was set before us just last week at the Arnavutkoy favorite Adem Baba. We aren’t sure how many times we’ve eaten sole at Adem Baba — rolled, skewered and grilled with wedges of tomato and peppers, fried or grilled whole — but every time feels like the first time. After a double portion, we considered abandoning Beyoglu for the restaurant’s Bosphorus-side neighborhood just to be able to eat here everyday.

4. Along with the reliable best bites, there were also transcending moments when we felt we’d stumbled on something Bigger than a great meal. Smearing creamy fava puree on toasted bread, munching fried fish and drinking beer from a can dangerously close to the lapping Bosphorus at Sunanin Yeri in Kandilli was certainly one of these moments.

5. The first time we walked into Fatih Karadeniz Pidecisi in Fatih there was such intense pide-worship going on we thought we’d stumbled into the temple of a secret cult. But we were heartily welcomed into the ritual taking place and it was very special. This too was one of those out-of-body best bites.

6. If a few years ago you told us we’d be craving liver for lunch everyday, we would have laughed in your face. But the truth is that we can’t stop thinking about the Arnavut Ciger – aka “Albanian liver,” tiny morsels of calf’s liver that are dusted with flour and red pepper flakes and then fried and served with thin slices of raw onion – at Beyoglu’s Sahin Lokantasi. We really would be eating this dish for lunch seven days a week if it were not for the fact that Sahin – perhaps in an act of kindness to the other restaurants in the area – only serves liver every other day.

7. The Besiktas-based bistro-like Meyhane Sidika was one of our most satisfying finds of the year, with a great out-of-the-way location and lovingly prepared food. One of the restaurant’s meze specialties is a chunky, light green spread that turned out to be an utterly delicious mash made out of feta cheese and chopped pistachios. Nothing fancy – just good, honest food that was completely memorable.

8. In years past, the exceedingly short growing season of loquats always seemed to pass us by, which meant we usually missed our chance to have “Yeni Dunya Kebab” – a springtime specialty made by wrapping pitted loquats around minced meat and then grilling them on a skewer (in the picture above) until the fruit turns tangy and jam-like, serving as a perfect counterpoint to the fatty meat. This year we made a point of catching this unique and delicious kebab’s limited-run at Samatya’s Develi kebab house and we’re already counting the days until the first loquat appears this spring.

9. We’re all for culinary innovation, but there are some things that need little improvement. Take, for example, grilled ribs – a dish that has changed little since our earliest ancestors started putting meat to fire. Over at Taksim’s Zubeyir Ocakbasi, the kaburga – lamb ribs – are the kind of thing that awaken our inner caveman, an unbelievably satisfying mix of meat, fat, smoke and bone that always finds us ordering a second round.

10. There are several good spots to try durum – kebab wrapped in flatbread – around town, but this year we finally had a chance to try Aynen Durum, a superb joint just outside the Grand Bazaar that we had been eyeing for a long time. While the durum there was great, what we truly loved about this microscopic place was the vibe  and the crowd of hungry bazaar locals chowing down with a kind of reckless abandon rarely seen in other places around town.

Just when things started looking desperate, tipster ST whispered a mysterious word in our ear: Sidika. It sounded a bit like an incantation, but it was actually the name of a small meze restaurant and café. It’s location, in the down-to-earth Beşiktaş neighborhood, made it even more intriguing.

Although not that far from Beyoglu, Beşiktaş still feels like a proper neighborhood, with an appealing pedestrian market area and lots of little eateries that seem focused on feeding the locals rather than marauding weekenders. That said, the nabe is also spiffing up a bit, now home to Istanbul’s glitzy W Hotel and a nearby row of upscale shops and boutiques. But, unlike Beygolu, the area still feels like it has a nice balance between the old and the new. It makes us think of parts of Brooklyn (before Brooklyn became “Brooklyn”).

Sidika, located just up the street from the W Hotel, fits perfectly into that balance of old and new. Open for only a few years, the place already feels like it’s been there forever, radiating an inviting warmth and attracting a crowd that on a recent Saturday night ranged from scruffy hipsters to a boisterous group that could have been their parents. Inside, there’s old-school jazz playing in the background and a long chalkboard up against the wall listing what’s available. Sidika (it’s also the name of the restaurant’s owner) serves salads and pastas, which we’re sure are very good, but it’s the restaurant’s Aegean-style mezes and fish dishes that justify the trip to the wilds of Beşiktaş.

The restaurant’s grilled eggplant meze, for example, made us realize how much that simple dish has been degraded around town. Here it tasted of smoke and mellow, creamy eggplant and nothing else. It was among the best renditions of this meze classic that we’ve had in a long time. “Lettuce dolma” – a leaf of romaine wrapped a mix of fish, rice and herbs, was also a delicious revelation, as was a chunky, light green spread that turned out to be an utterly delicious mash made out of feta cheese and chopped pistachios. A cold meze made out of beetroot leaves that had been stewed in olive oil also left us deeply satisfied.

We finished our meal off with a very nicely done sea bass fillets wrapped in vine leaves and then grilled. Although not an uncommon dish, Sedika’s struck us as uncommonly well prepared, coming off the grill with the vine leaves still moist (as opposed to brittle and charred, as is sometimes the case), with their distinctive briny tang working as a nice counterpoint to the fish.

Used to Beyoglu’s high prices, we received something of a shock when the bill arrived at our table. Dinner for two, with a small bottle of raki, was an extremely reasonable 120 lira.

Our faith in Istanbul’s food restored, we believe we will be spending a lot more time in Beşiktaş from now on.

Address: Şair Nedim Cad. No: 38, Beşiktaş
Telephone: 212-259-7232
Web: www.sidika.com.tr

(photo courtesy of Sidika)

Day One: Turkey’s Regional Flavors in Beyoglu

Breakfast: Van Kahvalti Evi in Cihangir
In the city of Van, not far from Turkey’s border with Iran, breakfast has been turned into serious business: the town is filled with dozens of Kahvaltı Salonu’s – breakfast salons – that serve a dizzying assortment of farm fresh breakfast items day and night.

In recent years this superb breakfast has been working its way westward, with several Van-style spots now open in Istanbul. Our favorite is Van Kahavaltı Evi (Van Breakfast House) in Beyoglu’s Cihangir neighborhood. The restaurant hasquickly become one of the area’s most popular, and it’s easy to see why. The people running the friendly place serve a mean breakfast, bringing in most of their ingredients, some of them organic, from back east.

The Van breakfast takes the traditional Turkish breakfast of cheese, tomato, cucumber and some bread and turns it up several notches. At Van Kahvalti Evi, along with the standards, your breakfast plate comes with an assortment of local Van cheeses (including a very tasty one that contains brined wild herbs), kaymak (clotted cream), tangy cacik (thick yogurt spread) and murtuğa, a heavy wheat flour porridge that looks almost like scrambled eggs. Butter, jams, olives and some of Van’s famous honey round all this out – along with endless glasses of strong tea.
Address: Defterdar Yokuşu No: 52.A, Cihangir
Telephone: 212-293-6437

Lunch: Hayvore
At first glance, with its steam table covered with pots of ready-made food, Hayvore may look like any one of those quickie lunch spots found throughout Turkey. But there’s a difference – someone here is cooking up some serious Black Sea magic in the kitchen.

The Black Sea area is Turkey’s culinary misfit – not really about kebabs or meze. It’s simple, filling, down-home food and Hayvore is a great spot to get acquainted with it.

This time of year, the restaurant – found on a side street off busy Istiklal boulevard – serves a very tasty version of hamsi (fresh anchovy) pilaf, the holy grail of Black Sea cooking. A kind of savory fish cake, the pilaf has small hamsi filets wrapped around a thick bed of rice infused with herbs, currants and pine nuts.

Everything else we’ve tried at Hayvore has been a winner. A rib sticking stew made with kale, beans and hominy was earthy and smoky. Hayvore also serves up a fine version of another Black Sea staple – creamy white beans (kuru fasulye) cooked up in a rich, buttery red sauce.

On any given day, Hayvore has more than a dozen items bubbling away on the steam table, some typical Black Sea dishes, some not. It’s worth trying a few – it’s the easiest way to visit the Black Sea without leaving Istanbul.
Address: Turnacibasi Sokak 4, Beyoglu
Telephone: 212-245-7501

Tea Time: Güllüoğlu
Baklava, the flaky, phyllo-dough based pastry, has long ago stopped being a Middle Eastern regional specialty. In America, for example, it is now a staple of dessertmenus at diners and falafel stands across the country. But these places miss the point: baklava is actually not a dessert, but rather an event in itself.

In Istanbul, Karaköy Güllüoğlu is one of our favorite places for an authentic baklava experience. Located a stone’s throw from the Bosphorus, this baklava emporium has been catering to Istanbul sweet tooths since 1949, serving than a dozen different kinds of phyllo-based sweets, none of them resembling the cardboard-like, past-its-prime version of baklava that is often dished out outside the Middle East. Along with the excellent classic baklava, we are also fans of a specialty called sutlu Nuriye, made of flaky layers of pastry drenched in a sweet, milky sauce. After ordering your baklava, sit down at a table outside and catch the Bosphorus breeze.
Address: Katli Otopark Alti (main store) or 171 Mumhane Cad. (factory store), Karaköy
Phone: 212-293-0910 (main store) or 212-243-1376 (factory store)
Web: www.karakoygulluoglubaklava.com

Dinner: Antiochia
We recently stumbled upon Antiochia – a small restaurant on a quiet Beyoglu backstreet that exudes cool without sacrificing flavor.

From its funky logo to the hipster waiters, Antiochia clearly has a different ambition (and clientele) than most restaurants serving the Middle Eastern-influenced foodfrom Turkey’s southern Hatay region, an area wedged between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea.

Nar eksili cevizli kozbiber, a divine relish of red and green peppers in a pomegranate dressing, was topped with crushed walnuts, adding a crunchy texture to this sweet and sour cold starter. Tasting the homemade yogurt with mint proved just how little we knew about what yogurt can be — pleasantly sour and almost as thick as butter. Muammara, a thick spread of walnuts, red pepper and spices is a Hatay signature and a fine choice. Our favorite, though, was the kekik salatasi, an intense meze of green olives, fresh thyme and olive oil.

Antiochia’s main courses are simple, recognizable dishes, yet set to a higher frequency. Şiş et is a plate of marinated cubes of beef skewered and grilled over a charcoal fire. On any given evening in Beyoglu, there have got to be thousands of skewers of şiş et coming off the grill, but none are quite as tender and succulent as the one at Antiochia. The minced meat wrap, an Istanbul street food favorite, with onions and tomatoes, was among the best we’ve had in the city.
Address: Minare Sokak, Asmalimesict
Phone: 212-292-1100
Web: www.antiochiaconcept.com

Day Two: Old and New Istanbul on the Bosphorus

Breakfast: Besiktas Kaymakci (AKA Kaymakci Pando)
In our imagination, kaymak – the delicious Turkish version of clotted cream – is the only food served in heaven, where angels in white robes dish out plate after plate of the cloudlike stuff to the dearly departed, who no longer have to worry about cholesterol counts and visits to the cardiologist.

Perhaps we’re getting carried away, but kaymak can do that to you. For our money, the classic Turkish combo of kaymak served with honey and crusty white bread is one of the finest breakfasts this side of paradise. And one of our favorite places to eat this breakfast is Besiktas Kaymakci.

This tiny shop/eatery has been in business since 1895, and it certainly shows its age. The marble counter is cracked and the paint on the walls peeling. But the kaymak, served up by the 84-year-old Pando, a Turk of Bulgarian origin and a living institution in Istanbul’s untouristed Besiktas bazaar, is out of this world. Prices here also seem unchanged since 1895: a plate of kaymak and honey, served with fresh bread and a glass of steaming hot milk, will set you back 4 lira.
Address: Koyici Meydanı Sokak, Besiktas
Telephone: 212-258-2616

Lunch: Ismet Baba
Most fish restaurants are mere caricatures of places like Ismet Baba, where traditions have been kept sacred for more than fifty years. This may not be the best restaurant in the city, but it’s got something most of the others have lost, keeping rhythm to an old school style of Istanbul charm and character.

At Ismet Baba, located in Kuzguncuk, a charming Bosphorus neighborhood on the Asian side, we like to lean back, hunker down into a long raki-laced lunch and really enjoy this special place and its classic mezes. Pilaki, beans in olive oil, and the cold octopus salad are unusually good. We also like the haydari, a thick, tangy spread of strained yogurt and dill and the fried eggplant with a garlicky yogurt drizzle. The catch of the day is posted on a small black board in the dining room, and we found the grilled bream, cupra, or a plate of blue fish, cinekop, perfectly prepared and just the right amount.
Address: Carsi Caddesi #1A, Kuzguncuk
Telephone: 216-553-1232

Dinner: Abracadabra
This funky informal restaurant, housed in an imposing Ottoman-era mansion located smack dab on the Bosporus in the swank Arnavutkoy neighborhood, serves some of Istanbul’s most creative riffs on traditional Turkish cuisine.

The four floors of the building each have a very different vibe, from bar-like to intimate, although we suggest a table in the dine-in kitchen, up close and personal with Abracadabra’s spunky owner-chef Dilara Erbay, a pioneer of Turkish fusion cuisine.

Through flaming woks, kitchen hustle and shouts, something smelling at once Thai, Turkish and Lebanese rushes past you for Dilara’s final touch. There’s a lot going on in this kitchen that you won’t want to miss. And when it’s time to order, we usually put ourselves at the tender mercy of Dilara, letting her guide us through the menu.

Dilara’s navigation of the appetizer menu includes her latest inspired creations, prepared with what’s fresh in the markets. Like a jazzman interpreting on an old standard, Dilara hints at classic Turkish cuisine sometimes in little more than name, for example tweaking the classic börek into a bouquet of matchstick skinny, 6-inch batons served upright in a shot glass of sweet and spicy sauce, both beautiful and fun to eat.
Address: 50/1 Arnavutkoy Cad. Arnavutkoy
Phone: (212) 358-6087
www.abracadabra-ist.com

(Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by Atilla Kapar, author of the blog Turkiye ve Dunyadan Lezzetler (“Good Tastes from Turkey and the World”) and a Turkish food enthusiast who, as he describes it, “reviews lesser known restaurants in İstanbul that offer great tasting food.” Atilla is a graduate of Bosphorus University in İstanbul and holds an MBA degree from INSEAD in France and Singapore.)

Döner is probably one of Turkish cuisine’s best-known specialties. Thanks to the millions of Turks running döner restaurants and stands outside Turkey (as well as the Greeks and Middle Easterners selling the related “gyros” and “shawarma”), today it’s difficult to find a city in the world that doesn’t have at least one stand selling meat roasting on a rotating vertical spit. According to some estimates, the combined profits of döner restaurants in Germany are four times higher than that of the country’s McDonald’s restaurants.

“Rotating roast” is the exact translation of döner kebap. It is commonly agreed that döner was first invented by restaurateur Iskender Usta at the late 19th century in Bursa, one of historical capitols of Ottoman Empire. Before that, döner used to be a horizontal stack of meat rather than vertical, probably sharing common ancestry with Erzurum’s cağ kebap. Iskender Usta ran a tradesmen’s restaurant in Bursa whose main dish contained slices of döner served on top of sliced pita-like bread and garnished with a yoghurt sauce and melted butter. Iskender Usta’s dish became very popular and was called for some time “Iskender’in dönen kebabı” (Iskender’s rotating roast), and eventually gave names to döner kebap and iskender kebap.

Traditionally the meat used for döner is lamb, although nowadays chicken and a mixture of beef and mutton are also quite popular. When preparing döner, marinated slices of lean meat are stacked onto a vertical skewer and then topped with tail fat that drips along the meat when the stack is heated. The best method to cook döner is with charcoal, although wood, electric and gas burners are also acceptable. Frequently tomatoes and onions are placed at the top of the stack to also drip their juices over the meat, keeping the döner moist. As the outer part of the döner roasts, it is thinly sliced by the “usta” with a long knife. Ideally the döner stack should be prepared by the restaurant early in the morning and the last portion be served by the end of the afternoon. Today most restaurants and stands buy their döner stack from a 3rd party who prepares the dish using industrial methods and a mixture of different meats. Fortunately for the döner addict, there are still some places left in Istanbul that prepare it using authentic methods and offering exceptionally tasty döner.

One such place is Karadeniz Pide Döner ve Lahmacun in the Beşiktaş neighborhood’s shopping district. The place is so well-known in the neighborhood that at lunchtime there are long lines of people queuing up to get their döner, here served as a sandwich. The döner stack is sold out everyday by the evening. In Turkey, the döner served as a sandwich is typically fattier than döner served on plate, and Karadeniz Döner is no exception.
Address: Mumcu Bakkal Sok. No.6 Beşiktaş
Telephone: 212-261-7693

For those who would prefer their döner on a plate (which makes the dish both classier and a bit more substantial), Cevahiroğlu Restaurant in the Çağlayan is one of the best choices in town. The restaurant is situated in the middle of a commercial area packed with hardware shops. The hungry and demanding people working at these shops are Cevahiroğlu main customers, which ensures that the restaurant prepares tasty döner every day. The döner at Cevahiroğlu is served together with buttery rice, finely chopped spring onions, fresh tomato and pepper slices and a thin tortilla like bread called lavaş. Cool ayran (salted natural yoghurt diluted with water) prepared by the restaurant and served in glass pitcher will help to wash down the döner. Cevahiroğlu is open for the lunch on working days.
Address: Dr. Cemal Bengü Cad. No.53 Hürriyet Mah. Kağıthane
Telephone: 212-296-0259

Döner was born in Bursa, but thanks to 4th generation grandsons of Iskender Usta, the original iskender kebap can also be found on the Asian side of Istanbul. Kebapçı İskender makes döner using Iskender Usta’s original recipe and ships its main ingredients – the meat, butter, yoghurt, even the bread – from its flagship restaurant in Bursa. When preparing iskender kebap, pide (a soft, pita-like bread) is cut into small squares, heated with charcoal fire over a grill and laid on a platter. Thin and tender pieces of döner cut from the stack are laid over the bread and a savory tomato sauce is poured over the meat. The plate is served immediately and the waiter asks whether you would like to have it with yoghurt and browned butter, for which the answer should always be yes. The ritual of pouring yoghurt and butter over döner and the smell going through your nostrils stimulates all senses and, voilà, iskender kebap is ready. Kebapçı İskender has two branches in Kadıköy, one of which is very close to ferry terminal there.
Address: Rıhtım Cad. Next to Post Office Kadıköy
Telephone: 216-336-0777
Address: Bağdat Cad. 375/1 Erenköy
Telephone: 216-302-0334
Website: www.iskenderkebabi.com

We visited Edirne several years ago and had what was a very fine plate of liver done in the local style. Although we’re not liver-mad enough to make the drive to Edirne just to eat the stuff (as some Istanbulites do), we were very happy to discover a few months ago Can Ciğer, a small spot in the Besiktaş neighborhood that is one of the few places in Istanbul serving up Edirne-style liver.

The formula for making the dish is simple: extremely fresh cow’s liver is sliced into very thin, almost bite-size pieces, coated with flour and then deep fried until crisp and approaching something that could be described as Liver McNuggets. On the plate, the liver is served with nothing more than a hunk of raw onion, which compliments the fried slices of meat perfectly, a few slices of tomato and a hot pepper that has also been deep-fried. Like at most Edirne liver restaurants, the main feature of Can Ciğer is the frying station at the front, where the Edirne-born frymaster stands in front of a deep pan of oil that he tends to carefully, constantly adjusting the flame below.

The attention he pays to the oil shows off in the liver. On a recent visit, the meat was perfectly fried and – perhaps because of its thinness and crispy coating – had none of the “livery” taste we usually associate with the dish. Sitting around us, meanwhile, were local liver freaks, some who had even ordered a double portion of the crispy nuggets, clearly happy that instead of having to go to Edirne to get their fix, Edirne had come to them.

Address: Barbaros Bulvari No: 25/4, Besiktaş
Telephone: 212-260-2154

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

In our imagination, kaymak – the delicious Turkish version of clotted cream – is the only food served in heaven, where angels in white robes dish out plate after plate of the cloudlike stuff to the dearly departed, who no longer have to worry about cholesterol counts and visits to the cardiologist.

Perhaps we’re getting carried away, but kaymak can do that to you. For our money, the classic Turkish combo of kaymak served with honey and crusty white bread is one of the finest breakfasts anywhere.

The stuff is glorious, but simple. Milk – preferably from domesticated water buffaloes, known as “manda” in Turkish – is slowly boiled until a thick layer of very rich, pure white cream forms at the top. After it cools, the kaymak is rolled up into little logs that have a consistency that hovers somewhere in between liquid and solid, with a creamy taste that’s both subtle and rich at the same time.

The stuff is also quite delicate, with a shelf life of barely one day. Still, purists refuse to refrigerate it, lest it lose its texture and pick up any refrigerator odors. Like we said, kaymak can make people get carried away.

Two of our favorite places to try kaymak are:

Besiktas Kaymakci – This tiny shop/eatery has been in business since 1895, and it certainly shows its age. The marble counter is cracked and the paint on the walls peeling. But the kaymak, served up by the 84-year-old Pando, a living institution in Istanbul’s untouristed Besiktas bazaar, is out of this world. Prices here also seem unchanged since 1895: a plate of kaymak and honey, served with fresh bread and a glass of steaming hot milk, will set you back 4 lira.

Address: Koyici Meydani Sok., Besiktas     Telephone: 212-258-2616

Karakoy Ozsut – Compared to Pando in Besiktas, this place – open since 1915 – is a relative newcomer to the kaymak scene. Located near the Karakoy waterfront, Ozsut also serves up very good kaymak (as well as yogurt and rustic cheeses) made from the restaurant’s own herd of water buffaloes, whose pictures grace the walls.

Address: Yemişçi Hasan Sk.  No: 9/11, Karaköy Telephone: 212-293-3031