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Posts Tagged ‘ Black Sea cuisine ’

Apr 18
Wednesday

Hamsi for Hipsters!

Filed under News

Turns out New Yorkers are only now discovering what Turks have known for eons: that the humble anchovy is absolutely delicious (particularly when lightly coated in flour or cornmeal and fried). As an article in today’s New York Times explains, anchovies — known as “hamsi” in Turkish — are being served in a growing number of spots in NYC, from more upscale restaurants to the stand of a Brooklyn street vendor, who has cleverly named the enterprise Bon Chovie. The Times article can be found here.

For those New Yorkers who are planning a visit to Istanbul and want to try hamsi in its natural habitat, a roundup of our five six favorite spots to eat the little fish in Istanbul can be found here. Hurry up, though: the impending arrival of summer also means the end of hamsi season.

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Hamsi – Six Favorite Spots to Eat the Little Fish
4 responses - Posted 10.31.11
The arrival of fall in Istanbul for us usually means just one thing: hamsi season is about to begin.  Hamsi, of course, are the minuscule fish (Black Sea anchovies) that Istanbulites are mad for, and the coming of fall and the further cooling of the Black Sea’s waters mark the beginning ...continue
Inebolu Pazari: Shroomin’ ala Turca
2 responses - Posted 05.23.11
[slideshow] “You can eat these raw, efendim!” shouted Aziz bey to a suspicious woman dressed in a headscarf of sharp geometric designs and a denim duster. “Don’t be scared!” he said, ripping the cap off of a raw kokulu cincire mushroom with his teeth and chewing it in an exaggerated, open-mouthed ...continue
Hamsi: Catch Them While You Can?
no responses - Posted 05.08.11
Things may be going from bad to worse for Istanbul fish lovers. The other day, we learned from The Atlantic the sad story of how mackerel became so overfished in the waters around Istanbul that local fish mongers had to start importing the stuff from Norway so that the city's ...continue
Istanbul’s Top 5 Beaneries – #1: Hanimeli
no responses - Posted 04.23.11
1028th street in the already far-flung district of Gaziosmanpasa might sound like a long distance to travel for a plate of beans. There are plenty of perfectly good beans to be eaten in less remote locations. But we’ve tried all of the big name beans in this city from Camlica ...continue
Istanbul’s Top 5 Beaneries – #2: Husrev
no responses - Posted 04.22.11
(Editor's Note: This week we are celebrating the white bean, that humble legume that reaches levels of incredible complexity and flavor when in the hands of Turkish cooks. Until visiting some of Istanbul’s shrines to the baked bean, we generally regarded the dish as something eaten out of a can beside ...continue
Mohti: All That Laz
3 responses - Posted 02.28.11
“My heart starts pounding when a pregnant lady enters the room,” said Huseyin, the artist turned owner/operator of Mohti, a new “Laz Meyhane” in the back of the backstreets of the Asmalimescit area. While this might sound to some like the unsavory confession of a man with an exotic fetish, ...continue
Istanbul Eats Cooks: Klemuri’s Hamsili Pilav
1 response - Posted 02.25.11
The Laz, an ethnic minority in the northeast of Turkey, live in the verdant Kackar mountains that seem to crash right down into the Black Sea. “Mas mavi, yem yesil,” is how that part of the country is often described – bluest blue, greenest green. There is not much in the ...continue
The Hamsi Chase
no responses - Posted 01.12.11
The intrepid folks behind the fantastic "Eating Asia" blog were recently in Turkey in search of hamsi in all its various guises. While they tried the little anchovy in some worthy Istanbul spots (including at some Istanbul Eats favorites), they decided to go to the Black Sea coast and try ...continue
Hayvore: Lost and Found
7 responses - Posted 01.10.11
In the Laz language, “si sore” means, “where are you?” At least twice a week for past few years, our answer to that question at lunchtime would be, “We are at Pera Sisore.” This little restaurant in the Asmalimescit area became one of our go-to lunch spots by serving some ...continue
Best Bites of 2010: Our Take
1 response - Posted 01.03.11
(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 ...continue

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