We’ve written previously in fairly rapturous terms about cağ kebab, a meat-lovers specialty that hails from the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum.

As human beings did, roasted meat on a spit at some point started standing up erect, resulting in the familiar döner kebab seen all over the Turkey and around the world. Cağ kebab, though, harkens back to a time long ago, when meat on a spit was cooked the way nature had intended it to be: horizontally. Is there a difference? Does cağ, made out of marinated slices of beef and lamb, contain in it some original code of kebab DNA that perhaps was lost forever in the evolutionary move towards upright spits? As Selim Bilgin, owner of Bilse Restaurant, a new cağ spot in Beyoglu puts it: “This is the father of kebab.”

Like at other cağ places, the meat at Bilse is cooked on a horizontal spit that turns slowly, the meat continuously basting itself, occasionally flaring up with a sizzle and a pop that chars an outlying corner of meat. Unlike döner, where the dönerci saws and hacks from his vertical spit, leaving the meat he has cut off lying in a puddle of grease, the cağ man carefully selects each morsel of meat from the spit with a sharp knife and a small, thin skewer. A dönerci’s work has more in common with that of a lumberjack, but doing cağ right requires the patient and steady hands of a skilled surgeon. When he’s done he’ll present you the skewer, threaded with a precious collection of tender yet crispy bites, served on top of a toasty warm piece of lavash.

Bilse opened only recently and, as fans of the meaty delight that is cağ kebab, we were very happy to stumble across it on one of Beyoglu’s backstreets. Cağ joints are few and far between, Bilse being the only one that we know of in Beyoglu, so the restaurant’s opening left us feeling assured that, for now, this ancient kebab will not become extinct.

Address: Suslu Sasksi Sok. No. 19/A, Beyoglu
Telephone: 212-251-1033

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

Istanbul has plenty of kebab joints, but places serving cağ are sadly hard to find. Originating in the eastern Anatolian province of Erzurum, the kebab looks like a horizontal döner, but tastes otherworldly. If South American cowboys somehow found themselves in Erzurum’s grassy Turkish steppe, they would surely be struck down with déjà vu at the sight of this carnivores’ fantasy, turning slowly over a hardwood fire. The way we see it, cağ is the Turkish equivalent of Argentina’s asado or the Brazilian churrasco, a kebab for serious meat lovers.

Fortunately, we’ve found an excellent place to keep getting our cağ fix, Şehzade Erzurum Cağ Kebabi, not far from the Sirkeci train station and the Sultanahmet area. The restaurant’s location, on the pedestrian-only Hocapasa Sokak, is a winner. Lined with restaurant after restaurant serving superb traditional Turkish food (and home to Kasap Osman, an Istanbul Eats favorite), we like to think of Hacapasa Sokak as a foodies’ fantasy food court. One could easily spend a half day there, working their way through the street’s restaurants.

Şehzade Erzerum Cağ Kebabcisi, at the entrance to Hocapask street, has only a handful of tables, all within whiffing distance of the spit, where cuts of lamb expertly marinated slowly cook over a wood fire.  As the horizontal spit slowly turns, the meat continuously bastes itself, occasionally flaring up with a sizzle and a pop that chars an outlying corner of meat. Unlike döner, where the dönerci saws and hacks from his vertical spit, leaving the meat he has cut off lying in a puddle of grease, the cağ man carefully selects each morsel of meat from the spit with a sharp knife and a small, thin skewer. A dönerci’s work has more in common with that of a lumberjack, but doing cağ right requires the patient and steady hands of a skilled surgeon (or, come to think of it, a good electrician). When he’s done he’ll present you the skewer, threaded with a precious collection of tender yet crispy bites, served on top of a toasty warm piece of lavash.

Compared to the now defunct spot in Karakoy, which served up cağ and nothing but, Şehzade has a slightly more expansive menu. Along with our kebab, we had a hearty red lentil soup to start our meal and a small plate of piquant ezme (a salad of finely chopped tomatoes, onions and parsley) to go along with the meat. The restaurant even serves a very tasty dessert – the state-fair-worthy kadayif dolma, a fat torpedo made out of shredded wheat wrapped around a core of chopped nuts and then deep-fried and doused with a sticky sweet syrup.

With its prime location and steady clientele, it would appear that this cağ kebab place is not in danger of closing down any time soon. Just to make sure, though, before leaving we asked the spit master if he had previously worked as an electrician. His answer, an emphatic “no,” left us feeling at ease.

Address: Hocapasa Sok. 3/A, Sirkeci
Telephone: 212-520-3361

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)