Monday

Tunclar lokantasi: Ottoman For the People

From the top of Elmadag Caddesi in Harbiye, an unbroken line of tiny Ottoman-era row houses spills down the steep slope of the street. It is one of our favorite Istanbul streetscapes, evoking a rarely heralded image of 19^th-century working class Beyoglu. Though “Ottoman” is a qualifier that usually refers to splendor in the extreme – vast domes, silk carpets, golden thrones – there was just one Sultan and so many humble subjects. Likewise, Ottoman palace cuisine, like the Baccarat crystal banisters at Dolmabahce, is an interesting anecdote, but we find the search for Ottoman proletarian fare much more intriguing.

The medieval Ottoman travel writer, Evliya Celebi, wrote of Beyoglu streets filled with humble little stew and dolma restaurants, bustling at lunchtime with merchants getting a fill. He counted more than five hundred of them. Surveying today’s culinary landscape for its Ottoman roots, the eyes fall directly on the esnaf lokantasi, or tradesmen’s restaurants, that now serve the working man much as they have for centuries. If Evliya Celebi were walking the streets of Istanbul today, hungry, we are sure he’d feel perfectly at home at Tunclar Lokantasi on Elmadag Caddesi.   Continue…