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Posts Tagged ‘ Kofte ’

Jan 31
Tuesday

Nuruosmaniye Koftecisi: Landmark Meatballs

Filed under Reviews (Eats)


In Istanbul, if all you have is a street address of a restaurant, you are as good as lost. It’s all about proximity to landmarks, as in Postanede’ki kokoreçci (the kokoreç vendor near the Post Office), Suleymaniyede’ki kurufasuliyeciler (the bean shops at Suleymaniye Mosque). This is the way we’ve learned to navigate this city and we’ve even found reason to tag some places according to our own associations.

Approaching the Grand Bazaar from the northeast you encounter the market’s “Nuruosmaniye Gate,” named for the nearby baroque Nuruosmaniye mosque, built in the late 18th century. But to us, this will always be the “Kofte Gate” for its proximity to Nuruosmaniye Koftecisi, established in 1974.

Stepping inside this humble shop, sawdust underfoot, we were instantly calmed by a rhythm we recognized from any busy neighborhood eatery at lunchtime. Continue…

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All entries filed under this archive


Kofteci Cemal: Meatball Depot
no responses - Posted 10.17.11
In the category of ambience, Kofteci Cemal scores high marks quite effortlessly. On a street of mostly-demolished row shops down in Karakoy’s Persembe Pazari hardware market, Cemal makes his presence known with a bright yellow paint job and the word “kofteci” spray-painted on the front, back and sides of his ...continue
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no responses - Posted 06.10.11
(Editor’s Note: Over here at Istanbul Eats, we like to think of ourselves as kofte savants. While to the untrained eye kofte may look like nothing more than a grilled meatball, we like to discern differences in taste, texture and consistency in the different styles of this ubiquitous Turkish dish. ...continue
Meshur Kofteci Recep Usta: In a Category All its Own
no responses - Posted 06.10.11
From a seat on the deck of a Bosphorus ferry, the little neighborhoods of the Asian side seem to have the same idyllic layout – a platoon of fisherman with long casting rods on either side of a small white boat dock in the foreground, a minaret poking through the ...continue
Istanbul Kofte Week: #2 – AKO Adapazari Islama Kofte
no responses - Posted 06.09.11
(Editor’s Note: Over here at Istanbul Eats, we like to think of ourselves as kofte savants. While to the untrained eye kofte may look like nothing more than a grilled meatball, we like to discern differences in taste, texture and consistency in the different styles of this ubiquitous Turkish dish. ...continue
AKO Adapazari Islama Kofte: Fellowship of the Drench
1 response - Posted 06.09.11
Students of Istanbul street food will recognize the “islama” modifier on this kofte and understand its relation with the oh-so-edible “islak” hamburger in Taksim Square. It is a fellowship of drenched bread. But while the wet burger is drenched in secret sauce and sent to steam in the burger hamam, ...continue
Istanbul Kofte Week: #3 – Köfteci Hüseyin
no responses - Posted 06.08.11
(Editor’s Note: Over here at Istanbul Eats, we like to think of ourselves as kofte savants. While to the untrained eye kofte may look like nothing more than a grilled meatball, we like to discern differences in taste, texture and consistency in the different styles of this ubiquitous Turkish dish. ...continue
Istanbul Kofte Week: #4 – Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi
no responses - Posted 06.07.11
(Editor’s Note: Over here at Istanbul Eats, we like to think of ourselves as kofte savants. While to the untrained eye kofte may look like nothing more than a grilled meatball, we like to discern differences in taste, texture and consistency in the different styles of this ubiquitous Turkish dish. ...continue
Istanbul Kofte Week: #5 – Köfteci Arnavut
3 responses - Posted 06.06.11
(Editor's Note: Over here at Istanbul Eats, we like to think of ourselves as kofte savants. While to the untrained eye kofte may look like nothing more than a grilled meatball, we like to discern differences in taste, texture and consistency in the different styles of this ubiquitous Turkish dish. ...continue
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2 responses - Posted 01.17.11
(Editor’s Note: This week, Istanbul Eats hops on the bus and heads west to sample the Thrace region’s most famous köfte in its native environment.  Guest writers Sherri Cohen and Alex Hallowell, Fulbright English Teaching Assistants at Namık Kemal University in Tekirdağ, have run the gust-busting gauntlet to bring you ...continue
Köfteci Arnavut: On the Good Ship Meatball Shop
no responses - Posted 01.14.11
Perhaps it’s the proximity of the waters of the Golden Horn or the weathered wood interior, but we get a distinctly maritime feeling at Köfteci Arnavut, a tiny köfte joint in the historic Balat neighborhood. The members of the Iştay family, who opened the place in 1947, seem to think the ...continue

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