Monday
Hıngal Mantı: Dumplings in Exile

(Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by Jeff Gibbs, a denizen of Istanbul’s Asian side and author of the very engaging blog “Istanbul and Beyond.”)
It seems like every İstanbullu I meet has a secret ethnicity lurking in their past. One cousin’s father is a refugee from Bulgaria, a Kurdish uncle has an Armenian grandmother and an ex-roommate has an Arab grandparent on one side and an Azeri on the other. In my endless quest to find a reflection of this rich diversity in Istanbul’s cuisine, my wife and I stumbled upon Hıngal Mantı, a sunny restaurant at the foot of Küçük Çamlıca Hill specializing in Dagestani dumplings.
As soon as I walked in, I knew that Hingal was exactly what I had been looking for. The chef and amateur scholar, Melike, has done her research and can chat (if you want) about the traditional dumplings of Dagestan (called hıngal), how they are eaten, when her husband’s Dagestani family came to Turkey, where they settled and the influence of Dagestani culture on its Turkish counterpart. Everything about the place is bright, friendly and carefully tended. When I asked for a menu, the waiter grinned and said, “I am the menu!” then unveiled a wooden palette displaying the full array of dumplings. Continue…
All entries filed under this archive
5 responses - Posted 07.11.11
(Editor’s Note: In almost a decade of intrepid eating in Istanbul, we still miss the immigrant community restaurants we know from the American big cities where language barriers and foreign customs make a lunch into a real adventure. Istanbul has foreign communities and it has foreign restaurants but the two ...continue
1 response - Posted 09.20.10
After a while, some Turkish food, like manti, can become repetitive – serving after serving of the same tiny, boiled dumplings with yogurt. Deeply conservative when it comes to food, Turkish cooks and diners alike generally don’t like any fussing around with traditional recipes. So, distinguishing between a good manti ...continue
no responses - Posted 03.14.10
The English-language daily Today's Zaman has an article up that takes a look at some of the restaurants in Istanbul serving food from other regions in Turkey. The article (addresses included, for a change), offers some good tips on where to find food from the Black Sea and southeast regions ...continue
1 response - Posted 11.17.09
There are those restaurants worth going to because of their out-of-the-way location – a fish shack at the end of a lonely beach, a fondue hut at the top of an Alpine ridge. Then there are those worth seeking out despite their location – that culinary gem stuck inside a ...continue
1 response - Posted 09.04.09
The mini dumpling mantı, a dish that traces its roots to the mobile kitchens of nomadic Turkic tribes in Central Asia, is often referred to as “Turkish ravioli.” But could the Turks have beaten the Italians to the punch? Is it ravioli that should actually be called “Italian mantı?” We’ll never ...continue
18 responses - Posted 08.03.09
(Editor's Note: The Ottoman-era building that houses this restaurant is currently undergoing restoration, which means that the restaurant is closed for now. According to one of its owners, the restoration work will be completed next summer and the restaurant will reopen with a new and improved kitchen.) With the particularly uncatchy ...continue
3 responses - Posted 06.05.09
We usually steer clear of the touristy old city district of Kumkapı, where you are more likely to be accosted by an aggressive maitre d’ trying to corral you into his overpriced fish restaurant than to find something simple, tasty and reasonably priced to eat. Sadly, in order to beat ...continue
2 responses - Posted 04.01.09
According to our Turkish-English dictionary, the word "Çerkez" means "Circassian," but in our book it is synonymous with "delicious." As evidence, look no further than Fıccın, a friendly restaurant serving the unique cuisine from the mountains of the Caucasus. Many a Turk trace their roots to this culinary Xanadu, including the ...continue
7 responses - Posted 04.01.09
From Western China all the way to Istanbul, Turkic people roll out dough, fold it into small pouches, boil it and call it mantı. When it comes to dumplings, Turkish tradition dictates that the tortellini-like mantı be no larger than peanut-sized. With its unusually large (and sometimes fried) dumplings, Bodrum ...continue





