Not that there’s anything wrong with the food here, which is reliably well made. The meze tray at Inciralti (which means “under the fig tree” in Turkish) is brought to your table carrying all the classics, plus a few welcome and tasty surprises, such as the zingy brined twigs of the caper plant and a sea bass filet that had been cured in a piquant sauce redolent of curry. Among the excellent mains we had sea bass again, this time grilled wrapped inside grape vine leaves, and meltingly soft uykuluk (sweetbreads), that were also grilled and dusted with oregano and red pepper. Both were winners.

But it’s Inciralti’s location that will have us coming back, especially if we’re looking for an opportunity to take an excursion without leaving Istanbul. Located on the Bosphorus’s Asian side, Beylerbeyi is a like a miniature and untouristed version of the more popular Ortakoy neighborhood on the European side, mercifully free of the tchotchke vendors and crowds that today line Ortakoy’s narrow streets. Stepping off the evening ferry from Eminonu at Beylerbeyi’s old wooden one-room ferry terminal feels a bit like stepping back in time. There are few Bosphorus-side neighborhoods that have managed to keep their unpretentious original charm they way this one has.

Inciralti, meanwhile, is located inside a welcoming old house on a small side street a few steps away from the ferry terminal. In the back there’s a leafy garden (home to the restaurant’s namesake fig tree) that, like Beylerbeyi itself, has a transporting quality to it. On a recent night, we found it to be one of the better places in town to forget about Istanbul’s hustle and bustle and to get away from the city’s summer heat.

(Note: to reach Beylerbeyi, take the Bosphorus commuter ferry that leaves from Eminonu. Check the schedule here: www.ido.com.tr)

Address: Arabacılar Sok. No:4, Beylerbeyi
Telephone: 216-557-6686
Web: www.inciralti.com.tr

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

With the heat of summer finally descending upon Istanbul in full force, we thought it might be a good time to offer up some suggestions for winning spots to eat outdoors. Here are five of our favorites (plus one bonus entry):

Abracadabra
Although we’ve heard some reports that the kitchen has been slipping, the Bosphorus-side location in the charming Arnavutkoy neighborhood and the funky menu help this fun spot keep its magic. Full review here.

Akin Balik
This spot right on the Golden Horn has a laid back vibe that makes us feel like we’re no longer in the big city but instead relaxing in some seaside village. The fish on offer comes straight from the fish market next door and the beer is served in brown paper bags. What more can we say. Full review here.

Çukur Meyhanesi
Eating outdoors at one of the restaurants on Beyoglu’s side streets is an Istanbul summer classic, although some of those side streets have become too popular for their own good. Çukur, one of our favorite Beyoglu meyhanes, has a wonderful outdoor area that has managed to keep its original charm. Full review here.

DTVAE
This charming Old City restaurant serving excellent Uighur food is located in what may be one of the most enchanting outdoor dining spots in the city: the courtyard 16th-century former medresa (religious school) that is shaded by massive maple trees. Full review here.

Kalpazankaya
One of the great joys of spring and summertime in Istanbul is the chance to get awayfor a day to one of the Princes’ Islands, the car-free and forested archipelago that is a short ferry ride away from the city. The out-of-the-way Kalpazankaya, on Burgaz island, is one of our favorite spots on the islands. Full review here.

Suna’nin Yeri
This small fish restaurant that, with its army of tables, chairs and frazzled waiters, seems to have conquered the waterfront of the Bosphorus-side Kandilli neighborhood, is a favorite spot on Istanbul’s Asian side. Ful review here.

But our mood quickly changed as we made our way past the valet marked “Lucca,” the chic restaurant across the street that was the Ferrari driver’s actual destination, and up the stairs to the simple but stylish Fish. Inside, there was no burly security there to stop us from touching the scaly metal walls, so we gave them a feel as if petting a giant goldfish swimming down to the bar. Upstairs on the terrace, old style filament bulbs and blue awnings are all that adorn the comfortable, quiet dining space.  While the Ferrari-driving types were busy seeing and being seen across the street at Lucca, everyone on the terrace at Fish seemed focused on the food in front of them.

The founders of Fish – the people behind some of the more glam spots around town – are no strangers to the high life. But if their other ventures, the ritzy 360 and Suada, express a Crockett and Tubbs aesthetic, then Fish is channeling Colombo – cool, smart and to the point. Stripped down of the glitz, Fish wins with the food, course after course, the meze in particular

Our meal at Fish began with fresh salty rolls and flatbreads served alongside a sort of tarama-infused butter and a tiny marble mortar that held a single roasted clove of garlic sitting in a bath of olive oil and pesto. The waiter produced an equally tiny pestle, mashed the garlic and left us to it.

The meze selection seemed designed to please a range of Istanbul diners. For the finicky meyhane stalwart there was a wedge of white cheese with melon to go with a duble raki and an excellent fava puree. For the slightly more adventurous, Fish offered interesting spins on meze classics such as a whole artichoke stuffed with rice and mussels served alongside a butter sauce for dipping the leaves. And for those at the table who have seen and eaten it all, there is a world-class fresh catch carpaccio, and roasted kumquat with caramelized onions. We indulged in all of these along with excellent stuffed squash blossoms.

After several skewers of fat, tender octopus legs and a plate of squid stuffed with smoky eggplant puree, there was no tempting us into one of the lovely fresh catches we’d planned to eat that night. The waiter brought over a beast of a turbot and two beautiful sea bass, but in the end, we agreed on a chocolate soufflé and apple baklava.

“Next time,” we promised the waiter and ourselves, but in the three times we’ve eaten at Fish we’ve never managed to save room for fish. Someone at the table suggested they rename the restaurant “Meze,” but we’re sure that the fish are equally stunning. When the bill came – Ay caramba! only $60 per person – we decided we’d definitely be giving Fish another try very soon.

Address: Cevdetpaşa Cd. No: 224, Bebek
Telephone: 212-257-7361

(photo courtesy of Fish)

It was a promise of false hope. Inside that glass-fronted case there were no fish. Nor were there any at the fishmonger next door. Around the corner we found a few measly bream that the vendor admitted, with a shrug, had been raised in a swimming pool. Then, by chance, we happened upon a minivan stuffed to maximum occupancy with swordfish sitting upright in the back like passengers in a dolmus, but it drove off before we could strike a deal.

We’d come to southern Turkey’s Kaş for all the usual diversions – sunken sarcophagi, hot sun, blue sea – but also to test our grill skills on the fishy kings of the Mediterranean. But after a few nights of chicken and köfte we’d come to accept that in seaside Kaş, unfortunately, “Balik yok!” There are no fish.

On our final night, feeling very much at the end of our tether and wondering how one might clean and prepare one of the shaggy goats we’d seen prancing around the peninsula, we broke down and headed for the restaurant-packed Kaş harbor, hungry.

Following a tip, we headed straight for Bahce Balik, a charming fish restaurant with a patio shaded large leafy trees, one street back from the hustlers at the waterfront restaurants.

Before taking a seat, we asked, with a good measure of skepticism, about the fish. “Balik var,” we were told and led over to a glass case packed with all of the big catches of the area. We took a table.

After a round of exceptionally good meze – cabbage leaves stuffed with mussels and fragrant rice, a light curd of mashed fava laced with dill and a plate of beets the color of Barney himself – we had our first taste of the Mediterranean. The grilled octopus we were served looked frighteningly tasty – eight thick tentacles charred up at the tips yet so soft at the center that we cut it with a fork. When asked what the tenderizing secret was, the waiter responded elusively, “People ask us that all of the time.”

After much deliberation, we selected a hefty three and a half pound mercan, Pandora fish, to be grilled for the table.  It arrived split into two large pieces down the middle. A batter-like crust encased the head and clung to the exposed spine where the fish’s fat collected and cooked on the grill. Flaky, tender, juicy and startlingly fresh, this was the fish we’d been waiting to eat. The head released two oyster-sized cheeks of sweet meat, which we lingered over in place of dessert.

After all, we’d found the fish we were pining for and in great abundance.  There was so much fish on the plate that even the cats gathered around our table got a toss.

At 280 TL for a dinner for six, we could hardly do better self-catering, assuming a fish so fine could be found in the market at Kaş. On our next trip to Kaş, we’ll probably leave the grill tongs and lighter fluid at home and rely on the promise that at least at Bahce Balik, “balik var.”

Address: Suleyman Sandikci Sok. 18, Kas
Telephone: 242-836-2779

(photo by Ansel Mullins)

One afternoon at Suna’nin Yeri, a small fish restaurant that, with its army of tables, chairs and frazzled waiters, seems to have conquered the waterfront of the Bosphorus-side Kandilli neighborhood, a small boat from a nation we could not immediately identify pulled up in the wake of a tanker and unloaded two hungry patrons.

A closer look revealed the word “Guernsey” written on the back of the  boat and we wouldn’t be surprised if the couple actually did come all the way from that island in the British Channel. The food at Suna’nin Yeri (“Suna’s Place,” in Turkish) is just that good. The chilled fava bean puree, for example, was so delicious that we immediately ordered two more for a further inspection. Usually not our first pick from the meze tray, Suna had coaxed something smooth and rich, almost custard-like out of the humble fava without abandoning its earthy beany flavor.

A plate of fried calamari was also a pleasant surprise – rough bundles of crispy legs and tiny rings mixed with large, soft flat pieces like a breaded sail. Each bite was a new chapter in texture accompanied by a delicious, tangy garlic sauce. We relished this rare moment – perfectly prepared, fresh food served in an environment that celebrates nothing more than the inherent beauty of the city itself – feeling that this was what a dining experience was inherently supposed to be. It felt specifically Istanbul.

Though big catches such as levrek, çupra and kalkan were tempting, we took the cue from all of the tables around us and ordered a large plate of small fried fish –  hamsi flayed and ribbon-like, istavrit, and, our favorite, tekir.  Each fish played its part with ease, as if Suna had a pep talk with the group before perfectly frying them in her little kitchen. After all that fish and a few rounds of “special cola” (cans of Efes Dark delivered with a wink in a plastic bag and served in Coca-Cola glasses), like real Istanbulites, we wanted more.

Tankers passed by – Romanian, Ukrainian, Lebanese – as the shadows grew long in Kandilli. The crew onboard those ships were likely oblivious to what was transpiring at Suna’nin Yeri, but not the folks from Guernsey. Like us, they were swooning over a plate of homemade baklava prepared by one of the wife of our waiter. We’ll carry that sweet memory with us until our next visit.

Address: Kandilli İskele Caddesi 4-17, Üsküdar
Telephone: (0216) 332 32 41

(photo by Ansel Mullins)

The only downside to an island hop is actually getting there. As soon as spring makes its first appearance in Istanbul, the hordes descend on the mainland’s ferry terminal, filling the boats to beyond capacity (at least on the weekends). With your neighbor’s picnic basket sticking into your ribs, the boat ride to the islands is usually less of a pleasure cruise and something more resembling those scenes in natural disaster or science fiction films where a frantic population is forced to huddle together after barely escaping their city’s demise.

Fortunately, most of the people on the ferry are heading for Heybeliada and Buyukada, the last two stops on its route, allowing you to step off on Burgazada, the smallest and least visited of the Princes’ Islands. The island has few easily accessible beaches and picnic spots, but what it does have is a laid back atmosphere and several charming waterfront restaurants and cafes in the harbor. Better yet, Burgaz is home to Kalpazankaya Restaurant, an out-of-the-way, open-air meyhane on the island’s backside that will quickly help you forget about the crowded mass of humanity left behind on the ferry.

Getting to Kalpazankaya is easy: take the road that leads to the right when leaving the ferry terminal and continue walking along that road for about 30 minutes until it comes to an end. In front of you, sitting in splendid isolation on a hillside overlooking the blue waters of the Marmara Sea and a small pebble beach below, is the restaurant, a collection of vine-shaded terraces with rickety wooden tables and chairs.

The meze tray holds all the classics, plus a few surprises, such as a ceviche made with sea bass tossed in what seemed like a mustard vinaigrette. Kalpazankaya also serves up a wide variety of fresh fish, either grilled or fried, and different types of kebab and meats (including lamb slow roasted in a clay oven, the house specialty). Everything we tried was delicious, the flavor enhanced by the bottle of raki we finished, the tranquil view and the cool breeze blowing in from the sea.

Save for buying an airplane ticket to some remote destination, a meal at Kalpazankaya is the easiest way we can think of really forgetting about city life for a day. That is, at least until you have to take the crowded ferry back.

Address: Burgazada, Istanbul
Telephone: (216) 381-1504
Web: www.kalpazankaya.com

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

(Editor’s Note: Our celebration of the upcoming May Day workers’ holiday continues. Today we take a look at the dining possibilities at two union halls, Istanbul style.)

Gazeteciler Lokali-Beyoglu: The Write Stuff
Journalists in Turkey are notoriously overworked and underpaid (at least that’s what Turkish journalists will tell you). The part of the story they tend to leave out is the free reign they enjoy over Istanbul’s Journalists’ Union lokal, a classic little dining room and clubhouse with an Ottoman-era fireplace, dark wood wainscoting and a ritzy address right on Istiklal Caddesi. This faded elegance, almost entirely lost in Istanbul, sets the stage for a raucous affair that sometimes resembles dinner and at other times a gypsy wedding celebration. On the weekends, journalists and those-in-the-know pack this place for a long meal accompanied by live music.

The set menu includes a bounty of seasonal cold meze, including artichokes stewed in olive oil, pickled beets and smoked eggplant puree. From the hot starters we recommend the sarma, chard leaves stuffed with ground beef and drizzled with garlicky yogurt.  A fresh green salad leads up to the main course crescendo of meat or fish – take your pick, they are both good.

The food is reliably good and the location is excellent, but we think it’s the price of this all you can eat and drink deal that appeals to the hard luck hack. At 60 Lira, it’s a night out even a Turkish journalist can afford.

Address: Istiklal Caddesi 22, 1^st floor, Beyoglu
Telephone: (212) 292-4167

Metalurji Muhendisligi Lokali: Fish Alchemy
We never thought much about metallurgy as a profession. Nor did the concept of union membership ever seem very appealing, with all the meetings and monthly dues. That all changed after a mighty fine night at the Metallurgist Union’s lokal, where dinner can be a communal affair – during our meal a dish of pickled anchovies was sent over by another table of friendly metallurgists. The simple, fresh food here is always tasty and, as all fans of this place point out, very cheap.

About the food, one regular said, “I don’t go there to eat fancy food. I go there to sit at a table with my friends and eat a heaping plate of fried fish.” That about sums up the dining experience: there’s nothing dainty about it but the place has a convivial spirit that seems to infect the entire room as if someone left the laughing gas running.

A few meze – of which the patlican soslu (fried eggplant cubes in a tomato sauce) was our favorite – a large green salad with shredded cabbage and carrots, a plate of fried “chacha” (pinky-sized bait fish), two orders of unidentified but very good boneless white fish that fried up like a catfish, and enough raki to make us giggly and then sleepy cost 25 TL/person. That’s reason enough, for some, to consider a career change, and union membership.

Address: Taksim Caddesi 14, Taksim
Telephone: No phone

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

I am just back home from a cruise to Turkey, which included a short stay in Istanbul. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a strong seafood culture there. Shame on me for expecting lamb, lamb and more lamb! I indulged and managed to identify some of the fish I ate, but I didn’t catch the name and preparation of so many more. Can you help me fill in some of the question marks I have in my trip notes?

Thanks in advance,
Fishermom
Berlin, N.H.

Dear Fishermom,

You are not alone. We’ve received many such notes from readers surprised by the seafood bounty in Istanbul. So we put together a light crash course in what swims through here. Follow the links to reviews of some of our favorite places to eat these fish.

Levrek – Sea bass is one of the most popular fish in Turkey, prized for its delicate, almost sweet taste and firm white meat. Levrek is usually charcoal grilled whole and served with a drizzle of oil and a squeeze of lemon. In another delicious version, a whole levrek is encased in sea salt and baked in the oven. One of our favorite preparations is kagitta levrek, in which sea bass filets are wrapped in a paper bundle with onion, tomato and lemon and baked. Many restaurants serve the cheaper and smaller farmed variety of the fish. Wild levrek is known as deniz levregi. Both are available all year.

Hamsi – Size isn’t everything: the finger-length anchovy is often referred to in Turkey as the “little prince” of fishes. In the Black Sea area, where hamsi are caught, the little fish are used in numerous dishes and form an important part of the local economy. The most popular way hamsi are served is fried in a light coating of corn meal but we’ve even found them skewered and grilled. Another popular recipe is hamsi pilav – a rice and anchovy dish infused with an aromatic mix of herbs and spices. The hamsi season is in the fall and winter.

Cipura – Gilthead bream is the most popular fish caught in the Aegean area. Like levrek, it is a mild tasting fish with white, flaky meat, usually grilled whole and served unadorned. Fish farms now supply much of the Cipura served in restaurants, but the wild variety, known as deniz cipurasi is also available.

Barbunya – Tasty small red mullets are another popular fish. As the name implies, the barbunya’s skin is speckled with glistening reddish spots. The mild-tasting fish, usually only a few inches long, are typically pan-fried whole and an order of them can easily be shared. Barbunya’s prime season is from spring through early summer and the fish is not farmed.

Palamut – Bonito, related to tuna, is a fish that appears in Turkey’s waters in fall through winter. Unlike levrek and cipura, it is a strong-tasting, oily fish, similar to mackerel. Palamut fillets are often grilled, but another popular – and perhaps tastier – way they are prepared is baked in the oven in an onion and tomato sauce. Palamut is not farmed.

(photo by Jonathan Lewis)

Day One: Turkey’s Regional Flavors in Beyoglu

Breakfast: Van Kahvalti Evi in Cihangir
In the city of Van, not far from Turkey’s border with Iran, breakfast has been turned into serious business: the town is filled with dozens of Kahvaltı Salonu’s – breakfast salons – that serve a dizzying assortment of farm fresh breakfast items day and night.

In recent years this superb breakfast has been working its way westward, with several Van-style spots now open in Istanbul. Our favorite is Van Kahavaltı Evi (Van Breakfast House) in Beyoglu’s Cihangir neighborhood. The restaurant hasquickly become one of the area’s most popular, and it’s easy to see why. The people running the friendly place serve a mean breakfast, bringing in most of their ingredients, some of them organic, from back east.

The Van breakfast takes the traditional Turkish breakfast of cheese, tomato, cucumber and some bread and turns it up several notches. At Van Kahvalti Evi, along with the standards, your breakfast plate comes with an assortment of local Van cheeses (including a very tasty one that contains brined wild herbs), kaymak (clotted cream), tangy cacik (thick yogurt spread) and murtuğa, a heavy wheat flour porridge that looks almost like scrambled eggs. Butter, jams, olives and some of Van’s famous honey round all this out – along with endless glasses of strong tea.
Address: Defterdar Yokuşu No: 52.A, Cihangir
Telephone: 212-293-6437

Lunch: Pera Sisore
At first glance, with its steam table covered with pots of ready-made food, Pera Sisore may look like any one of those quickie lunch spots found throughout Turkey. But there’s a difference – someone here is cooking up some serious Black Sea magic in the kitchen.

The Black Sea area is Turkey’s culinary misfit – not really about kebabs or meze. It’s simple, filling, down-home food and Sisore is a great spot to get acquainted with it.

This time of year, the restaurant – found on a side street in the fun Asmalimescit neighborhood – serves a very tasty version of hamsi (fresh anchovy) pilaf, the holy grail of Black Sea cooking. A kind of savory fish cake, the pilaf has small hamsi filets wrapped around a thick bed of rice infused with herbs, currants and pine nuts.

Everything else we’ve tried at Sisore has been a winner. A rib sticking stew made with kale, beans and hominy was earthy and smoky. Sisore also serves up a fine version of another Black Sea staple – creamy white beans (kuru fasulye) cooked up in a rich, buttery red sauce.

On any given day, Sisore has more than a dozen items bubbling away on the steam table, some typical Black Sea dishes, some not. It’s worth trying a few – it’s the easiest way to visit the Black Sea without leaving Istanbul.
Address: Oteller Sokak 6, Beyoğlu
Telephone: 212-245-4902

Tea Time: Güllüoğlu
Baklava, the flaky, phyllo-dough based pastry, has long ago stopped being a Middle Eastern regional specialty. In America, for example, it is now a staple of dessertmenus at diners and falafel stands across the country. But these places miss the point: baklava is actually not a dessert, but rather an event in itself.

In Istanbul, Karaköy Güllüoğlu is one of our favorite places for an authentic baklava experience. Located a stone’s throw from the Bosphorus, this baklava emporium has been catering to Istanbul sweet tooths since 1949, serving than a dozen different kinds of phyllo-based sweets, none of them resembling the cardboard-like, past-its-prime version of baklava that is often dished out outside the Middle East. Along with the excellent classic baklava, we are also fans of a specialty called sutlu Nuriye, made of flaky layers of pastry drenched in a sweet, milky sauce. After ordering your baklava, sit down at a table outside and catch the Bosphorus breeze.
Address: Katli Otopark Alti (main store) or 171 Mumhane Cad. (factory store), Karaköy
Phone: 212-293-0910 (main store) or 212-243-1376 (factory store)
Web: www.karakoygulluoglubaklava.com

Dinner: Antiochia
We recently stumbled upon Antiochia – a small restaurant on a quiet Beyoglu backstreet that exudes cool without sacrificing flavor.

From its funky logo to the hipster waiters, Antiochia clearly has a different ambition (and clientele) than most restaurants serving the Middle Eastern-influenced foodfrom Turkey’s southern Hatay region, an area wedged between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea.

Nar eksili cevizli kozbiber, a divine relish of red and green peppers in a pomegranate dressing, was topped with crushed walnuts, adding a crunchy texture to this sweet and sour cold starter. Tasting the homemade yogurt with mint proved just how little we knew about what yogurt can be — pleasantly sour and almost as thick as butter. Muammara, a thick spread of walnuts, red pepper and spices is a Hatay signature and a fine choice. Our favorite, though, was the kekik salatasi, an intense meze of green olives, fresh thyme and olive oil.

Antiochia’s main courses are simple, recognizable dishes, yet set to a higher frequency. Şiş et is a plate of marinated cubes of beef skewered and grilled over a charcoal fire. On any given evening in Beyoglu, there have got to be thousands of skewers of şiş et coming off the grill, but none are quite as tender and succulent as the one at Antiochia. The minced meat wrap, an Istanbul street food favorite, with onions and tomatoes, was among the best we’ve had in the city.
Address: Minare Sokak, Asmalimesict
Phone: 212-292-1100
Web: www.antiochiaconcept.com

Day Two: Old and New Istanbul on the Bosphorus

Breakfast: Besiktas Kaymakci (AKA Kaymakci Pando)
In our imagination, kaymak – the delicious Turkish version of clotted cream – is the only food served in heaven, where angels in white robes dish out plate after plate of the cloudlike stuff to the dearly departed, who no longer have to worry about cholesterol counts and visits to the cardiologist.

Perhaps we’re getting carried away, but kaymak can do that to you. For our money, the classic Turkish combo of kaymak served with honey and crusty white bread is one of the finest breakfasts this side of paradise. And one of our favorite places to eat this breakfast is Besiktas Kaymakci.

This tiny shop/eatery has been in business since 1895, and it certainly shows its age. The marble counter is cracked and the paint on the walls peeling. But the kaymak, served up by the 84-year-old Pando, a Turk of Bulgarian origin and a living institution in Istanbul’s untouristed Besiktas bazaar, is out of this world. Prices here also seem unchanged since 1895: a plate of kaymak and honey, served with fresh bread and a glass of steaming hot milk, will set you back 4 lira.
Address: Koyici Meydanı Sokak, Besiktas
Telephone: 212-258-2616

Lunch: Ismet Baba
Most fish restaurants are mere caricatures of places like Ismet Baba, where traditions have been kept sacred for more than fifty years. This may not be the best restaurant in the city, but it’s got something most of the others have lost, keeping rhythm to an old school style of Istanbul charm and character.

At Ismet Baba, located in Kuzguncuk, a charming Bosphorus neighborhood on the Asian side, we like to lean back, hunker down into a long raki-laced lunch and really enjoy this special place and its classic mezes. Pilaki, beans in olive oil, and the cold octopus salad are unusually good. We also like the haydari, a thick, tangy spread of strained yogurt and dill and the fried eggplant with a garlicky yogurt drizzle. The catch of the day is posted on a small black board in the dining room, and we found the grilled bream, cupra, or a plate of blue fish, cinekop, perfectly prepared and just the right amount.
Address: Carsi Caddesi #1A, Kuzguncuk
Telephone: 216-553-1232

Dinner: Abracadabra
This funky informal restaurant, housed in an imposing Ottoman-era mansion located smack dab on the Bosporus in the swank Arnavutkoy neighborhood, serves some of Istanbul’s most creative riffs on traditional Turkish cuisine.

The four floors of the building each have a very different vibe, from bar-like to intimate, although we suggest a table in the dine-in kitchen, up close and personal with Abracadabra’s spunky owner-chef Dilara Erbay, a pioneer of Turkish fusion cuisine.

Through flaming woks, kitchen hustle and shouts, something smelling at once Thai, Turkish and Lebanese rushes past you for Dilara’s final touch. There’s a lot going on in this kitchen that you won’t want to miss. And when it’s time to order, we usually put ourselves at the tender mercy of Dilara, letting her guide us through the menu.

Dilara’s navigation of the appetizer menu includes her latest inspired creations, prepared with what’s fresh in the markets. Like a jazzman interpreting on an old standard, Dilara hints at classic Turkish cuisine sometimes in little more than name, for example tweaking the classic börek into a bouquet of matchstick skinny, 6-inch batons served upright in a shot glass of sweet and spicy sauce, both beautiful and fun to eat.
Address: 50/1 Arnavutkoy Cad. Arnavutkoy
Phone: (212) 358-6087
www.abracadabra-ist.com

We stop into scores of meyhanes, or traditional Turkish tavernas, and eat more yogurt meze than we care to report, all for the sake of finding that one masterful meze among the goopy masses. Most meze in Istanbul are fine, but very few can be considered orgasmic.

Çukur Meyhanesi, a small, slightly shabby, basement meyhane in Beyoglu’s Galatasaray area, certainly does not look like the kind of place with any shining stars on the menu. On our last visit, the floor seemed to be covered in a mixture of sawdust, table scraps and some cigarette ash. The tiny open kitchen occupies one corner and the VIP table – where a group of old timers were watching horse races on TV, scratching at racing forms, cursing, cheering – takes up a slightly larger area. A good bit of the other half of the room is home to a giant ornamental wooden beer barrel. Meanwhile, the overworked guy in jeans and a hoodie taking orders looks more like the bass player in a jam band than a waiter. In short, food does not appear to be the priority here.

But that’s a grave misunderstanding: at Çukur, it’s all about the food (and, well, maybe a bit of raki). Çukur’s chops come through with the first bite of that cold spread of garlicky strained yogurt loaded with celery root and purslane, topped with a barely detectable drizzle of olive oil and – perhaps in a nod to the old-timers inside – what seemed to us to be flax seeds. Spread on a piece of freshly toasted bread, this dish transports the taste buds to a winter garden wonderland where earthy root vegetables rule the roost. This meze alone is enough to ensure a return visit.

But there’s more from the cold side of the appetizer menu. A small meze of charred red peppers with crushed walnuts – evoking both spicy and smoky tones – offered the perfect response to that rapturous yogurt. And two frequently played-out meyhane staples –  patlican salatasi, a smoky puree of eggplant, as well as the soslu patlican, cubes of fried eggplant in a tangy tomato sauce – were expertly made and reminded us just why they are such classics. In fact, while we were deliberating over what to eat, a diner seated at the next table came over and insisted that we order both, post haste.

And then there was the restaurant’s ciger, or liver. Sliced into thin strips that are lightly fried and then dusted with red pepper, this ciger was exceptionally smooth in texture and mellow in flavor, with none of the “livery” taste usually associated with the dish. If we’re not mistaken, the ciger brought out another moan of pleasure at our table.

Çukur serves up other meyhane classics, such as grilled lamb chops and kofte, but – somewhat unusually – the folks at Çukur  have also figured out how to grill Black Sea sardines, or hamsi! Long considered a lost cause by grill men for its tendency to slip through the grill and into the coals, hamsi is usually fried or baked. At Çukur they’ve thrown caution to the wind and worked about ten of these little squirmy fish onto a skewer and bookended them with tomato and pepper. Hamsi is agreeable in just about any form, but fresh off the grill the fish’s characteristic smack of the Black Sea is even more pronounced. Side by side, hamsi and ciger are a perfect pairing: a poor man’s surf and turf.

While we were moaning about the meze, we saw a table of fellow diners eating what looked to be a very good dish of kabak tatlisi, a dessert made out of oven-roasted pumpkin. But alas, when the time came for our sweet fix, all that was left in the kitchen was a plate of sliced fresh fruit. Next time we’ll arrive a little earlier, or spend a little less time getting all hot and bothered over that first meze.

Address: Kartal sok. 1/A, Beyoglu, Istanbul
Telephone: 212-244-5575

(photo by Ansel Mullins)