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)

Though Iskender kebab is a registered trademark of the famous Kebapci Iskender restaurant in Bursa, imitations are ubiquitous. In Istanbul, Iskender kebab – a dish based on döner, strips of roasted lamb shaved off from a vertical spit – is almost as common as designer knock-offs in the Grand Bazaar. But unlike a $20 Dolce & Gabbana track suit with dubious stitchwork, the “pirated” Iskender kebab over at Kasap Osman’s in the Sirkeci neighborhood is most certainly the real thing, if not better.

The restaurant is located around the corner from the Sirkeci train station, on a side street that’s best described as an open-air food court for serious eaters. Restaurants offering Kurufasuliye (Turkish style baked beans), pide (or Turkish pizza) and other local specialties stand cheek by jowl on this crowded little street filled with outdoor tables. But something extra special radiates from Kasap Osman (“Osman the Butcher” in Turkish), where, turning slowly on an upright spit, stands a blue ribbon döner carefully watched by the usta.

Döner, slices of lamb stacked like pancakes on a tall skewer and slowly turned before a vertical grill, is the most important factor in any Iskender kebab. Though gas and electric grills are more common these days, we far prefer the smoky flavor imparted by the traditional cooking method employed by Kasap Osman, where charcoal is used to roast the döner. Naturally the quality of the meat plays an important role as well, and who better to trust at the spit than Osman, who actually is a former butcher. Osman and his team also have experience working in their favor, having turned döner spit for a loyal, hungry audience of local shopkeepers and office workers everyday for the last 25 years from the same corner on Hocapasa.

Timed to coincide with the lunch hour rush, at around noon the usta starts shaving off the first long ribbons of succulent döner and collecting them in the pan in his other hand. The döner is then sent to the kitchen where it becomes Iskender kebab and other döner-based dishes. For Iskender, our favorite, the cooked meat is laid over a bed of chopped flatbread in a clay dish and garnished with peppers and tomatoes and dressed with a thin tomato sauce. The dish is then quickly fired in the oven crisping the saucy bread on the bottom and softening the garnish. Finally the whole dish is doused with butter browned in a skillet and a quick dollop of thick yogurt is added to one side. We can often hear our Iskender sizzling on its way to the table.

So noble a kebab, it’s quite logical that someone trademarked it and no surprise at all that the trademark is infringed upon everyday from Melbourne to Miami. But if you don’t have time for the official Iskender kebab pilgrimage to Bursa, head over to Kasap Osman for the best genuine fake Iskender in the city.

Address: Hocapasa Sokak 22, Sirkeci
Telephone: 212-519-3216

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