Istanbul – Turkanz

Çiya, Istanbul

There are three things I LOVE when it comes to Çiya; vegetarian kebab, mezes and pumpkin dessert. Although Çiya restaurants are specialised in kebabs, pide, lahmacun and every other Anatolian specialty, they have a vegetarian version of each one of those dishes.

There are three restaurants; two on one side of the road and one on the other side, Çiya Kebap, Çiya Kebap II, and Çiya Sofrası. They call it “memory kitchen” because they keep traditional dishes alive; the dishes us Turks have been brought up with, the dishes our mothers or grandmothers cooked for us when we were so young and therefore, our childhood memories come back to us when we have our first bite.

Meze buffet at Çiya Kebab

I have had great memories at Ciya before but this time around we tried a different branch and was really disappointed. I don’t normally say negative things about a restaurant, I choose silence over negativity, but this recent experience was appalling and I want to say something about it. Here, I’m saying it… I was downstairs, taking photos of starters (mezes) and wanted to let the lady know who was behind the counter that it was for my food blog. “I’ll make you famous,” I said smiling and her reply was “We’re famous enough!” That was really off-putting. Yes, they are quite famous, no doubt about that. They have been featured in Yotam Ottolenghi’s TV program called Mediterranean Feasts and in The New Yorker article by Elif Batuman. Does it get better than that? No, it doesn’t but, can you actually be famous enough when every customer is a brand new showcase for the restaurant? Here I am writing about this experience in my Sydney home for followers of VegFusion who are mainly from the US and Australia. Americans love to visit Istanbul and Australians go to Turkey at least once in their life to visit Gallipoli. I also wonder what Musa Dağdeviren (the owner) would think if he found out. I wasn’t impressed at all so I pinched their menu. However, my disappointment didn’t end there…

Examples of daily menu (below):

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Sıkma Köfte (Bulghur, onion and yoghurt)

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Enginar Tavası (Pan-fried artichokes with onion, garlic and olive oil)

Another disappointing situation related to this particular branch was the fact that they don’t serve alcohol! You could have it at Çiya Sofrası –we did 4 years ago!—but not at Çiya Kebab and you find out about it after you’ve already started to nibble on your mezes. Anyway, the waiter told us that they had a bottle left by a group of tourists and we could have it. Great! However, it was nothing what we would’ve ordered. It was a terrible wine with more vinegar qualities than actual fermentation of grapes which is unique to wine making. And on top of that, it was served in water glasses not to attract suspicion.

We have had many meals at Çiya before but this is the first time I have photos for you and be blogging about it. Let’s start with how things work at Çiya restaurants: You pick a table and go to the area downstairs and choose your starters whether it be mezes, salads or other cold dishes we call ‘zeytinyağlılar’. They weigh them up and then you sit down and order your kebab or other dishes from their daily menu at your table, and your drinks. And later on; your dessert, of course if you’re having any.

Here’s a combination of mezes I picked for everyone that night:

Çiya restaurants are specialised in kebabs but they have been doing a vegetarian one for years and that’s what we have every time as a main course. The kebab part is made of bulghur (cracked wheat), onion, mushroom, parsley, mint, olive oil and cheddar-like cheese and is served with onion and sumac salad, grilled tomato, fresh parsley, yoghurt and bread.

Vegetarian Kebab (above)

As for a dessert we always have Kabak Tatlısı (pumpkin dessert) drizzled with tahini and topped with crushed walnuts (below). They serve sherbets with desserts (2 different flavours: tamarind or sumac) if you ask. These sherbets are the Ottoman equivalent for dessert wine, I guess 🙂

Pumpkin in this dessert is marinated in quicklimey water (quicklime is calcium oxide actually) which sounds just as weird in English as it does in Turkish. It is a long process: quicklime is mixed with water overnight, solids sink down the bottom and the clear water on top is what’s being used. They call it “cream of quicklime” and the pumpkin is marinated for at least 5 hours in that water before it is cooked with sugar and lemon juice. For some reason, it turns out crunchy on the outside and soft and syrupy on the inside unlike your usual pumpkin dessert.

Pumpkin dessert before they are dressed and served (above).

The other unusual desserts (above) like raw walnut, eggplant (aubergine), tomato and olive.

Ciya Sofrasi can be found at this address:
Caferağa, Güneşli Bahçe Sk.
No:43
Turkey
Website

Turkish Coffee & Galeri Set

Four years ago, during one of my trips to Turkey, I was flying from Istanbul to Izmir and reading an in-flight magazine during take-off. In that particular issue there was an article about a shop at Spice Bazaar in Istanbul called Galeri Set. They sell hand-made Turkish coffee cups –among other porcelain objects. What’s so special about them is they are made using traditional methods which means it takes twenty-one days to make one coffee cup.

Before I left Sydney, I watched videos about the shop, history of Turkish coffee and these particular cups as well. When in Istanbul, we had to track down Galeri Set in Spice Bazaar –thank God, Spice Bazaar is not as big as Grand Bazaar. I must admit, I still find that part of Istanbul quite confusing but anyway we found the place and bought a set of two for us and a set of two for our dear friends in Sydney (as promised). While talking to their sales person, one of the owners started chatting with me. He turned out to be Uğur Atik –the very person in the videos I watched on YouTube before the holiday! He is an incredibly polite and soft spoken person just like he is in the videos. He offered us a special cologne –produced only for the Sultans, not for common folks like us. It was different to straight forward lemon cologne which is widely used in Turkey. Mr Atik then told us a little story about a Sultan who used this cologne and the story came with a demonstration too. In the end, he gave us a pack of Turkish coffee as present, a pack of rose flavoured Turkish delight and a DVD of his TV appearances. We are also invited to have coffee with him next time we’re in Istanbul.

OK, let’s talk about the shop. Galeri Set was established in 1972 and it’s at number 78 in the heart of Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı). Every object they sell there is hand-made and produced with the same techniques used 650 years ago. You could safely say that there is a long history behind everything. Obama, Queen Elizabeth, George W. Bush, Fidel Castro, King and Queen of Jordan, President of the Republic of Austria, Beşar Esad, President of Syria, Zeid Al Suderi, Prince of Saudi Arabia, and Kevin Costner are among their clientele.

Now, let’s talk about the coffee cups or ‘fincan’ as we call them in Turkish. The ones I have are 17th century, coral red ones. I was going to get yellow fincans but a friend of mine from Turkey gave me a beautiful yellow set as a present (the one in the photo above) so, I decided to get the red ones instead (as in the photo below).

Colour
Colours represent a certain era or century in Ottoman history. For example:
Turquoise and pink: 16th century
Coral and midnight blue: 17th century
Yellow and green: 18th century

Shape
A good quality Turkish coffee fincan (cup) should be wide down the bottom and narrow at the top. This way, the foam will not disperse easily. The handles have a special angle so whether you are left-handed or right-handed, this particular angle makes it easy for everyone.

How to make Turkish coffee
First of all, you need to know how everyone has their coffee which means how much sugar you will need to use as there is no add-sugar-later-on kind of thing in the making of Turkish coffee. There are four sugar levels:
• Şekersiz or sade: no sugar at all
• Az şekerli: with little sugar (½ Turkish teaspoon)
• Orta şekerli: medium (1 Turkish teaspoon)
• Şekerli: 2 Turkish teaspoon

Note: 1 Turkish teaspoon equals 1 level teaspoon.
Second, you will need a ‘cezve’ to make Turkish coffee. Cezve is a narrow necked pot with a long handle. Usually made out of brass.
Turkish coffee should be quite fine and you can only achieve that by using a traditional grinder. Regular electric grinders don’t do the job properly. It’s better if you have a brass one and do it yourself but you can buy your coffee already ground too. I have my grandmother’s antique coffee grinder (photo below) in case you’re wondering what it looks like. However, all of that is not practical; I can hear you. In that case, you can buy pre-packaged ones from Middle-Eastern stores.

Preparing Turkish coffee in a cezve:
Add coffee and sugar to the cezve (1 heaped teaspoon of coffee per person).
Top them up with cold water and stir. Always use your fincan as a measuring cup for water.
When stirring the mixture of coffee, sugar and water, the spoon should be held with an angle to create finer foam, not bubbles. If you hold the spoon in a 90 degree angle, you get bubbles.
Bring it to a boil, quickly remove from heat and pour the foam into your coffee cup. Return the cezve to the heat. Boil again and quickly pour more coffee into your fincan but not all of it. Boil the coffee one more time and pour the rest of it into cup. Do not, under any circumstances cook your coffee.

How to Drink Turkish Coffee
First of all, you start by drinking water which is served with your coffee to cleanse your palate. Then, wait for the sediment to settle to the bottom of your cup which should take about 30 seconds. I remember the first time my husband tried Turkish coffee. Of course, he didn’t know and thought he was drinking mud. He still hasn’t recovered from that memory.
Afiyet olsun Peoples!

So, if you ever find yourself in Istanbul, go to Galeri Set and get yourself some Turkish coffee fincans. Next time, I’ll get a tray too!

Galeri Set
Mısır Çarşısı İçi No: 78
Eminönü – Istanbul

Big Chefs, Istanbul

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Here we are with dear friends Asuman and Artun at Big Chefs. We totally stuffed ourselves here but there was more food coming in.

big chefs

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Museum of Innocence, Istanbul

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Visiting Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in Istanbul
During Gezi Park protests, a dear friend of mine sent me a photo of a police officer firing his gun at protesters, aiming right underneath the sign of Orhan Pamuk’s real life Museum of Innocence. It was a heartbreaking scene; my country, my police, my people and one of my favourite author’s museum sign.

When you see something like that, you immediately want to go back and do whatever you missed out during your last trip. However, Turkey is a bit like India —only in a smaller scale—that every region has its own cuisine, natural beauty, unique history and dialect. So, you can never see everything; there’s always something else, some place else to see and experience. I mean, I’m from Turkey but there is a lot even I haven’t seen yet. Well, The Museum of Innocence was one of those places.

Luckily, the situation calmed down back in Turkey and in the end, the very same dear friend of mine and her husband who took us there on a fine May afternoon in 2015. The plan for that night was to go to a wine house around Galata Tower (see photo below) to have dinner and catch up with friends. To be able to visit the museum on the very same day, we left early. So Artun drove us down to Kadıköy. After parking the car at a nearby parking building, we walked up to the pier to catch a ferry. The ferries are the normal form of transportation in Istanbul and that is the best way to travel from Asian side of Istanbul to European side —I believe Istanbul is the only city in the world that stretches across two continents. I guess we walked through a tunnel after that, caught a tiny carriage of a train which travels underground but still doesn’t qualify as tube or metro. Once we came out at the other side, we found ourselves on famous İstiklal Caddesi (İstiklal Avenue) in Beyoğlu.

Well, The Museum of Innocence may seem like just off İstiklal Caddesi, however, it takes some searching, climbing uphill and then go downhill and consulting local taxi drivers –twice actually but Alpay doesn’t want to talk about it—to find this incredibly out of sight place. But when maroon-painted, narrow townhouse pokes its head out and you have your experience only then you realize that it is well worth it.

Although, the novel came out in 2008, I read in 2011—and of course, I read it in Turkish. I now own a Turkish copy of the novel which I bought from Turkey during one of my visits, an autographed American fist edition, and the museum catalogue called The Innocence of Objects, too. In the last chapter of the novel, this is what it says:
“And let those who have read the book enjoy free admission to the museum when they visit for the first time. This is best accomplished by placing a ticket in every copy. The Museum of Innocence will have a special stamp, and when visitors present their copy of the book, the guard at the door will stamp this ticket before ushering them in.”

So, I brought my autographed American first edition all the way from Sydney to Istanbul to be stamped at the museum which can be seen in the photo below along with Füsun’s earrings and my bookmark.

The Museum of Innocence opened its doors in 2012 and its exhibition is divided and presented in display cabinets—some of them are box-sized cabinets, by the way— which contain objects collected by Orhan Pamuk and Kemal Basmaci. Each cabinet —there are 83 chapters in the novel so there are 83 display cabinets at the museum—corresponds to a chapter in the novel with the same number and title. The way it is designed makes you feel like you’re rereading the novel. This time through real life objects.

As you step inside the museum, you are greeted with a huge spiral pattern (see photo above) on the floor: Spiral of Time. Orhan Pamuk’s catalog of the Museum of Innocence, The Innocence of Objects explains the Spiral of Time as the time spiral that the novel develops; symbolizing Aristotelian ideas about time as a line that connects indivisible moments. Objects, like atoms, are carried through to the clocks exhibited in the central stairwell that comprise Box 54, “Time.” Each object in the museum, whether a salt-shaker or a cigarette butt, helps us remember the moments, converting time into space. The little booklet you explains it a bit further as: While the spiral represents time and the story itself, the golden dots represents moments in time, or the individual objects within the story. The ground floor of the museum also houses the biggest piece under its roof: Box no: 68 with 4213 cigarette buts (see photo below).

Photo credit: Nihan Vural (Istanbul Travelogue)

On the first and the second floor, the story continues with the objects and wall movie installations. Limon’s cage can also be seen on the first floor. If you need to refresh your memory, there are copies of the novel in different languages and a few places to sit while you’re reading, too.

On the top floor, the story still continues through box numbers 80-83 this is the room where Kemal Basmacı lived from 2000 to 2007 while the construction of the museum carried out. On one wall, Orhan Pamuk’s preliminary sketches for the boxes and his manuscript of The Museum of Innocence are on display.

Kemal Basmacı’s room (above).

In the basement, you can find museum shop and toilets. I love museum shops so I actually spend quite a bit of time in every museum I visit and pick up some really cool stuff. From this particular museum shop I bought a fridge magnet, a bookmark and Füsun’s earrings (see photo). Füsun’s earrings are designed and produced by Kıymet Daştan according to the description given by Orhan Pamuk himself. I haven’t worn mine yet but I’m looking forward to it. Next time, I’m thinking of getting some of the posters as well—not that I have enough wall space but I’ll work something out.

A snippet of a narrow road (above) on the way to the museum. I personally enjoyed reading some of the graffiti on the walls as a reminder of Gezi Park protests. If you decide to visit The Museum of Innocence, you might walk down this road yourself.