Hello friends. This week, I’d love to hear about where you like to go in Istanbul, or anywhere in Turkey. It might not be the number one place on your travel radar, but if you haven’t been, I really think you should make plans to go—it’s a stunning city at the crossroads of so much history and culture…it’s literally between two continents. If you have been, let us know what you love about it—and if you haven’t, tell us about the Turkish dishes that you love to eat or cook!
I’d also like to share a few of the spots that you told us about in New England—I think a lot of you love that part of the country! It’s clear that I need to spend more time there…there’s so much good stuff to try. Here are (a lot) of ideas of where to go next time you’re up there!
Angie S (a new subscriber! Welcome, Angie!) had some great suggestions around Maine, including a place for the state’s very famous lobsters:
Aragosta in Deer Isle, ME for a beautiful coursed meal. Ralph’s in Brooks, ME for the best breakfast and lunch. For lobster, Must Be Nice in Belfast, a lobster woman owned business.
Anjali S … wow, maple crullers? That sounds incredible.
In Hanover NH, Lou's is a time-tested and true staple! For weekend brunch or just for their STELLAR bakery. Don't miss their maple crullers and their chocolate mousse cake!!! I also love Thyme, in white river junction VT. Their French fries are the best I've had in literally...the world. And a major shoutout to Simon Pearce, in Queechee VT. They have a beautiful restaurant with a view over a little waterfall (make sure to try their brown bread and their cheddar soup!!!) and while you wait for your table, or after, you can peruse their glasswares shop and even take a peek downstairs at the actual glassblowing atelier!! Thanks for giving us a space to let New England shine ❤️
Bertis D had some recommendations in New Hampshire:
Two spots in Center Sandwich NH, Foothills Cafe and Curio, and The Corner House. Both convivial and fun places for food and fellowship.
Also Tamworth Distillery in Tamworth NH and the Lewis Hotel in Biddeford ME in an up-and-coming town near Portland
Nicole G gave us a spot in the center of Vermont:
Stowe Street Cafe in Waterbury, Vermont! Local Coffee + Food + Art in an woman-owned coffee shop that's a true community hub - and it's even attached to our favorite indie bookstore. Come see why it's so special!
Sandweiss shared some simple, straightforward recommendations in Boston and Maine:
The best steakhouse in Boston is Grill 23. One of the best in the US. Natalie’s in Camden ME is wonderful. Also, Primo in Rockland ME.
And finally, Virginia P mentioned one spot in southern New Hampshire:
CURE - amazing restaurant in Portsmouth, NH. We try to grab reservations every summer.
And now…let’s talk Istanbul, Turkey, and Turkish food. What do you want to tell us about?
Oh, Istanbul is one of my favorite cities. The people are amazing and so is the food. Please do yourself a favor and buy a beautiful knive at Krop Knives in Karaköy. To celebrate your new knive go to Foxy Istanbul (also in Karaköy) and enjoy some very good wines and nice food. If you are into fine dining Neolokal is a must. I love to take the ferry to Kadiköy and visit the market on tuesday or friday. Stop at Ciya Sofrasi to taste some authentic home cooking! Also in Kadiköy visit Baylan one of the oldest pastry shops in Istanbul. All the sweets and cakes are super old school and the small patio is lovely. I could go on and on. About the grilled mackerel sandwiches at the humble stalls next to galata bridge. the fried mussels, the offal sandwiches.... Go and enjoy!
I grew up in Istanbul. My favorite restaurants are Hacı Abdullah in Beyoğlu district and Set seafood restaurant in Kireçburnu. For anyone who plans to visit Istanbul, I'd recommend İstanbul Archaeological Museums and Istanbul Modern Museum in addition to the well-known attractions like Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, Grand Bazaar, Topkapı Palace, Galata Tower, Istiklal Avenue, and Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı). Additionally, a boat trip to the Princes' islands (avoid weekends), Kadıköy Çarşı, Galataport in Karaköy and Ortaköy Mosque neighborhood would be enjoyable.
If you are a history buff, rent a car in Istanbul and travel along the western coast to see some fantastic archaeological sites like Troy, Assos, Pergamon, Sardis and the Artemis temple, Ephesus, Priene, Miletus, Hierapolis and Laodicea. If you want a beach holiday, Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye, Kaş, Kemer, Antalya and Side are pretty towns with beaches and good restaurants.
Favorite Turkish foods include simit, doner and iskender kabob, levrek, Corban Salatasi , borek, dolmas, eggplant salad, baklava. Among my favorite sites are Aphrodisias, Ephesus, Bodrum, Antalya, Goreme, Bursa, and the many amazing sights in Istanbul .
Istanbul is an amazing food city. One of those where if you have a bad meal you are either trying too hard or not at all! Three best (not fancy) places: Shehzade Ceg Kebap (very limited menu - but you are there for the ceg kebap and ezme); Durumzade (recommended by the late great Mr. Bourdain) -street side shop with amazing rolls!; and Tarihi Kalkanoğlu Pilavcısı near Taksim Square (amazing rice pilav with beans).
If I didn’t have fish and shellfish allergies, I would recommend the stuffed mussels and fish sandwiches (balik ekmek - literally fish bread) by the Galata Bridge - for the ambiance and the food!
And don’t be afraid of kokorec - it tastes delicious!
Some simit and borek and pogca are savory pasties that will keep you going on your travel adventures, and many can be found streetside with vendors.
I do love how their is a roasted chickpea (leblebi) vendor across the street from the Vefa boza shop - a perfect winter drink and snack pick-me-up!
For sweets you can’t go wrong with either Gulluoglu baklava shops or Mado for ice cream, sahlep (orchid root drink), and the puddings in a variety of flavors and each one a rich delight! And the kataif pastry wrapped around unesco antep fistigi - pistachios from antep is one of my all-time favorite desserts!! Or katmer hot out of the pan (a thin phyllo pastry envelope filled with pistachios and kaymak) with Turkish tea (red, not the apple tourist tea!), or Turkish coffee. Bliss. (In commemoration long after the Turkish war of independence some cities were given honorifics to add to their city names : gazi + Antep = warrior Antep; sanli + Urfa; kahraman + Maras; and many Turkish people still call the cities without the honorific, hence Antep fistigi).
One of my favorite types of restaurants in Turkey are called esnaf lokantasi. Places for great home-cooked style food that are buffet style and just waiting to be picked out by customers! It has a humble origin and there are still many local neighborhood ones, but there are of course more upscale ones like Haci Abdullah Lokantasi and Ciya Sofrasi that are absolutely not to be missed! (Ciya also has a kebab place across the street from their sit-down restaurant.)
After my husband and I visited the Kariye/ Chora church museum (such beautiful mosaics and a lovely viewpoint of eternal Istanbul!) - we really enjoyed the restaurant Asitane. It’s menu not only features meals from Ottoman palace cuisine, each item is referenced by the year the recipe was written down. They certainly did their homework! History and good food, and the interior is lovely too.
Playing “Bekle bize Istanbul” by edip akbayram (“wait for us Istanbul) as I drool over this post, lol! I’m curious to see other places people recommend!
Turkey is one of my favorite places to visit. The food was delicious !! After Istanbul, go to Kappadochia … one of the local dishes there was walnut- pomegranate chicken.. so good. The churches and homes carved out of tufa rock is amazing , then nearby is Kamakli underground city… 10 levels carved underground built 1000 yrs ago. And then of course to see Pamukkale! Looks like snow covered mountain but it’s travertine marble covering the mountain and pools filled with warm spring water!
Effesus and Bodrum also did not disappoint .. beautiful clear water with Roman ruins sunk in. And take boat ride up the coast and tiny ice cream boats come alongside to sell you ice cream. Loved it
Moretender's. To me it's the best craft cocktail bar in Istanbul AND it has excellent sushi. It's tucked away on a side street like most good things in that part of the world, but still in the middle of everything and easy to find. The back bar itself is beautiful, there's great outdoor seating, and the bartenders are extremely talented and seem devoted to the craft. They bring unique Middle Eastern spices and flavors to the classic cocktails as well as or better than any place I've been.
The exotically quirky elevator in the Pera Palais is a must-see and must-ride. It certainly contains the ghost of Agatha Christie among others. I just hope it hasn’t been replaced with a sleeker but boring version from the 20th or 21st centuries.
Oh, Istanbul is one of my favorite cities. The people are amazing and so is the food. Please do yourself a favor and buy a beautiful knive at Krop Knives in Karaköy. To celebrate your new knive go to Foxy Istanbul (also in Karaköy) and enjoy some very good wines and nice food. If you are into fine dining Neolokal is a must. I love to take the ferry to Kadiköy and visit the market on tuesday or friday. Stop at Ciya Sofrasi to taste some authentic home cooking! Also in Kadiköy visit Baylan one of the oldest pastry shops in Istanbul. All the sweets and cakes are super old school and the small patio is lovely. I could go on and on. About the grilled mackerel sandwiches at the humble stalls next to galata bridge. the fried mussels, the offal sandwiches.... Go and enjoy!
I grew up in Istanbul. My favorite restaurants are Hacı Abdullah in Beyoğlu district and Set seafood restaurant in Kireçburnu. For anyone who plans to visit Istanbul, I'd recommend İstanbul Archaeological Museums and Istanbul Modern Museum in addition to the well-known attractions like Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, Grand Bazaar, Topkapı Palace, Galata Tower, Istiklal Avenue, and Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı). Additionally, a boat trip to the Princes' islands (avoid weekends), Kadıköy Çarşı, Galataport in Karaköy and Ortaköy Mosque neighborhood would be enjoyable.
If you are a history buff, rent a car in Istanbul and travel along the western coast to see some fantastic archaeological sites like Troy, Assos, Pergamon, Sardis and the Artemis temple, Ephesus, Priene, Miletus, Hierapolis and Laodicea. If you want a beach holiday, Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye, Kaş, Kemer, Antalya and Side are pretty towns with beaches and good restaurants.
Favorite Turkish foods include simit, doner and iskender kabob, levrek, Corban Salatasi , borek, dolmas, eggplant salad, baklava. Among my favorite sites are Aphrodisias, Ephesus, Bodrum, Antalya, Goreme, Bursa, and the many amazing sights in Istanbul .
Manti, Turkish dumplings, Cigkofte, raw meatballs, and fish sandwich by the water 🍻
Seraf vadi!! Yeni was also great
Istanbul is an amazing food city. One of those where if you have a bad meal you are either trying too hard or not at all! Three best (not fancy) places: Shehzade Ceg Kebap (very limited menu - but you are there for the ceg kebap and ezme); Durumzade (recommended by the late great Mr. Bourdain) -street side shop with amazing rolls!; and Tarihi Kalkanoğlu Pilavcısı near Taksim Square (amazing rice pilav with beans).
If I didn’t have fish and shellfish allergies, I would recommend the stuffed mussels and fish sandwiches (balik ekmek - literally fish bread) by the Galata Bridge - for the ambiance and the food!
And don’t be afraid of kokorec - it tastes delicious!
Some simit and borek and pogca are savory pasties that will keep you going on your travel adventures, and many can be found streetside with vendors.
I do love how their is a roasted chickpea (leblebi) vendor across the street from the Vefa boza shop - a perfect winter drink and snack pick-me-up!
For sweets you can’t go wrong with either Gulluoglu baklava shops or Mado for ice cream, sahlep (orchid root drink), and the puddings in a variety of flavors and each one a rich delight! And the kataif pastry wrapped around unesco antep fistigi - pistachios from antep is one of my all-time favorite desserts!! Or katmer hot out of the pan (a thin phyllo pastry envelope filled with pistachios and kaymak) with Turkish tea (red, not the apple tourist tea!), or Turkish coffee. Bliss. (In commemoration long after the Turkish war of independence some cities were given honorifics to add to their city names : gazi + Antep = warrior Antep; sanli + Urfa; kahraman + Maras; and many Turkish people still call the cities without the honorific, hence Antep fistigi).
One of my favorite types of restaurants in Turkey are called esnaf lokantasi. Places for great home-cooked style food that are buffet style and just waiting to be picked out by customers! It has a humble origin and there are still many local neighborhood ones, but there are of course more upscale ones like Haci Abdullah Lokantasi and Ciya Sofrasi that are absolutely not to be missed! (Ciya also has a kebab place across the street from their sit-down restaurant.)
After my husband and I visited the Kariye/ Chora church museum (such beautiful mosaics and a lovely viewpoint of eternal Istanbul!) - we really enjoyed the restaurant Asitane. It’s menu not only features meals from Ottoman palace cuisine, each item is referenced by the year the recipe was written down. They certainly did their homework! History and good food, and the interior is lovely too.
Playing “Bekle bize Istanbul” by edip akbayram (“wait for us Istanbul) as I drool over this post, lol! I’m curious to see other places people recommend!
Turkey is one of my favorite places to visit. The food was delicious !! After Istanbul, go to Kappadochia … one of the local dishes there was walnut- pomegranate chicken.. so good. The churches and homes carved out of tufa rock is amazing , then nearby is Kamakli underground city… 10 levels carved underground built 1000 yrs ago. And then of course to see Pamukkale! Looks like snow covered mountain but it’s travertine marble covering the mountain and pools filled with warm spring water!
Effesus and Bodrum also did not disappoint .. beautiful clear water with Roman ruins sunk in. And take boat ride up the coast and tiny ice cream boats come alongside to sell you ice cream. Loved it
Moretender's. To me it's the best craft cocktail bar in Istanbul AND it has excellent sushi. It's tucked away on a side street like most good things in that part of the world, but still in the middle of everything and easy to find. The back bar itself is beautiful, there's great outdoor seating, and the bartenders are extremely talented and seem devoted to the craft. They bring unique Middle Eastern spices and flavors to the classic cocktails as well as or better than any place I've been.
The exotically quirky elevator in the Pera Palais is a must-see and must-ride. It certainly contains the ghost of Agatha Christie among others. I just hope it hasn’t been replaced with a sleeker but boring version from the 20th or 21st centuries.