Tonight we met up with our friend Osman for dinner. He is a fellow Emory PhD in philosophy. He's visiting his family in Istanbul this summer but he took the time to join us for another Turkish-food-a-thon.
Last year Lilly came across a piece in the New Yorker about the Istanbul resturaunt Ciya:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/19/100419fa_fact_batuman
She told me to take her one day. Well that day arrived.
Ciya is a real institution and has three offshoot resturaunts. We opted not to go to their Kebab house (where I took my parents many years ago) but intstead to their "Sofrasi" which has hot and cold bar with a large variety of Anatolian specialties.
We began with cold salads. My favorite being the spiced seaweed in the center of the plate.
We then got a selection of hot dishes. Many of which were unknown to any of us. The chef makes a point of producing little known regional Turkish specialties and we make a point of eating them. Here were some of our favorites...
stuffed zuchini blossoms...
meat balls with stewed cherries...
lamb in pomegranate broth...
Rice stuffed tripe...
yogurt with seeds and nut...
and finished the meal with candied apricots and cream washed down with black tea and wild oregano tea.
This food was truely wonderful. The chef deserves all the acclaim he has been receiving and probably more. This is a MUST GO place for anyone visiting Istanbul.
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