Best Things to Eat In Istanbul – Part 3
Turkey has a very diverse and world-renowned cuisine and Istanbul is the place in which you can find all of them. Since Istanbul has many representatives from all the cultures, you will see and taste unique things in this metropolitan City. In our Part 3 article of best things to eat in Istanbul, we will continue our Part 1 and Part 2 with new and more delicious foods!
Lüfer or the Bluefish
Since Istanbul connects two continents to each other and has a rich sea culture, we just cannot miss eating seafood and fish in here. So, among the things you must eat in this unique city, fishes can be considered as one of the most important and delicious ones. But you just can’t eat every kind of fish and you have to be selective about the restaurants too. Having a fish and maybe rakı by the Bosphorus or at the Galata Bridge may be an unforgettable night in Istanbul. Of course, if you don’t prefer or like an alcoholic beverage, you can just pick other drinks such as Şalgam – a traditional drink originates to Adana. But we still come to this question; which food to order? Even though the answer may be different according to your palatal delight, lüfer will be an excellent choice for the seas of Istanbul.
Lüfer or the Bluefish comes from the Pomatomidae fish family and it is rather big, very tasty and easy to clean and eat fish. In Turkey, they call the younger type of lüfer the Sarıkanat and it is more expensive but it will worth the money if you can find it. If you would like to learn which places are best to eat fish in Istanbul, you can take a look at our article about the best fish restaurants in Istanbul.
Mantı – Turkish Ravioli
Must-eat all! This is among the sentences that people like to say when eating Mantı, or the Turkish ravioli. Mantı is a hot dish served with cold yogurt which is made with garlic. It is some kind of a dumpling and consists of the dough and its filling which generally made of meat and spices. There are many types of Mantı in Turkey but the original version of this one dates back to the Kayseri, a city in the Central Anatolia. In this type, the dough is made of water, flour, and salt and then they add eggs to increase the flavor. In Kayseri style, the thinness of the dough shows how master is the cook. In the filling, it contains beef or lamb meat, onion, salt, and pepper.
But since it became popular, you can find mantı with salmon, spinach, chicken or even with chocolate in many cafes but they are not the real manti places to go. Even though the original version makes the mantı in boiled water, you can find baked or grilled mantı too. But in all the versions, they add hot tomato sauce on top of it. In ıstanbul, you can go to Casita Mantı Nişantaşı (Şişli), Fıccın (Beyoğlu), Emek Mantı (Yeniköy), Bodrum Mantı (Arnavutköy), and Aşkana (Ulus) for the best mantı experience.
Künefe – Kunafah
Such as the Adana kebap is the master of kebaps, this one can be called as the master of desserts in Turkey. Künefe is a traditional Arab cheese pastry or dessert and it has unsalted cheese in between the two layers of kadayıf. Kadayıf is a thin fiber of dough which is made from a simple mix of water and flour. It is served warm since it is freshly baked and soaked in syrup for the desserts.
In Künefe, you can see how good it is from the stretch cheese when you are taking your fork to your mouth. The original city of this unique dessert goes back to the Hatay and you can see many sings such as ”Hatay Künefesi.” On top of it, they add grounded pistachio for more delicious taste and cheese melts inside so when you take a bite you just travel to another dimension.
In some restaurants, they serve it with ice cream on top but we stick with the original recipe and style. In Istanbul, you can find the best künefe in Akdeniz Hatay Sofrası which is located in Fatih.
For more information, you can just ask for help from our Sultanahmet Hotel, Sura Hotels staff.
