Eat & Drink
Originally published on Friday, 13th November 2009
What's for supper? Eating Istanbul in 21 Days
Drinking tiny cups of ‘black mud’ and glasses of strong, sweet tea is a national sport in Turkey and Istanbullis devote several hours each day to nursing a cuppa with family and friends. On summer nights the city is overrun with outdoor çay bahçe (tea gardens), many of which stay open past midnight and fill with the musical sounds of tinkling glasses, careful slurping and the crunching of patrons working their way through paper cones of nuts and sunflower seeds.
 | Incı CafeOne of Istanbul’s best kept secrets! Take the ferry to Kasımpaşa and walk left along the waterfront behind a collection of military buildings and you’ll find signs for this cafe and watersports centre. Order tea and a narghile pipe and sit back and watch the local rowing teams gliding up and down the Golden Horn. Get here just before dusk for the best sunset view of Istanbul. Denizcilik Spor Kulübü Tesisleri Tersane Yolu Camii Kebir Sk 62, Kasımpaş a | |
Mekteb-i CafeThis corner cafe is the perfect spot to get a sense of the magical, ‘frozen in time’ neighbourhoods of Fener and Balat and to taste the best coffee in Istanbul. Located on the ground floor of a woman’s house, this adorable cafe is decked out with lace and antiques and has just two wooden tables on the street outside. Ümran, the owner makes the coffee in a copper ibrik (a Turkish coffee pot with a long handle) and pours it at your table. A tea or coffee here is a perfect way to energise before exploring the surrounding warren of cobbled streets or to watch Fener street life as locals congregate on the opposite street corner and chide each other about football. Akçin Sok. No: 3/A, Fener |  | |
 | Cafe Pembe KöskA fantastically rickety, fun, open air cafe on the top floor of a wooden house high on the hill in Balat, this quirky cafe has great music, backgammon sets, narghile pipes and fantastic views of the Golden Horn districts and the nearby Haliç Bridge. When you walk in you might stumble upon the young owners watching tv in their living room - if there’s something good on they’ll invite you to find a spot on the couch and have your coffee with them! Ahmet Rufai Sk, Balat
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Giritli IdlilikaA tiny cafe with handpainted wooden furniture, this is a great place to while away hours playing backgammon and reading underneath the awning of grapevines in the shadow of the Firuzağa mosque. Behind Firuzağa mosque, off Aga Hamami Sokaği |  | |
 | Moda SeafrontNot a cafe as such, the Moda seafront fills with young locals and families who gather on the boulders each evening to watch the magnificent sunset over Sultanahmet. Buy a tea, coffee or ice cold Efes from the peddlers who patrol the promenade and a packet of roasted chickpeas and you have the makings of a wonderful evening. | |
Secret Carpark Tea gardenThis Eminönü hideaway, sandwiched between a ferry dockyard and a construction site is worth seeking out. Set up by some enterprising Kurdish guys in a car park for ferry employees, this tea garden made up of a dozen tables and chairs has some of the best views of the Bosporus. Wander to the end of the Gulhane Park behind the Topkapi Palace until you come to the end at Kennedy Caddesi. Walk along the seafrontside of the road and watch out for a car park on your right hand side. Look for a crude hand-written sign saying ‘ Çay Bahçesi’ and follow it until you arrive at the tea garden. |  | |
More Eating Istanbul in 21 Days:
Modern Istanbul / Hardcore Turkish | Soup shops, milk bars and sweet shops | Coffee house's and Tea gardens | ||
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Food Markets | Istanbul street food | More Istanbul street food.. | ||
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Jennifer Klinec from Eat Drink Talk has kindly agreed to provide Urban Junkies readers with mouthwatering recipes and foodtips.
To learn more, classes at Eat Drink Talk are held in Jennifer's beautiful loft in Clerkenwell, packed with information and useful tips, and you'll get to sample all of the delicious dishes prepared during class.
