If street food is one of your personal top travel reasons, then sooner or later you will end up on an Istanbul walking tour. This city is a real realm of tastes and aromas and the largest buffet in the world with the widest assortment. At the same time, if you know where to look for the right dish, then in return they will ask for a very reasonable fee.
Kokorech
It is not easy to find kokorech in the historical center of Istanbul, the Sultanahmet district, beloved by tourists. The Kral Kokorec shop you need is located on Büyük Postane. From afar, it seems that you see the famous Czech pastry Trdelnik, but when you get a little closer, you realize that this is more like a huge fat larva. In fact, the intestines of young lambs are spinning on a spit, in which giblets are wrapped:
- heart;
- lungs;
- kidneys;
- liver.
Baked kokorech is finely chopped, generously peppered, and served either in pita bread or in freshly baked bread. For those who have few spices, they can have a bite of Turkish turshu (pickles) from a small hot pepper.
Simit
Bagel, pretzel, kalach, and in Istanbul – simit. Turkish bagel is the most popular national dish. If in the city you can find one or two “wandering” mini-stalls per 100 square meters, then along the embankment the sellers stand almost at arm’s length from each other. And on a day off in the late afternoon, all their stocks run out.
Dener Durum
From the words “rotating” and “folded” respectively. In other words, classic shawarma. If dener-durum is not made from lamb (in rare cases, veal), but from chicken, then “tavuk” also appears in the name.
Perhaps the main difference between dener in Turkey and “ours” is that meat in an envelope made of thin flatbread or lavash comes without any sauces by default. Street chefs don’t have sauces on hand at all – apparently, in order not to waste precious time during rush hour, which can be used to lure new customers. In other shops, it is worth reminding the chef that you want the sauce. In general, just as an unvoiced bet in poker is equal to a “call”, so the absence of an order “with sauce” is a dry dener.
Balyk-ekmek
In a simple way – a hot dog with fish. Often, grilled ordinary bonito, tuna, or mackerel are placed in a bun. Salad and pickled onions, cut into half rings, are added to the company. The best place to order balyk-ekmek is Eminonu Pier. Almost a hundred locals fish on the bridge and cook fry fresh catch under the bridge. True, it is there that a hot dog with fish is the most expensive – 10 liras (€2.15), while, say, in the Uskudar area it costs 7 liras (€1.5).
Stuffed Mussels
Mussels are stuffed with boiled crumbly rice with fragrant spices, the size of which can easily reach even oysters. Sellers filigree with enviable speed will open the shells for you, sprinkle with lemon, and politely present. Before you start eating – tell the seller the number of mussels, otherwise, they will reveal absolutely everything to you!
On the waterfront, you can also buy a tray with six or 10 mussels and a slice of lemon. The cost of such a snack varies from 0.75 lira (€0.16) to 1.50 lira (€0.32) per piece.
