Turkish Breakfast Review - Saade Kahvaltı

I read about Saade Kahvaltı in the August issue of Time Out Istanbul. Ever on the lookout for a new breakfast place, I made a date with R for breakfast last Saturday. Saade Kahvaltı is located at the Darussaade Hotel in Sultanahmet near the Arasta Bazaar.

Because it doesn't seem possible for to provide full/helpful information on Turkish websites, nowhere on the hotel website or Time Out article listed Saade Kahvaltı opening times, reservation needs etc. So we went on the information provided on Zomato.com - which turned out to be wrong. According to Zomato Saade opens at 10:00 (nope, it's at 11:00) and they do not take reservations (incorrect-reservations required). However because we'd trekked there, getting lost several times, the lovely staff arranged for us to have the breakfast in their ground floor cafe while they set up the terrace.

We followed some very bad Google Map directions, getting lost at least three times before we found Darussaade Hotel but it was entirely worth the trek. So much so that R and I, this time accompanied by E&M, made a reservation and went back the next weekend.

The price is a little steep at 40 TL/person (not including drinks or extras like eggs) but for what you get it's a fantastic value. All of Saade's products are organic and come from across Turkey. Many things, like the cheese blended with nuts and herbs and cheese blended with peppers are made in house. Everything is incredibly fresh and delicious. The tomato paste is some of the best I've ever had, the Tulum cheese is sharp and delicious, and even I, raw tomato-hater that I am, fought over the fresh tomato and pumpkin seed salad.

My personal favorite dish is the soft white cheese topped with diced plums. The sweet-tangy combination is gorgeous. Even the seemingly never ending fresh bread was some of the best we've ever had at a Turkish breakfast cafe.

It was much easier to find Saade the second time around as they kindly sent me directions on What's App that were easy to follow. Basically, if you're facing the Blue Mosque, go down the road [that runs in front of the mosque] to the left. Turn right in front of the Blue House Hotel, then the first left, then the first right. At the end of that street you'll see the pale purple Darussaade Hotel.

E said she thinks this is hands down the best Turkish breakfast she's had here. I don't think she's wrong. The food alone was amazing but coupled with the terrace view overlooking the Bosphorus on one side and the iconic Blue Mosque on the other...yes. We will go back to this place and take everyone. Saade Kahvaltı is not to be missed.

Saadde Kahvaltı (make a reservation!)
Darussaade Hotel
Sultanahmet Mahallesi
Akbıyık Caddesi 90
+90 212 518 3636

Turkish Breakfast Review - Kahvedan

Today we're having breakfast at one of my favorite Cihangir restaurants - Kahvedan. I'm sorry to say that right from the out I was a little disappointed.

Kahvedan features a very extensive menu that includes typical Turkish dishes as well as pretty decent falafel,  pad thai, and pork chops. Yes, pork chops. The breakfast options are also quite extensive offering traditional Turkish breakfast plates, a variety of eggs, pancakes, and toasts. And there's bacon.

My friend R and I both went for bacon options, naturally with home getting bacon sahanda (fried eggs) and me taking a chance on yet another restaurant's eggs Benedict. What is my obsession with eggs Benedict? I don't really know but if its on a breakfast menu I invariably order it.

For a Sunday afternoon Kahvedan wasn't overly busy. Most of the outdoor tables were full but there were only maybe one or two tables filled inside. So why did we have to wait so long for our eggs? My eggs were actually slightly less than warm. I considered sending them back but it took so long to get them to begin with that I decided against it. I wonder if sending them back would have resulted in them being better or worse than they were? The English Muffins under the eggs were so touch and obviously stale that I had a hard time cutting them with a knife. I had to deconstruct the Benedict a little so the yolks could soak into the bread in hopes of softening it a little (didn't work). 

For all that, the eggs Benedict still tasted pretty good and R was happy with his eggs and bacon as well. Considering how good all my other experiences at Kahvedan have been I choose to view this as a fluke. Everyone gets and off day, right? And Kahvedan still has the best damn mint lemonade (I've found) in Istanbul.

Overall I heartily recommend Kahvedan for any meal of the day. If you go for lunch or dinner though get the Çökertme - trust me, you'll thank me!

Kahvedan
Akarsu Caddesi No 38
Cihangir, Beyoğlu
Istanbul

Turkish Breakfast Review - Aşşk Kahve

Getting a late start on this week's breakfast review because I completely forgot that it was Monday! Either the heat and humidity have finally succeeded in melting my brain or I haven't had enough coffee yet.

Speaking of coffee...Saturday morning M and I ventured up the Bosphorus to Kuruçeşme to try the highly reviewed Aşşk Kahve. While traffic along the Bosphorus road is usually a nightmare Saturday and Sunday mornings it's clear sailing. I think we may have waited for the 42T in Taksim longer than we were actually on it.

Aşk is the Turkish word for 'love', so aşşk is kind of like saying 'loove' and when we first arrived at the cafe I was ready to be in love with it. It's in a beautiful garden, sits right on the water, and is decorated with bright colors. It was a nice breezy day so sitting on the water was a very relaxing and refreshing change from my stuffy oven of an apartment.

Aşşk Kahve gives you the option of building your own breakfast platter offering all it's cheeses and spreads individually. Instead of doing that though M and I went for egg dishes, although of course with an order of bal kaymak on the side because life should always have bal kaymak!

Our drinks, the bal kaymak, and a bag of mixed breads came out pretty quickly making a favorable first impression. The portion of kaymak was quite generous and I really loved that it not only came with honey on it already but that they brought us a bottle of extra honey (of which I made judicious use!). My latte was only meh but M said his Americano was good. We were slightly horrified that his small orange juice cost 12.50 TL but whatever it was I paid for my passion fruit lemonade was well worth it.

Both of us paid the extra fee to have real ham with our eggs. M's choice was sunny side up eggs with ham and potatoes while I went for the Eggs Benedict. He quite enjoyed his order but I had mixed, leaning toward negative, feelings about my order. The salad and potatoes served on the side were better than the eggs themselves. While the dish looked promising the bechamel had virtually no flavor. Fail.

While we started out with great service it quickly took a huge nose dive. Yes the cafe was super busy but we also saw a lot of waiters avoiding eye contact with people and wandering around aimlessly in an attempt to look busy. It took M several minutes to flag down a waiter to order a water and when we were finally able to get someone's attention to ask for the bill it took another 15 minutes to come.

We both left with mixed feelings but in the end I think we decided that, while we wouldn't go back for the food, we would go back (especially on a weekday when it would theoretically be slower) for a drink and to sit in the garden by the water. Seriously it's worth the trip for the lemonade which comes in multiple flavors aside from the passion fruit (I'm addicted to anything passion fruit flavored); but for breakfast...meh. I've had better.

Aşşk Kahve (right next to the Macro Center)
Kuruçeşme Mahallesi, Muallim Naci Caddesi, No 64/B 
Beşiktaş, İstanbul

Turkish Breakfast Review - Marmelat

Last Monday I had a mission. Well it was something of a dual mission: 1. Go to CherryBean Coffees to replenish my coffee bean stock and 2. Have breakfast at CherryBean's neighbor cafe Marmelat. I've been walking by this bright cafe for months now when I go next door for my caffeine mix and last week M and I went in to try them out.

Service was a little slow and they didn't have everything listed on the menu in stock-but it was still a pretty hearty thumbs up from the two of us. Marmelat offers traditional Turkish breakfast foods-no pancakes, paleo anything, or eggs benedict here-the difference between Marmelat and all the other Turkish breakfast places though is that they offer you a choice.

For 25TL you get Marmelat's breakfast plate and get to choose! three cheeses, two meats, two marmalades, and two olives and it comes with a boiled eggs, tea for two, and tomatoes and cucumbers. We also ordered sucuklu menemen which was very good, and a side of cigara borek (they were out of the pachanga).

Everything was excellent but we were most impressed with the marmalades-which apparently you can buy from the cafe! We chose raspberry and quince with clove and I will be back to buy them both. Often store-brand jams and marmalade are sweeter than candy. Marmelat's were gorgeous. We were full from breakfast but asked for more bread anyway because we couldn't leave the jams lying.

Thumbs up for Marmelat-well worth the visit. And after you've stuffed yourself with breakfast you can go next door to Cherrybean for a great coffee.

Marmelat (near the Galata Tower)
Bereketzade, Camekan Sk. No:8 
34421 Beyoğlu

Being an Infidel Has Its Perks

It's funny how you don't miss, or really even think about something until you can't have it. For me in Turkey those things have been foodstuffs, like pork. You can more and more find restaurants that carry a pork option: Urban does a pretty decent pulled pork sandwich, Journey has bacon for breakfast, Kahvedan does gorgeous pork chops and larger groceries like Carrefour and Macro Center carry some pork products; pork is still not widely available or reasonably priced. This is where Ideal Salam comes in.

Ideal Salam is an exclusive pork butcher shop. I heard about it some time ago but it's not located in one of the nicer areas of town so I've hesitated to go before now. I have made many lovely friends in Turkey and with several of them have formed something of a food group exploring as many of Istanbul's ethnic restaurants as we can (so far Georgian, Indonesian, and Uyghur). On Monday our food group celebrated the first day of Ramazan like only a true infidel can-by venturing into one of the city's seedier neighborhoods on a pork-buying adventure!

From Osmanbey we walked downhill along the infamous Dolapdere Caddesi. I generally avoid this area with its reputation for drugs and other such shenanigans. While walking a fair bit of its length I cannot say I was accosted or saw anything untoward but I still don't think I'd care to repeat the experience. Unless I have a sudden need of one of the many car shops or stores selling wholesale mannequins that line the street.

While the shop windows piled with mannequins were certainly an interesting sight to break up the monotony of all the garages, the most interesting sight was the pile of wood taking up most of the sidewalk as we neared Ideal Salam. The point of the completely untidy pile of wood was not immediately obvious as we carefully picked our way around it-until that is our noses told us what it was for as we literally sniffed out the cause. The wood was located directly in front of a bread shop filled with freshly baked, hot loaves and was (likely) used to fire their ovens (haha, see what I did there?).

Our mouth were already watering from the fresh bread smells by the time we found the BP gas station. Much like the door to Narnia, if you pass between the gas pumps you'll find, tucked away to the right, the door to Ideal Salam. And like the door to Narnia, Ideal Salam's glass door opens to a world of wonder...and a glass case full of beautiful pork products.

Unfortunately they were out of ground pork on Monday (it apparently comes in on Tuesdays) and the ribs looked sad and frostbitten. However there was still plenty to choose and the owner's excellent sales tactics (i.e. lots of samples!) guaranteed that we were not going home empty handed. I walked out with fresh ham, salami Milanese, and prosciutto. Ideal Salam also sells cheeses at a better price than Macro Center and I couldn't resist a gorgeous big slice of brie. Nor could I resist, at a very reasonable 35TL, a bottle of imported Negroamaro. Ideal carries a small selection of Italian wines, mostly Chianti blends but I've never had a Negroamaro (grown almost exclusively in Apulia in southern Italy) so that came home as well.

I was tempted to buy more than I did but had to remind myself that I would have to eat everything relatively quickly so as to not lose it to spoilage. Along with some aged white cheddar from Besiktas's Rani (good effort but not quite cheddar) it's been a ham sandwich feast up in here!

Turkish Breakfast Review - Namlı Gurme

It's been a little while since I've had a chance to go out for breakfast so when E&M had some visitors in town I took the opportunity to drag everyone to the famous Namlı Gurme in Karaköy.

Located near the Karaköy waterfront, somewhat ignominiously under a parking structure, Namlı Gurme is a restaurant, charcuterie, and grocery all rolled into one. In addition to the cheeses, meats, and ready-made foods available you can also find all sorts of pickles, honey, tea, jams and spreads of all sorts, etc. ad nauseam.

I've been in a few times but never eaten here and I have to say that the hype was not overstated. The breakfast was pretty darn good. There's not a menu as such but our waiter told us that we could get eggs pretty much any way we wanted in addition to the breakfast plate. When you leave the egg orders to me you're pretty well guaranteed to get my favorite kavurmalı yurmuta (fried eggs with roasted meat). The double portion includes four sunny side eggs with lots of yummy roast beef.

Our waiter suggested that we get the breakfast plate for three since we were ordering two egg dishes (cheese menemen in addition to the kavurmalı yurmuta) which was a welcome suggestion as the breakfast plate was quite large: four different kinds of meat, six cheeses, and a pile of olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Not all the meat was to my taste, American bologna is bad enough but Turkish mystery meat bologna with pistachios was not happening for me.

Of course we also ordered a couple plates of bal kaymak which I was excited to see was served with petek bal, or honey comb.

Two thumbs up for Namlı Gurme! With friendly staff, lots of tea, good food, and relatively decent service this famous institution lives up to its reputation.

Namlı Gurme: (not far from the Karaköy Iskelesi)
Rıhtım Cad. Katotopark 1/1
Karaköy

Turkish Street/Fast Foods

Like many countries turkey has its own fast/street food culture. Some things, like the roasted chestnuts (kestane), the rice stuffed shell-things which I think might be mussels(?), and kokoreç I'll take a pass on. And even though I will never willingly eat it let's take a second to talk about kokoreç. My main food rule is that I won't eat anything that comes out of the body cavity and everything about this dishes breaks that rule because what it is, is lamb or goat intestine wrapped around around seasoned offal, including sweetbreads, hearts, lungs, and/or kidneys.

Just no.

However even without those three I am still left all sorts of other fast/street foods. What better place to start than the iconic simit? Simits are often likened to American bagels but are really as far apart as are Turkey and America. A traditional simit is a ring or twisted bread covered in sesame seeds (from which it gets its name). They're amazing plain, with krem peynir, labne (super thick, strained yogurt), or as a sandwich with cucumber, tomato, and beyaz peynir. While the ring is what we see the most of you can also sometimes find simit bread in markets or bakeries. And while you can easily find the traditional simit also in markets and bakeries it's far more satisfying to get them from the street vendors and they're red carts!

kıymalı pide

One of my absolute favorite things in Turkey is the pide, aka Turkish pizza. Pides come long and boat-shaped and open, long and boat-shaped and covered, and round. I haven't discovered what the reasoning is behind the different shapes but it seems to have a lot to do with which toppings you get. As many topping varieties as there are for pizzas so are there for pide. My favorite toppings are the meats: kavurma (roasted beef or lamb), pastırma (cured beef), and kıyma (ground beef). My absolute favorite place to get pide is a place called Kızılkayalar. There are two locations just off Taksim Square; one does just the fast food (ıslak hamburger, döner, etc.) and the other is a full restaurant with a buffet, roasted chicken, pide, and a compliment of kebaps. It was the saddest day ever when this place took itself off the Yemeksepeti service (online order & delivery site).

kaşarlı et dürüm

Next up, one of my favorite treats, is the kaşarlı et dürüm (meat wrap with cheese). These are about as ubiquitous as the simits and pides and the fillings all vary slightly but my favorite, favorite place to go is Mavi Büfe over by the Spice Bazaar. Places that serve dürüm and döner often serve dry meat because it sits around and gets recooked a few times once sliced off the giant meatcicle. Unlike these places though, the meat at Mavi Büfe is always fresh, juicy, and yummy. Roll that up in lavas bread with some french fries and cheese and I am a happy happy person. I usually pair with a fresh orange juice, a popular street beverage here on its own and no longer have to even order when I go to Mavi Büfe. As soon as I walk up I'm enthusiastically greeted by several of the guys who work there and after kisses all around I'm ushered to my usual table by Suleiman who's always my waiter and within five minutes my regular order is set in front of me.

sigara böreği

Because God loves us and the proof is the many kinds of börek in the world. Börek is essentially pastry layered with cheese, meat, spinach, potatoes, or possibly combinations thereof. Bosnians unarguably make the best börek; if you ever have the opportunity to visit Bosnia it's a must. However while the Bosnians hold the champion belt here Turks do it proud and they offer many varieties. There's su böreği which is the only one I really like-think of it like sauceless Turkish lasagne but replace the noodles with pastry and steam cook the whole thing. There's my favorite, kol böreği, which is what they do so well in Bosnia, paçanga böreği which is like a crazy amazing Turkish hot pocket, and sigara böreği which is deep fried yumminess. Börek places abound and one should definitely make time to try some of these be it in shop, having it delivered, or on the go.

ıslak hamburger

We have this thing here called an ıslak hamburger. 'Islak' means wet in Turkish and these are, literally, wet hamburgers. It's a relatively small, spicy meat patty in a regular sized hamburger bun that has spent (one hopes not longer than) all day sitting under a heat lamp swimming in meat juices. Some of my friends, okay well most of them, swear that these are drunk food only. I'm really kind of fond of them, drunk or not. Not sure what that says about me...

sahlep

While it's a beverage and not a food I have to include sahlep (or sometimes also spelled salep) in this list. Sahlep is the best thing about winter in Turkey which is when it appears. You can find it in a lot of shops and cafes but there are also traditional sahlep sellers who wander around neighborhoods pushing a cart with a sahlep samovar. Sahlep is a thick, creamy drink made out of powdered tubers that fall in the Orchid family and is often mixed with any combination of milk, honey, cinnamon, sugar, etc. You have to be careful when drinking it as often it's so thick that you don't realize how hot it is until you've taken a drink. Which is obviously far too late because then you have a gullet full of burning hot glutinous powdered orchid roots. We've all been there.

I included no kebabs in this post as they deserve their a post of their very own.

These are some of my favorite Turkish street/fast foods! What are yours?