Cheese and Sucuk and çok kuzu

I think a lot of people will appreciate this: a post devoted to food.

First of all, the negatives (so you may leave on the positives!). Food isn't dirt cheap. Yes you can get a hot dog in some places for like $1.50 or a cheeseburger for about the same amount, but these aren't that good. Although, they put spices in the cheeseburger meat which is definitely an interesting take. Also, they're small. SMALL SMALL portions. Actually, scratch that. They're regular portions, but I'm to everything in the US being so damn big that these seem small. Turkish fast food is another story - it's better and just a bit more expensive. Kokoreç, a food that I am sure the Olympian gods must envy, is about $3.50. It's a sandwhich with oregano, spices, vegetables and...lamb intestine. Yeah I know, but trust me, it tastes more like lamb AWESOMENESS. they chop it up REAL tiny so it's just a bunch of minced meat with vegetables. They also have kumpir, which I would also define as a fast food. But nothing exotic here, it's just a baked potatoe with your choice of veggies and stuff. You can aslo find people selling fish sandwhiches, grilled snapper, calamari, and clams. Lot's of seafood in Istanbul. I think that would surprise some people. And it's good too! Although I have yet to try the clams at 3 am...cause they do sell them THAT late on istiklal. Finally, we come to the quintessential Turkish fast food, the Big Mac AND Whooper (although they have a buttload of those too...) of Turkish cuisine...the döner and kebap. Döner is the huge chunk of meat that gets rotated vertically on a spit and grilled by a vertical grill and whenever someone orders a portion, the chef shaves off thin slices of meat and they make a sandwhich/platter! It is pretty good but it's also kinda dry. It's generally lamb (kuzu) but I prefer the chicken (tavuk) because they tend to be less dry, ironically enough. You can get it as a sandwhich or a wrap (dürüm). Finally, the kebap. I honestly don't know how to describe the kebap because it comes in soooo many different forms. I will describe my favorite, but this is from a legit lokanta (restaurant) and is not fast food. The Beyti kebap is minced meat sausage wrapped in a very thin pita into a a long, cylindrical shape and then cut into bite-sized pieces and arranged in a circle on the outside of a plate, seperating each piece from the next with slices of fresh tomato. They garnish it with herbs and put a HUGE hunk of sour cream in the middle of the plate. It is SO GOOD. it goes for about $8 at a restaurant right around the corner and is definitely a filling dinner meal.

Stepping outside of fast food...there's a lot. There's a lot of stews. a LOT of stews. lots of eggplant (patlican) dishes with meat. LOTS OF MEAT. I don't know how vegetarians would cope here. Theyre's also a lot of köfte meals. Köfte is basically just any meat in small pieces. For Bosnians, köfte is our ćevap. I really have no idea what köfte is because everything I ever seem to order ends up being some form of köfte...no matter how different. The breads are delicious and baked fresh every day. I haven't tried TOO many desserts but they ones I have have not really impressed me. Besides baklava, of course, which is I think my favorite dessert. Stupidly enough I'm writing this on an empty stomach...I think i'll go fix that now. 10 MORE DAYS UNTIL THIS IS ALL OVER. I'm really gonna miss it. But i'll be back soon inshallah.

stay hungry!
-Edin