Eating A la Turka

It has been warm and humid in Beirut recently. Not quite Louisiana hot, but pretty stuffy all the same. Jeff and I decided that the uncomfortably balmy weather provided the perfect excuse to head north for a little while, so last week we caught an early morning flight to Istanbul, Turkey!

When I say "an early morning flight," I mean early--as in 6am or so, which meant a 4am taxi ride to the Beirut airport. We found our sleep-deprived selves checked into our hotel and back out on the lovely streets of Istanbul by 10am. Our first stop was a delightful cafe where I got some great coffee and we read the English-language version of the local newspaper. By noon or so, we were starving, so we headed to a restaurant called "Cooking Alaturka" for lunch.

The restaurant is only open for lunch, as cooking lessons are offered in the evenings. Every day the woman who runs it offers a four-course set lunch menu, with the daily dishes determined by the seasonal produce available in the markets. We ate there twice, and both times were wonderful.

As its name suggests, the restaurant specializes in Turkish food. One day we had a traditional dish called "Imam Bayildi," which is a roasted eggplant stuffed with tomatoes, onions, and dill. Its name means "the Imam fainted," supposedly because an Imam (Muslim religious leader) fainted because it was so tasty. I don't doubt it!

We also had some fresh green beans with tomatoes and dill,a tasty soup of red lentils and bulgur--a grain that is ubiquitous in the Middle East, and a really good lamb stew that was served atop some baba-ghanoush-style roasted eggplant. Eggplant, tomatoes, and dill seem to be really popular in Turkey. A winning combination, to be sure.

For desert we had "Incir Tatlisi," or figs stuffed with walnuts and soaked in an interesting clove-flavored syrup. I'd never really had cooked figs before, Newtons aside, and I liked them.

Many restaurants serve glasses of tea, or cai, at the end of a meal. It always comes in cute but impractical handle-less glasses in nice, decorative saucers.

At Cooking Alaturka we were served a little dish of Turkish Delight or "lokum" after our meal, and even though I was entirely full after the soup, beans, stew, and figs, I had to try some. After all, I'd seen it for sale in the bazaar and markets all around Istanbul, and it looked appealing.

It was very...chewy. Even if the lokum was a bit disappointing, everything else about Turkey--the weather, the food, and the beautiful old buildings--was truly a delight!