Turkish Street Eats

There's lots of reasons to visit Istanbul, not the least of which is the food. We ate our way around town, loving most of it, freaked out by some of it and, in a few instances, not sure what we were eating.  

Street food is the best way to get started, and "simit" is by far the most popular street food.  It is a circular bread, usually with sesame seeds on top, that sort of resembles a pretzel.  It can be found on EVERY street corner.  It's good, if not a little bland. Then, again, it costs the equivalent of 30 cents, which makes it all the more the delectable.

We had chance to see one of the bakers do their thing while we were on an off-the-beaten-path walk through the old Greek neighborhood.  This baker is the biggest supplier of simit to the street carts.

I'm not sure what this is.  It kind of looks like a version of simit, but not quite the same.  Maybe those friends of mine who've traveled Turkey more in depth than me can shine some light.  Looks good!

Part of traveling to foreign places means feeling a little silly sometimes.  We thought this looked like a beautiful, refreshing juice with chunks of fruit inside.  Kind of like virgin sangria.  Turns out this is a cup of pickled fruit, not meant as a beverage but to use as toppings on street fish sandwiches.  We all tried it, and all of us winced a little with that first (and only) sip.

Doner kabab is as good as it looks.  Vertical cone rotisserie meat. I'm not a big meat eater, but this got me every time.  Yum.

You can also find chestnuts and corn-on-the-cob up and down city streets.  The corn comes two ways, grilled or boiled for 66 cents.

Abby manning the combo chestnut and corn on the cob stand:

Here's where my western sensibilities (or fears) come creeping in--there's no way I felt okay eating "street mussels."  Even Doug didn't go there . . .

Finally, I surely can't forget Turkish ice cream.  It's called dondurma, and they add the ingredients of salep and mastic, which makes the ice cream super sticky, super thick, and slow to melt. 

See, you can even hold it upside down!!!  It won't fall out!!