The upside to this quirky little street we're staying on us that it's spitting distance from the palace, the Hagia Sofia, the blue Mosque, the cisterns, etc. Its Achilles heel is that it's spitting distance from the palace, the Hagia Sofia...you get the picture. Everyone is very friendly here, but after a while you start to get the feeling that they are mostly a bunch of phonies who want to feed you overpriced kebabs or drag you back to their shops and ply you with apple tea while selling you crappy pastel Persian knockoff carpets made in some factory someplace in Pakistan.Eventually, in need of some warm clothes, and eager for Turkish food done properly, we made our way out of the tourist ghetto and into greater Istanbul, where we found some nice new duds, but also found that the locals really are a very warm and welcoming people, and the food is quite excellent.
Beyoglu, just across the Golden Horn from Sultanhamet, is the Back Bay of Istanbul. Only the main drag is perched atop a steep hill, which you get to by riding the funicular.
Following a recommendation, we had dinner at Hamdi in Eminonou. K ordered the eggplant kebab, which requires a fair bit of assembly after it arrives at the table in order to be enjoyed properly. Sensing our cluelessness, but lacking the English skills to convey proper instructions, our waiter spent about 15 minutes leaning over K's plate, dicing and mixing, just to make sure that she would enjoy the food. K says she felt like a 2 year old having her meat cut for her while this was happening, but in the end it all made sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment