Honeymoon day 3: Istanbul

Thursday, May 7th 2009
9 am: Woke up late. Got ready to MTV Europe. Then down to breakfast . . .

11 am: Walked to Ayasofia, but it was really crowded. We agreed to come back the next day earlier.

Noon: Topkapi Palace. Gabby doesn’t like that it’s laid out like a campus, as opposed to a vertical palace. 

It’s teeming with Turkish school kids on class trips. They like to wave hello to us. We can’t tell if they actually like us, or if they’re taunting us. The tulips around the palace are beautiful. They are a very deep violet, almost black.

1 pm: Palace is cool, but Harem is awesome. Only 20 of the rooms are open to the public, but those that are are pretty impressive. Definitely the best part of the palace.

2 pm: After we finished looking at the Palace, we walked to the Grand Bazaar. This gave Tom time to think about how to convince Gabby that having a concubine is the way to go. We stopped at a graveyard in the middle of town on the way, but the Sultans tombs were closed. The graveyard was a very popular spot for all the neighborhood cats, however.

2:30 pm: We walked around the Grand Bazaar and shopped. Gabby bought a purse from evil purse man. Did we mention that all prices are negotiable in Turkey? You have to haggle at every store and negotiate a price.

3:45 p.m.: Headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our cooking class.

4:35: Late for cooking class. Before our trip, we had read about a half day class at Cooking Alaturka. After having tea, we met the 6 other people in our class. There were two other couples from Los Angeles and a couple from Scotland.

Our instructor, Eveline, briefed us on the traditional Ottoman food we would be cooking:
Ezogelin corbasi - spicy lentil and bulgar soup
Imam bayildi - Aubergine braised in olive oil with onion and tomato
Kabak mucveri - Zucchini patties with herbs and cheese
Etli yaprak dolmasi - Vine leaves stuffed with minced meat (or for Gabby, stuffed with mushrooms)
Sekerpare - syrupy semolina sponge cakes with hazelnuts

We then put on our aprons and got to cooking. Our first task was chopping all of the parsley, dill and mint. We used the biggest knife we have ever seen!

Another task of interest was folding the vine leaves into the shape of a cigar. This was difficult, as the leaves had to be packed tightly and they all had to be approximately the same length and width.

We used a few ingredients that are not available in America. The first ingredient is bell pepper paste. It is like tomato paste, but it is made from bell peppers and it is spicy. We also used preserved vine leaves. Finally, we used red pepper (as opposed to the black pepper commonly used in America).

7:15 p.m. With 8 cooks, an instructor and a sous chef, it still took us almost 3 hours to make dinner! We finally sat down to dinner. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed the wine and conversation. 

 

9:30 p.m. As we left the cooking school, we surveyed the mess in the kitchen. We had used literally dozens of pots and pans to make our meal and had created quite a mess. We can’t imagine having to clean it up! Dinner took almost 3 hours to make, included ingredients not available in America, and used more pots and pans than we own (including our new All Clad Stainless set-thanks, Sheila!) If anyone wants great Turkish food, we know how to make it...but we refuse to cook it at our house or clean up!

Since we were in the neighborhood of the Four Seasons hotel, we decided to check it out. The Four Seasons Istanbul is located in a former Turkish prison. Surprisingly, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

10:30: After going back to our hotel to change, we decided to go out in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. Beyoglu is at the top of the city, so we took a funicular there.

11:00 p.m. Beyoglu seems to be popular with the locals. The main pedestrian only street has tons of stores on the first floors, but bars, restaurants and clubs above. All of the side streets are filled entirely with bars. Luckily, one of the guys in our cooking class had recommended a bar to us. We took his suggestion and went to Leb-i Derya bar, located on the top floor of the Richmond hotel. The view from the top floor was amazing. The floor to ceiling windows looked out over the harbor and the entire city. After a few very expensive drinks (Turkey has a 25% tax on alcohol!), we headed back to our hotel to go to sleep.