THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, MARCH 2-3, 2019 10 TRAVEL + INDULGENCE theaustralian.com.au/travel

hen drinking tea in Turkey, cer- tain rules apply. The tea, served in tulip-shaped glasses, should be piping hot, clear and bright. WThe ideal colour is described as rabbit-blood red, which makes sense when you see it. “The clarity and colour are most import- ant,” Gonca Karakoc explains as we huddle under the brick arch of a 16th-century cara- vanserai. “If it’s cloudy it has been too long on the stove and will have a bitter aftertaste.” Kursunlu Han is one of hundreds of cara- vanserais (hans) still found around Istanbul, if you know where to look. Thanks to Karakoc, our guide on a Culinary Backstreets tour of the food-obsessed Turkish capital, we do. Hamburg-born and Istanbul-raised — “I see the city like you do, as an outsider, but I can explain it as an insider” — she is both gastro- nome and cultural interpreter on a day-long binge spanning both shores of the Bosphorus. We meet in Karakoy beneath the Roman- esque Galata Tower on a chilly Saturday morning. With her fine features, gamine-cut red hair and theatrical personality, Karakoc reminds me of Shirley MacLaine. “You will see!” she cries as we set off through the alleyways of Turkey’s biggest hardware market, Persembe Pazari. “There will be no elegant restaurants. We will be eat- ing very simple local foods. We want you to have a real, personal experience.” After our quick “commuter breakfast” at Kursunlu Han of tea and simit, the chewy Turkish bagels glazed with grape molasses much needed pick-me-up, Turkish coffee, and and crusted in sesame seeds, we head to the more insights into local lore. The most essen- next caravanserai. The 19th-century Ada Han tial thing, Karakoc stresses as our cups of cof- is a hole in the wall that opens to a long corri- EAT STREETS fee (and more baklava) appear, is to let the dor cafe decorated with carpets, Turkish flags first sip “float on the tongue” to savour its and a teddy bear. Feast on a food tour of Istanbul character. And drink slowly so the grounds Karakoc has arranged with the cafe’s have time to settle. “Having coffee with owner, Mr Omer, for us to have “weekend KENDALL HILL friends is one of the kayifs of Turkish people,” breakfast” here. Or brunch, as some call it. she says. “It is a time of deep sharing. If you “Weekend breakfast is the queen of all don’t have enough time — for me it would be meals,” our guide exclaims as she and Mr we board a ferry bound for Istanbul’s Asian about two hours — then you don’t have a Omer regale us with menemen — spiced shore. The brisk winds restore my appetite Turkish coffee.” scrambled eggs with tomato and capsicum — IN THE KNOW somewhat as we stand on deck for a guided After coffee we nibble candied fruits and and pastrami-like sucuk pungent with garlic commentary of passing landmarks in this vegetables at the 200-year-old confectioner and fenugreek. There are cheeses — feta- Culinary Backstreets’ Two Markets: Two legendary city. Cafer Erol and window-shop along style tulum that’s ripened in a goatskin and Continents tour runs daily except Sunday At Kadikoy, which Karakoc Gunesli Bahce street past dried kashar made from goat’s and cow’s milk — for groups of up to seven people assures us is “an endless dis- ropes of eggplant and capsi- plus Aegean olives and acuka, a Syrian paste (minimum two) and lasts six to seven covery … and not touristy at cum and a flurry of fish- of summer tomatoes, walnuts, fenugreek and hours. The tour price of $US125 ( $175) all”, a table awaits at mongers. We stop by a garlic. But the star is a simple dish of clotted a person includes all food and non- Gozde Sarkuteri where butchery for a lesson cream (kaymak) made from fatty buffalo milk alcoholic drinks, ferry crossings and owner “Elvis” is keen to in offal and then take and drizzled with wildflower honey from Van, insider intel. Culinary Backstreets runs ply us with meze from a stool at Borsam near the Iranian border. It tastes exactly like other food tours in Istanbul and his delicatessen. We Tasfirin for lahma- fresh coconut ice. elsewhere. sit down to crusty cun, flatbread pizza “The weekend breakfast culture is so im- ■ culinarybackstreets.com bread and more than slathered with spicy portant,” Karakoc says. “It’s the only time you ■ peregrineadventures.com half a dozen plates, in- minced meat. Later, aren’t working so it definitely goes for two … cluding a fiery “atom we snack on petite maybe four hours, with friends, relatives, even bomb” dip of chilli and manti dumplings neighbours.” The owner treats us to churros-like tulum- charred eggplant and stuffed with beef and We last only 45 minutes before we’re off to ba doughnuts, so named because the sugar ajvar paste of capsicums, sauced in garlic yoghurt, the famous bakery-cafe Gulluoglu to buy syrup bursts into the mouth like a fountain eggplant, nuts, onions, rose- learn the rules of drinking takeaway boreks for later, and then to Bakla- (tulumba). But we’re really here for katmer, a mary, pepper and oil. “So the raki (never on one’s own, and vaci Koskeroglu for a lesson in pastry. delicacy from Gaziantep in southeastern An- whole kitchen is there,” laughs only ever for fun) and, at some Class begins with baklava, the national atolia. Karakoc. point, even manage to fit in the boreks treasure of filo and kataifi pastries layered “It must be baked on the spot,” Karakoc There are no timings or rules to Turkish Karakoc bought earlier. with pistachios and sugar syrup. says as the piping-hot sweet arrives. The pas- eating, she reassures us as we dart across the I’m pretty sure my fellow traveller David, a “A good baklava should never swim in try is thin and flaky, crisp to the bite and street to Koz, possibly the world’s most Brit living in the US, speaks for all five of us sugar,” Karakoc declares. “You should put it stained green by ground pistachio paste. It is beautiful dried fruit and nut emporium. We when he says: “I think this is the most auth- in your mouth upside down. The first thing stuffed with kaymak, sugar and butter for admire its kaleidoscope of lokum (Turkish entic thing I have ever done on vacation.” you should hear is a crunch. The 20 bottom maximum kayif, a charming Turkish word delight) and sample some along with double- Culinary Backstreets began life as a blog in layers are soft and thick but the 25 layers on that means anything that nurtures the soul roasted hazelnuts, white mulberries and sun- 2009, launched its first tours in Istanbul a top should be crisp and crunchy, and separat- and brings happiness. dried apricots that taste like fruit caramels. year later and now operates in a dozen cities ed so you can almost count them.” There’s a brief respite from feasting while Then it’s off to Mr Fazil Bey’s cafe for a on four continents. Karakoc says it is more of a project than a company; its aim is “to sup- port local businesses, to give back to the cul- ture in which it operates. It leaves positive traces.” My final morsel is a sliver of charcoal- grilled kokorec, a skewered mass of offal bound in lamb intestines. No one else braves it; I’m not sure I should have either. It has lay- ers of intense flavours, some of them disturb- ing. “Turkish people are carnivores,” Karakoc reminds me. “We love to eat meat and we don’t care about health issues. My grand- mother used to say, ‘Sweetheart, if it makes you happy it’s good for you’. She had diabetes at 40; I found her under the kitchen table eat- ing baklava at 82.” She sounds like a woman after my own heart. ALAMY Romanesque Galata Tower, top; meze from Gozde Sarkuteri, inset; Kendall Hill was a guest of Culinary Back- ABOVE AND INSET: KENDALL HILL guide Gonca Karakoc with ‘Elvis’; stall on Gunesli Bahce, above streets and Peregrine Adventures.

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