danger! art! thai!

There's nothing like a little tear gas with your pad-thai. I had just arrived in Cihangir with some friends after a massive riot roared through the streets of Taksim. ATMs were smashed, bank windows shot up and shattered, Molotov cocktails hurled— all in protest of the meeting between the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in our fair city.

Glass crunched under our feet as we made our way to the restaurant we planned to have dinner at, and we soon joined our fellow pedestrians in blinking, sneezing and coughing. I've never had the pleasure of being teargassed or of being in the presence of tear gas— it's awful stuff. It seems to linger in the air for quite a long time; we hadn't witnessed any of the gassing or violence, but our throats still burned.

Kahvedan is a delightful street-side restaurant with the best pad-thai I have found in Istanbul— so far. Everything tasted so fresh and peanuty, with heavenly notes of cilantro and a hell of a kick of chili. The next time I go, I'll take some pictures to accompany a sketch or two. The guy drawn above was such an interesting character, I whipped out my pen and sketchbook immediately upon seeing him— he was also enjoying some of the pad-thai.