dim sum!

Holy Cow! Istanbul has dim sum!

Having spent the better half of my twenties in San Francisco, the dim sum capitol of the United States (I'm sure there are plenty of New Yorkers who would fiercely disagree with me on that), I have what can only be explained as a passion for dim sum. For those of you that have never experienced this visual and delectable delight, dim sum is like a Chinese meze; a variety of light dishes to be enjoyed over tea. I love dim sum. So imagine the gasp of surprise and excitement I let out when I heard of Istinye Park's latest culinary addition— Dim Sum. Easy to remember, right?


So what did I have? To accompany my flowering jasmine tea, I chose steamed wasabi and prawn dumplings, squid cakes, steamed chicken and spinach dumplings, steamed lamb buns (normally they'd be filled with pork, but pork is not generally found on menus in Muslim countries), and the most exquisite and unusual mango prawn pastry. This pastry is something I could dream about at night.


An inventive spin on tradition, Dim Sum is located on the uppermost floor of Istinye Park, right next to House Café. Dishes of two to three pieces go from 7 to 11 lira— from what I can remember. Grab some friends and brave the mall crowd for a yummy, yummy experience.

victory in a sandwich

The weather has been miserable in Istanbul, and having been spoiled by San Francisco's glorious climate, I am having a tough time adjusting. I desperately want to go out for a walk, but the biting wind and icy rain is not exactly enticing. To avoid cabin fever, I went out to walk around Istinye Park mall and have a quiet lunch.

I am at the point where I can read and understand 90% of a menu in Turkish, so when I saw the words for "fig" and "cheese"— two of my favourite things on this planet— I knew I would be happy. I learned from the tartine I ordered that the word for goat is keçi, as the cheese was of course, goat cheese. Discovering a new word in a language is a victory, I get so excited that I want to use it immediately and tell everyone I know about my new word. Which is of course, what I am doing now. Oddly enough I learned the word for water buffalo yesterday: manda. There are these yoghurt vendors on the side of the road by the forest that sell terracotta and plastic jars of manda yoğurdu, yoghurt made from the milk of water buffalo. I cannot wait to try it— I've been told the yoghurt is so thick, you can scape it with a knife! It seems the key to my learning a language is through my stomach.

Please click on the images to see them larger.

A Mall is a Mall

Today I went with my mom and sister to Istinye Park, a fairly new mall in Istanbul. It's quite large, and feels just like any other mall with the exception of a lovely section on the bottom floor made to resemble the bazaars. There's fresh fish, spices, vegetable and fruit stands and my favourite— the nuts and dried foods stand. There are all sorts of delectable little goodies, apricots stuffed with almonds, these fabulous long chewy molasses tubes stuffed with walnuts called sucuk (soo-jook)— which is also the same word for a type of sausage.

Another thing I found interesting was the Christmas décor. I've been told that Christmas has become very popular in parts of Turkey as a gift-giving holiday, with the religious bit omitted. I saw tinsel, trees and Santas, loads of wrapping papers and some snowmen.

Lunch at the food court doesn't necessarily mean suffering through McD's or some MSG-laden Chinese food— you can certainly do that if you choose, but there are all these restaurants that serve a more traditional Turkish fare. I love them. I had manti, little pillows of dough filled with meat in a tomato sauce topped with yoghurt, mint and hot pepper. Ayran (eye-ron) was my drink of choice; a nice cold beverage made of water, yoghurt and salt.

Later on this week I'll be going to the Grand Bazaar, possibly the oldest still in-use shopping mall. It's a fantastic labyrinth of a place with avenues and alleys of carpets, jewellery and just about anything you can imagine. I can't wait— it's one of my favourite places in Istanbul, a great place to get some sketching done.