Golden Fast Food

Many Istanbulites are relieved that the dreary days of winter seem to be behind us. Power outages and rainstorms notwithstanding, you can ford the streets of Beşiktaş very nearly in bare arms these days.

The Bosphorus morphed recently from mad indigo to a soft turquoise. You can see her peeping out from behind the taxi rank here. Today, after stuffing my face with eggs and bread, I may have to hop on a ferry to take a closer look.

Now, several colleagues have mentioned a very modestly-priced, basement breakfast bar that was good and with hefty portions. Somewhere down around the pub Abbas, and away from the too-cool-for-school breakfast street. I did an about-face and walked back into the Çarşı to find it.

For followers of my blog, this should be familiar territory! At the juncture with the hamam, there is Altıntaş Sokak, Goldstone Street.

With sunlight streaming dreamily through the budding trees and delivery vehicles parked at obnoxious angles, I sought out Golden Fast Food and a man called Ibrahim. Known not only for his solicitude with the egg pan, but his canniness with English.

The decor could be updated, let's say. The old panini press and 60s retro radio are welded to the tiny kitchen. What more do you need, I guess? Unfussy but with an ounce of art and care. 

Ibrahim doesn't mind a chat, and his English is really good. He's had the cafe for 12 years and says he was a sailor before that. He mentions Louisiana and chuckles.

The menemen was substantial, and the prices were downright reasonable. 5.50 TL gets you the full monty - everything else is cheaper than that. You can't smoke and there's no wi-fi, but the joint is cool. He's got a simple formula and I noticed that almost every passer-by looks in to give him a shout. 

                       Refreshingly, he only used his phone to place the lentil order.

As the golden rays of spring filter down on to you in your Beşiktaş morning, why not suanter over to Golden Fast Food restaurant and say hi to Ibrahim? He doesn't do email or internet apparently, so if any Turkish readers find him, tell him he's got a write-up on facebook!

People out on the street today.

Pişi Breakfast & Burger

Been to Pişi several times now, so I'm not sure why I haven't given it its own feature on the blog yet. I remember when it opened last year and it was one of the first breakfast places to try to be funkier in their food presentation and decorations inside. 

Lots of rock 45s and film posters dot the walls. 

Doing burgers as well as breakfast casts a wider net and they have a few dishes with pesto in them which makes a pleasant change. Service is snappy, there's wifi and filter coffee. All around, it's a reliable breakfast cafe.

You can have sweet or savoury filled pişi. 

It's a hot golden fritter made with deep-fried dough. Here they come in batches of 5 and the price ranges from 7 to 10 lira. One order is quite filling for one person!

Nutella-filled and with a pinch of salt. Perfect way to start a sunny day.

A few straw polls and Google searches later, it seems Pişi can translate literally as Bagel, but might also be a corruption of what the Turkish way would be of saying "cooked bread" - Ekmekpişi.

It's bright and cheerful in Pişi and one of the waiters can speak English. 

Still waiting on huevos rancheros though ;) 

Çakmak 2

It's hard to know how to dress oneself in Istanbul these days. Last week there were a few slightly sunnier days, but recently the city has been inundated with rain and wet snow. Just yesterday in fact, my breakfast in the 'tash was a homemade fried-egg-on-toast affair as going outside seemed plain crazy.

As the rain began to dissipate today, I grabbed my camera for some more culinary wanderings.

If you follow this blog, you might remember a little while ago I wrote about Balkan Lokantasi, which is up a small hill-street called "Oxbow Fountain". 

They're building a cinema right at the top, and that's very exciting. 

The construction is going painfully slowly though, and that is definitely not particularly exciting.

Çakmak 2 is to the immediate right of the construction site. This street is normally off the usual breakfast radar, but seeing it quite busy recently made me think there could be a gem in the offing. So, I gave it a whirl.

The first thing you notice as you walk in is how dapper and kind the waiters are. Scrupulously attentive and on top of their game, yet not smarmy like the bozos down in breakfast street.

It is obviously another family concern and I felt my tea was being made almost with affection.

Now, reverential treatment isn't necessarily a criteria when eating out for breakfast, but it bodes well for what the kitchen might produce.

The menu has been around for a while.

Bal-Kaymak for 7 TL made my eyes water a bit. I reflected though, that not all kaymak is the same and went for the one-two punch formula anyway, of it and a full menemen. 

Simple things done well and with the best ingredients are the order of the day any time. Here, big juicy chunks of sausage nestled in the eggs, which had been lightly stirred and even souffleed a tiny bit (at the end of cooking menemen, it's a good idea to cover it and let it "steam" to the last stage of doneness)

But the kaymak, OH the KAYMAK was fresh, unctuous, deliciously whipped, and there wasn't too much honey to disguise any inferior product that might be lurking.

No wimpy bits of bread either. They brought me a half a loaf to tear into as I saw fit. Bloody brilliant.

Please give this joint a look-in and maybe soon we can all grab breakfast and then a matinee, like this gentleman from another era seems to be waiting to do.

No wonder it's been busy. 

Fiskos Cafe

The last few days were wild and woolly in Istanbul. The famous wind "lodos" (as well as a hailstorm) visited the city like some great biblical prophecy. The birds were confused. Trees bent as though they were shouldering a burden. Looking pensively out of windows, people smoked and drank tea.

But the clear skies are here again and the denizens of Beşiktaş can reclaim the streets.

In search of a morsel, I opted to return to the familiar hunting ground of Şair Veysi Sokak. 

Fiskos is sandwiched between Faruk and Çakmak, a turf battleground. 

The price and quality war rages on as bedraggled, hungry students and sly entrepreneurial cooks find a happy symbiosis on the pavement.

Actually, it's all very friendly and civilised. 

Good breakfast is a civilising thing. 

Hungrily and expectantly, I squeezed into the space in the back by the kitchen. You can watch your meal being made by a gang of chatting ladies from there.

The stout proprietess was keeping a watchful eye over the whole operation.

A nar (pomegranate) juice and one oniony menemen later, my lust for delectable morning eats was sated. 

The service was swift and friendly, although it didn't occur to me to ask if  there was wi-fi as it was so delightful just sitting watching the world go by. The other patrons looked just us satisfied as I felt.

Prices are quite low - 6TL for eggs, 2TL for tea, 9TL for the big mixed breakfast plate (which seemed generous).

Good value and good atmosphere. This place gives Faruk a run for their money.

Sokak Cafe

This might be my first post about a restaurant on the fish market side of Beşiktaş - meaning on the other side of the small eagle from where the main breakfast streets are.

Just past the small eagle is a very hip cafe (on the corner) called Mamboccino and that little side street is affectionately known by most in these parts as "beer" street.

Here on the right.

Erasmus students aplenty, and always a watering hole, or a place to tuck into some grub. One cute-looking breakfast spot kept on catching my eye.

Beer street has some secret goodies hiding away - there is a very romantic, inviting wine bar there, any Beşiktaş game will be on several screens and there is a serious sense that you're in the heart of the market. It's more intimate than where the fish restaurants are, more down-to-earth.

So, I had high hopes that the Sokak Cafe would be another nice surprise. It opens early and seems very efficiently run.

As if by magic, the husband in the concern appeared just as I was slowing my pace to peer at the menu. How could I not give it a try?

The menu looked right. There was everything in its place, and the prices would make any student put the phone back down as they were ringing mum and dad for a bank account bolster.

I opted for a tested formula and one which often reveals how well a breakfast restaurant performs. The menemen (scrambled eggs and bell peppers) and bal-kaymak (clotted cream scooped over honey) combo. If they can do it decently, with a generous portion, and hot fresh eggs and use creative seasonings, then it's usually a winner.

It came out very presidentially, brought on a little tray by my man. Nescafe, (!) check. Bal-kaymak, exactly right. However, the main thing, the one thing that kind of makes it or breaks it, the eggs, were a watery mess. Hot, they were. There was even a hint of taste in there. But, I'd asked for "sucuklu" which means with sausage, and I'll be damned if I could taste any.

It wasn't an unenjoyable meal. The old dudes over the road caroused with one another, a stray dog made a whimpery appearance, the dawn light magnificently illuminated the lovely narrow street.

But I struggled to find inspiration from my anaemic menemen. It stuck in my craw. It wasn't what I wanted. And I know there is better and it's not only a question of taste - I beg you to consider that good scrambled eggs ought not to puzzle even a rank amateur cook.

The ceremony with which it was all presented did appease me a little. 15 lira for a warming and nourishing petit-dejeuner - let them have it, the dears.

If it is as I suspect: a ma-and-pa operation - then it is a little bit pleasant to think of the satisfaction they might glean from studiously making the same watery eggs for us that they've churned out for their kids and grandkids for years. 

But no real coffee or any wifi? It's a no-brainer.

Next time I'll be returning to the high-stakes world of battlefield breakfast!

First one that gives me a real huevos rancheros wins.

Balkan Lokantası

Much business is transacted in the early hours in Beşiktaş. Even before the insanity of rush hour, delivery men, bakers, and tradespeople are up scurrying around by 7. I rose early to join them.

Winter is here and stalls that normally brandish sunglasses and bikinis have swapped over to cold-weather wear.

Having decided to seek out more traditional Turkish fare for a morning meal, I went over to the far side of the neighbourhood nearer the buses to enjoy a hot bowl of soup.

As you walk up from the Üsküdar ferry boat terminal, Beşiktaş market appears on your left, after the mosque.

You are inevitably led up to the left along a wide pedestrianised road (this one) and the very first turning on the right is Akmaz Çeşme Sokak (Oxbow Fountain Street).

If you were to go all the way up, there is a cinema under construction, a gaggle of nargile cafes and a Tolkienesque sculpture that wouldn't go amiss as a secret object in the Legend of Zelda.

But go no further! 

As charming as the dilapidated old Ottoman houses and junked out vespas are, the steepness of the hill before you will no doubt shave years from your life. And life is for breakfast-eating as we all know.

Back down opposite the row of paint supply stores is Balkan Lokantası.

I have never seen it closed in the morning. The men who work there all wear hamam sandals and cook and clean with monastic devotion.

One is reminded of the order and heirarchy of a ship at sea under a captain. You walk in and are surrounded by the buzz of greeting, clearing, productivity. If there were a heaven for retired people, exiles and orphans, then this might be it. Simple tasks like portioning puddings into little cups are done with precision and dignity by young and old workers in crisp uniforms.

Every customer is treated with decency and even poorer folk can come up with the two lira for a warming bowl of soup. It is very reminiscent of the Milk Bar cafeterias I saw in Poland.

So, Ezogelin - red lentil soup with spices - the middle one on the right - is the one I had. 

Ezo was a fabled but unhappy bride from the south who made it to please her mother-in-law. And failed.

It's a good hangover cure, some say.

Chicken, rice, yellow lentil, and of course the legendary beef tripe soup, işkembe, are also available. 

Despite being a very male environment in the morning, there is no whiff of gym sock in the air.

For thrifty eaters, they'll do you a half portion for 1 lira with no complaints.

Alas, poor Ezo did a good job and didn't deserve her fate.

With a little dried mint on top and a squeeze of lemon, it's hard to beat on a cold morning. 

And for only 2.20 TL (20 kurus for a hunk of bread) it may be one of my favourite breakfasts in the 'Tash.

Yağmur Cafe

Yağmur Cafe is awkwardly stuck right in between Deep Store and BiKahvaltı. The proprietess works tirelessly to attract attention, but the guys working at the other places are way too damn smooth. 

Sometimes it gets custom, but I've noticed that poor Yağmur often gets ignored until the other places are absolutely rammed and there's nowhere else to go.

Yağmur means "rain" in Turkish. I'm sure it has lovely connotations in other languages, but perhaps that has been part of its undoing...

Joanna and I were wiling away our morning looking for good breakfast so we said, "Hey, let's give it a shot!".

Today I chose a return to the traditional Turkish breakfast, and Joanna opted for Menemen - spicy scrambled eggs!

This platter was generous. Plenty of greenery and veggies, and a really nice homemade spicy tapenade served in an organic ice cream cup.

Their egg was beautifully hot and medium-fried rather than the usually old, cold boiled.

The other punters were slow to trickle in, but the service and good quality of the food made us wonder why this place was not more popular. 

Turks often smoke while eating. The food can be peripheral to the puffery.

A heater near us made us feel like we were near a cold volcano.

The durned thing would not stay on.

However, it did make me feel like making an offering to Imhotep while we waited.

In general, the Yağmur is a thumbs-up from us though. 

Wi-fi, toilets, good service, and decent food. 

Give these poor guys a look in!