Culinary Tour of Istanbul

My culinary tour of Istanbul ran through family restaurants serving hearty home recipes to the Grand Bazaar’s spice shops, grilled lamb intestines on the street to a private breakfast in the Galata Tower and finally to renowned locavore destinations including Mikla and Neolokal. My favorite dishes everywhere were the mezze. From emerald herbs sprinkled with ruby pomegranate seeds to the clotted cream, good lord, the clotted cream, with amber honey and honey comb.

On my trip for Turkey’s largest culinary conference, Gastronoma, I was disarmed by the open-handed hospitality of people in Istanbul. I met fantastic Turkish chefs both based in the city and returning home for the conference from abroad including Somer Sivrioglu from Sydney and Fatih Tutak from Bangkok (and I'll be visiting both soon!).

Many thanks to Gastronoma organizer Gökmen Sözen and for the warm hospitality of my World’s 50 Best colleague Cemre.