Istanbul: Modern traditions @ Neolokal, Karakoy

After a day at Princes’ Island, we returned to the mainland.  This time landing on the North side port the Kabatas Seaport, which was unfortunately on the wrong side of where we needed to be.  But I was pumped.  Tonight’s meal stretches beyond the norms of skewers, rotisserie and other basic food served around town.  The dinner tonight is going to be at Neolokal.  A dining institute that seeks to show gratitude to mother nature and her produce by serving genuine products using traditional techniques.  This way, the finest details are not missed and tradition preserved. As the head chef says “if we do not protect our food, the generations to come will not have anything left in their hands”.

Tonight my colleagues and I feasted on a shared course that stretched the evening.   Straight from the menu:

But before we started; was a serve of rye fermented with yeast the same age as the restaurant.

BUTTER; parsley, olive oil & shiitake powder

HOUMUS & fresh herbs, tahini “piyaz” cream

PASTRAMI & DRIED MEAT raki & fig jam and fig vinegar cream

FRIED MUSSELS, walnut dip and poached onion salad

MARINATED BLACK SEABASS with strawberry raki terrine, fennel salad and salicorn

SURPRISE GARDEN TASTES, from our garden with vegan and vegetarian options

“MÜCVER” fritters with shrimp and salicorn, turmeric & pepper & salicorn yogurt

TARAMASALATA & HADDOCK, bottarga powder, raki beets

“KISIR & TARTAR”, turnip, mustard and turmeric & cauliflower pickle

Beet & “KARGI TULUM”, cheese, purslane

LAVENDER OCTOPUS, lemony potato cream, lemon zest and orange powder

The appetisers were an interesting journey with mixed emotions with some very obvious hits and misses. My favourites that night were the Hummus, Pastrami and the Beets.  All of which were executed flawlessly.  The Hummus for example boasted a stunning presentation but never for once lost its flavours.  Instead new textures were introduced with the fresh herb “garden” and crisps.  The Beets on the other hand play a strong fusion between an Aussie favourite and the traditional cheese which was an Istanbul produce.  Sweet,earthy and tart, the salad knocked me off my socks.

For the mains we shared:

BLACK SEABASS, zucchini & flower, baby potatoes & lentil

LAMB SHANK, üveyik wheat pilaf cooked with apple and onions, apple pickles & crisps

"KATMER" & "TİRİT", “tarhana” yogurt cream, dried “tarhana”

BEEF, pulled tacos <-- I made this up, I did not get a name for it haha.

The mains for me did not leave a lasting impression.  The lamb shank and pulled beef were especially poor in execution.  These two had very minimal seasoning and did little to highlight it usually tender flesh.  I wanted a little more flair from the Turkish mob. Perhaps a hint of smokiness to match with a melt in your mouth shank.  Or, a juicy pulled beef with a garlicky chilli yoghurt.  It might be just me but I wanted flavour. I wanted the meat to be better.  For this part of the course, I enjoy the fish heaps!  Even the vegetarian Katmer & Tirit, a by-product of leftover bread was creative and equally impressive in presentation.  Meat, shame on you lol.

BAKLAVA AND WALNUT CANDY, ricotta pistacchio & walnut cream, molasses tahini halva

Rose, coffee, cardamom PUDDING and meringue

YASEMIN’S CAKE berries and pistacchio croquant, pudding cream

The dessert bit of the dinner was a definite happy ending.  The cake is a recipe by the chef’s mom, Yasmine and was handed down to him. For me, it was delicious. A soft fluffy inside topped with a luscious butter-cream like coating.  It was a little sweet but extremely pleasing.  This was yummy!  The Baklava on the other hand looked stunning.  I have never seen something so well presented before.  More importantly, its nothing like any Baklava you have ever had.  This was not overly sweet, the crushed pistachios still fragrant and pastry crisp.

Overall, the meal at Neolokal met my expectations in Istanbul.  The food is different in many ways yet tasty.  Some of my colleagues found that several dishes had been altered so much that the essence of its main ingredient seemed lost.  While that was true, it is common for this style of dining that an element sometimes loses its original form to better pair with is surrounding.  In other words, it adapts.  The service at Neolokal was good and attentive, without a single moment of neglect.  Even when I was confused, the maitre’d would gladly answer my questions.  The finer details of fine dining is fused with tradition in this leading culinary institute.  Its flavours are bold, renditions modern and ingredients international.   No wonder the word Neolokal stems from the English word, the New Local.

The night finished with a long walk through Istiklal Avenue and across the bridge. A good 5km work out back to the hotel but it was every bit joy.  Istanbul is an amazing city.

So much to offer both day and night as you would expect from a big city.  Sure the booze scene is not as vibrant as its Western counter-part but who needs booze :P?!

My joker colleagues by the plant market:

WenY

Istanbul: The best Turkish desserts in Istanbul at Grande Kafe.

What does fried wheat strands, rose syrup, endless supply of pistachios and the famous Turkish delight have in common?  They are all delicacies of Istanbul’s history as the melting pot of European and Eastern cultures.  While I am not a dessert person, one place in Istanbul has made me proclaimed that “this is one of the best dessert places I have been to in a long time”, a statement which I have not made for the entire 2014/2015 period till then.

After a trip to the Basilica Cistern, we were craving for some food and the tempting colours of the Grand Cafe or Grande Cafe as the Turks call it lured us in.  

Sugar, sugar, everywhere sugar.

There are plenty of sweets here but majority of the ready to go desserts were Turkish delights, Baklava, Lokmas and such.  Very inviting!  Note that the Turkish delight in Turkey seemed less artificially sweetened compared to the ones I had tasted before coming to Istanbul!

In a true  East meets West fashion, the four of us ended up with three desserts and some tea or rather "chai" in Turkish.  Two were Turkish staples the Kunefe and a Trileche while the other was an American style cheesecake.  What is a Trileche?  It is the pinnacle of simplicity.  consisting of a sponge soaked in mildly spiced milk topped with a creme caramel style burnt syrup.

The soaked spongy cake was a reminiscent of a childhood where I enjoyed dipping everything in my cup of hot Milo.  Biscuits, cake and breads!  And at the very top the Trileche was a very fine tasting caramel layer.  It was sensational.  The Trileche looked like a dessert that does not contain complex techniques or sophisticated flavours but yet it pleased the palate so very well.  I am amazed.

Kunefe

What is a Kunefe?  It was essentially baked cheese topped with intertwining wheat strands that is baked until crisp. Once cooked, it is doused with syrup and topped with crushed pistachio.  

The result is a combination of texture, flavour and visual pleasantry that help produce an outstanding dessert.  The crisp of the wheat strands, fragrance of the pistachio and subtle syrup worked together to make a mildly savoury cheese taste sensational.  It was warm and absolutely pleasing for that cold-rainy day.  It was super good.  I have never had a Kunefe before and having is this once is making me want to have it again (unfortunately other Kunefe that we had in town did not even come close).

Last but not least is the Berry Cheesecake which I believe needs no introduction.  With the Kunefe and Trileche stealing the limelight, there was no space for error with the Cheesecake if it wanted its own 5 minutes of fame.  

Unfortunately, it did not pass my requirement for a good cheesecake.  Whilst everything looked really pretty, it lack that melt in your mouth feel.  A sensation one gets from when the baker properly fine tunes the addition of gelatine, agar or other hardening agents.  This one was really hard which I did not enjoy.  Needless to say, it was the wrong dessert in the wrong place haha.  Still edible nonetheless!

WenY

Istanbul: Popular Sights of Istanbul and a Classic Kebab.

Istanbul, is one of the places that I have always wanted to go since I was a kid.  There is something about this city that is so enchanting. Whether its the never-ending stretches of bustling bazaars,  or the mystical landmarks of the city, I was sold.  Like every other new city I have visited, everything seemed quite normal yet so very foreign.  Our lost faces often earned the glares of the local.  Being ripped off too, soon became part of the experience. Despite all these down sides, I was liking it.  It was an adventure! So much that walking through a deserted street in the middle of the night became a thing of fun rather than an element of concern.

With 3 day and 3 nights, was it possible to travel the city?  The itinerary for us was rather simple.  On the first day, we took in as much of the city basic as we could.   This includes (rather unsurprisingly) the tourist attractions like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia,  Basilica Cistern, and the Topkapi Palace area.  

These sights are amazing, some more than others.  There is always a queue to go in and for me who tried going into everything, I soon learned that not everything was worth going into.  Which was the best and worst tourist attraction to go into?  

The Best:  Basilica Cistern.

This Basilica was once a source of water for the local community and served the community for many centuries.  Now a converted tourist attraction, the soaring pillars are bragging rights of age old construction done right.  Everything in the Basilica was simply amazing! Peer into the water and also notice some zombie looking fish that has been put into the Basilica to mitigate any mosquito breeding activities.

The OK: Blue Mosque

I have been longing to see the iconic Blue Mosque ever since I was a kid.  For some odd reason I even thought that Aladdin was related to Turkey rather than the Arabs!  But be warned that this icon looks far better on the outside than on inside.  The historians might disagree but for the commoner in me, a long gaze from outside was all I needed to embrace the greatness of the Ottoman Empire.  For the ladies, always remember to cover up as a matter of respect.  Head to toe.

The Worst: Hagia Sophia.

On one end is the iconic Blue Mosque with free entry and on the other end is the “pink” mosque named Hagia Sophia with paid entry.  From the outside, the building marvellously s the skyline with its warm pink tones making it inviting to those seeing it from afar.  But the inside tells a different story.  It was mundane, unfinished and perhaps unmaintained.  It was definitely not worth my dollar.

After all that walking, I was ready for a proper Turkish feed.  For lunch were some good old kebabs at  Sehzade Cag Kebap.

 I can already imagine people frowning and saying “Its like the one I had outside my house”.  Not all kebabs are made equal and the ones at Sehzade Cag Kebap reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend in the Netherlands before; that original Turkish food is very minimalistic and often only used salt and pepper for seasoning.  

The skewers of thinly sliced lamb were a reflection of that.  It was hard to understand it at first but the gamey-smokey lamb skewers were a sign of simplicity rather than a lack of creativity.  I enjoyed it as there were a mix of textures.  Some of the edges were crispy while the middle pieces were a lot more tender.  But in saying that, I think two skewers with several sides was all I could handle.  Anymore and I would have gotten bored!

We also ordered a few other things like the curdled cheese which tasted like solid yoghurt, and the “very spicy” chilli sauce which tasted like salsa. Great accompaniment which lifted the flavours of the lamb kebab!

The very "spicy"  chilli sauce which was more of a Turkish salsa!

The yoghurt condiment:

Part. 2 coming soon!

WenY