Kanlıca Yogurt, Kanlıca, Turkey

One of our more memorable days in Turkey was spent taking a ferry from the Eminönü docks in Istanbul along the Bosphorus to Anadolu Kavağı, on the mouth of the Black Sea. With the warm sun on our faces, any real life stresses rapidly sublimated in the strong sea breeze.


While the ferry made stops at several suburbs and towns along its route, a lone food vendor made his rounds, first selling simit, a dense sesame-encrusted, bagel-shaped bread, and then ubiquitous glasses of steaming black Turkish tea. As Tam and I were headed for the end of the line, we stayed in our seats, munching and sipping our purchases.

When the ferry pulled into the Kanlıca dock, we could tell from our perch on the rear deck that the town was special. Two boys were swimming in the water outside a cafe advertising yoğurdu. Even though I barely speak Turkish, yoğurdu sounded like it had to be delicious.


As the ferry pulled back out into the strait, the vendor started selling small tubs of yoğurdu (which unsurprisingly turned out to be yogurt) from a crate which had been freshly delivered on board. For two turkish liras (about $1.40 USD), the vendor popped off the lid and heaped two giant teaspoons of powdered sugar onto the surface of the yogurt.


The yogurt was thick, almost solid. Legend has it, it used to be sold in blocks which were cut by knife. The fermented whole milk (a blend of cow and sheep milk) was tangy and creamy, topped with a thick skin of milk solids. We blended the yogurt and sugar together, and savored every spoonful, each bite balancing the intense sourness from the lactic acid with the added sweetness. It was a fantastically refreshing summer snack.

Our ferry voyage ended at Anadolu Kavağı, where we explored some ruins on a cliff overlooking the Black Sea before hopping on a meandering bus back toward Istanbul. The bus route followed the Asian shore, through small coastal towns and past markets. Hungry, we decided to get off the bus when it passed through Kanlıca, and quenched our hunger with pide (perhaps the original "football pizza"?) and another yogurt from a small shop behind the town square. We took it to the waterfront and ate it on a park bench, savoring every perfect spoonful.


It's easy to make a weak, although still delicious approximation of this treat using widely available Greek-style yogurt, like Fage. Unfortunately, in North America, I've never tasted a yogurt as good as what they sell in Kanlıca.

Kanlıca-style yogurt
1 cup chilled thick, greek yogurt
2 heaping teaspoons of powdered sugar

Blend. Eat it in the sunshine, preferably somewhere where you can feel a sea breeze.

The town of Kanlıca is located 20 km north of Istanbul, on the Bosphorus' Asian shore. There are a handful of yogurt vendors around the small town selling tubs of creamy yogurt which you can order with sugar or without. For a heartier meal, the Kanlıca kebab ve Yemek salonu on Halide Edip Adivar Caddesi serves delicious pide from a brick oven and provided complimentary salad and friendly conversation with our meal.

Fürreyya Galata Balıkcısı, İstanbul, Turkey

After attending a wedding in Scotland, Tamar and I took off for six days in Turkey for some much needed rest and relaxation. Our base was in İstanbul, where we took the time to see the city while tasting our way across its many neighbourhoods.

One evening, we took a walk from our hotel up towards the Galata Tower for an evening in Beyoğlu, as vibrant an urban area as I've ever seen. Before my trip, I had been regularly following the excellent Istanbul Eats blog, and after reading their review, we wanted to check out Fürreyya Balıkcısı (Fürreyya Fish House), which lies in the shadow of the tower. Upon our arrival, we sat at one of the tiny restaurant's two tables, underneath their red and white striped awning.


We were enthusiastically waited upon by Necati, a local university student who was eager to practice his English while explaining the menu. We opted for the kalamar (calamari) and balık dürüm, a fish wrap. The food preparation was done slowly and with care. The amazingly fresh seafood was cut and fried to order in the open kitchen with each ingredient lovingly transformed from its original state to an individual component on the final plate. While we waited, Necati engaged with us in conversation, exchanging anecdotes about our respective hometowns while he provided us with recommendations on what to do with our time in the city.

Our kalamar arrived first, and while unspectacular to look at, it was without a doubt the best that either of us had ever tasted.

Each ring was light and crispy, without even a hint of the chewiness or fishiness that often plagues frozen North American versions of this dish. The plate was garnished with a pair of cold sauces, one creamy yogurt-based sauce and a simple tomato sauce which provided contrasts in both temperature and flavour.

Next to arrive was our wrap. It consisted of fried strips of incredibly fresh fish, perfectly caramelized onions, and greens, wrapped up in a lavaş, a thin tortilla-like wrap, which was lightly toasted until it formed a slightly crisp shell. Each component in this wrap was expertly executed, and it was one of our food highlights of our trip.


Necati offered us tea, even though it wasn't on their menu,. When we accepted, he cheerfully went to the shop next door to procure us two glasses, without charge. Over our tea, we exchanged contact info with our waiter, and even made promises to become Facebook friends.

Buoyed by our meal and experience, we left Fürreyya Balıkcısı and wandered our way through this magical city, eventually crossing the Galata Bridge on the walk back to our hotel.


Fürreyya Balıkcısı is located at 2 Serdar-ı Ekrem Sokak in Istanbul. It can be reached by phone at (0212) 252 4853.

Borough Market, London, England

A Tale of Two Sandwiches

One of our first destinations in London was Borough Market, a paradise for food and food lovers. We did some shopping and gawking, admiring the sight of the portly pork pies obediently stacked in their glass display case, the smells of London's finest meats, cheeses, and food surrounding us.

We worked up an appetite with our wandering and were drawn to two different sandwich vendors which were serving up expertly prepared, simple fare. The first was the grilled chorizo vendor who was combining five ingredients to perfection. A short length of chorizo had been split open along its axis and grilled before being placed on a slightly grilled crusty bun and drizzled with a splash of high quality olive oil. Roasted piquillo peppers, which were both slightly acidic and sweet, and fresh nutty rocket contrasted with the salty sausage to yield a perfectly balanced sandwich.


The crusty bread and snappy sausage casings gave our jaws a workout with each bite.


Still hungry, we wandered our way through the market until the alluring scent emanating from a second sandwich vendor reeled us in.


We shared the most perfect grilled cheese sandwich imaginable. It consisted of two thin slices of Poilâne sourdough bread, a generous handful of grated cheeses (a mix of Montgomery Cheddar from Cheddar itself and Ogleshield), and several heaping teaspoons of minced leeks, red onion, and garlic. The bread was generously buttered, and pressed in a sandwich press until perfectly golden brown.


The cheese was pungent, salty, and pleasantly slippery while the bread was thin, crusty, buttery, and crisp. Cheese had leaked out around the edges of the bread, forming a delightfully greasy crust where it contacted the hot press. The crispy, fresh vegetables provided just enough contrast in flavour and texture to elevate the sandwich to another plane. Without a doubt, this was the best thing I ate in England. We took it next door and devoured it on the lawn of the Southwark cathedral.

Borough Market is located at 8 Southwark Street in London, England. It is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Visit their excellent website for directions and more information. The chorizo vendor is located at the front of the Market on Southwark Street, while the grilled cheese vendor is located at the rear of the market, adjacent to the cathedral.

Samphire

Tamar and I are in London, England enjoying ourselves before a family wedding. We visited Borough Market last week and before our trip, were asked by her brother to try and find some fresh samphire to cook up for dinner that night. This English plant is in season now, but is only available for a few weeks every summer. It grows in salty marshes and coastal regions of England, and absorbs that ocean essence to provide a unique marine flavour that lends itself nicely to seafood dishes. Never having heard of it, we found some at the market stall Turnips, for the low low price of £29/kg (or $22 USD/lb). After overcoming the sticker shock, we picked up a few quids worth to eat later that night back at my brother-in-law-to-be's flat.


We also bought some beautiful salmon fillets at a fishmonger. That night, we seasoned the fillets with salt and pepper before roasting them skin side down in a pyrex roasting dish in a few tablespoons of melted butter and three cloves of coarsely chopped garlic until slightly underdone (about 15 minutes in a 350 F oven).

We then added the samphire to the bottom of the dish and tossed it with the juices from the salmon, the melted butter, and garlic. We baked it all together for five more minutes until the salmon was cooked to our liking. We served a fillet per person with a generous tangle of samphire. The samphire had soaked up some of the garlicky butter while releasing it's briny juices into the pan. It retained a lot of its natural saltiness, was ever so slightly bitter, and had a nice toothy bite to it.

Since that night, we've seen samphire on a few menus and ordered it yesterday. It had been blanched and came tossed in a salad with rocket, sauteed garlic, chili flakes, olive oil and was topped with two grilled scallops. The chili flakes added a nice zing, and the slightly crunchy samphire contrasted in texture with the soft scallops nicely.


I've enjoyed my samphire experiences over here, and hope to one day see it on menus and in markets back in North America. Does anyone out there have any other interesting uses for it? If so, please let me know!

La Pasadita, Chicago, IL

One of the good things about graduate school is having the opportunity to travel to new places to present our research. On the downside, since we tend to be on the bottom of the academic totem pole, budget is a primary concern. As such, I found myself bleary eyed on the L from O'Hare to the Chicago Loop, having woken up at 5 AM to catch the most affordable early morning flight out of Pittsburgh to give a talk at a recent conference.

To make the commute longer, construction on a section of the L tracks required me to disembark the train, dragging my luggage onto a bus to complete the trip to my hotel. I was tired and cursing my decision not to take a cab, when a mural visible from my bus window at the intersection of Ashland, Division, and Milwaukee streets reminded me of the presence of La Pasadita, a series of three adjacent Mexican taquerias that I had enjoyed on a previous visit to the city.


Stomach now growling, I continued my way to my downtown hotel, only to be told my room wouldn't be ready for a few more hours. I left my bags at the front desk, and immediately hopped back on the shuttle towards the airport to La Pasadita to get some breakfast. By ten AM, I was the lone customer at the 1132 North Ashland joint. Not holding back, I ordered the super carne asada burrito, figuring that would satisfy my now raging hunger.

The ever-present taqueria tortilla chips were served with my drink, along with their two house salsas: green and black. I enjoyed a few chips while watching the morning shift set up the restaurant for the day, the waitresses and cooks flirting with one another, catching up on last night's gossip. The black salsa was particularly excellent, flavoured prominently with roasted peppers and garlic, searing my lips and tongue.


Before long, my burrito was served, and even though this wasn't my first La Pasadita burrito, I was impressed. The giant tortillas were expertly packed with loads of beef and rice, and perfectly proportioned quantities of lettuce, tomato, sour cream, grated cheese, refried beans, and guacamole. Unlike a lot of lazily packed burritos, these ingredients were evenly distributed such that every bite had a nice ratio of beef to everything else.


Having estimated the size of the impressive burrito to be almost 9 inches in length and 5 in diameter while tipping the scales at close to two pounds, I settled into a slow, comfortable pace, squirting a little of the hot salsa before each bite. Squirt. Bite. Squirt. Bite. I savoured the well-seasoned, nicely seared meat, and the garlicky guacamole. I was full after I had finished the first half, but persevered until my plate was empty.


The assembly proved not only to be flawless in its ingredient distribution, but in terms of structural integrity too. The foil-wrapped bomb didn't tear, didn't crumble, and didn't leak or spill a drop of its precious goodies.

La Pasadita is unique in that once its popularity proved to overwhelm their original location, they opened up a new branch, not in a different part of the city, but first two doors down, and then across the street to better serve their existing clientele. You can choose from one of three storefronts within 50 feet of one another, and regulars all seem to voice their preference. I'm told that during rushes, there are lines into all three locations.

By 11AM, the restaurant had slowly started to fill with a mix of hipsters getting breakfast and labourers eating lunch. I slowly waddled to the register to the pay my $10 tab, including tip. Not bad for enough calories to feed me for the rest of the day.

La Pasadita has three adjacent locations located at 1132, 1140, and 1141 North Ashland Avenue in Chicago, IL. All stores are open from 9AM to 3AM daily. You can check their website for more information and for individual store phone numbers.

Pittsburgh Garden Update: June

We had a cold, late spring in Southwestern PA but the growing season in Pittsburgh has been underway for well over a month now, so I thought I’d provide a quick update on how the garden is doing. On a recent misty morning in my hilltop neighbourhood, I took the camera down to the yard to snap a few pictures.

The peaches on my tree are starting to plump up, and are now as big as walnuts. This is the eight foot tree's third summer since it was planted, but it has yet to produce any fruit to maturity. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this year, and am dreaming of juicy fruit, still warm from the summer sun. Is a late July harvest in the forecast? If anyone is looking for advice on pruning and growing peach trees, I have been following these very scientific instructions and I seem to be right on schedule.


The tomatoes and peppers are growing like crazy these days. I’m still pinching the flowers off my hot peppers (jalapeno, cayenne, and banana) until they are tall enough to produce a bounty of fruit. The tomato crop this year includes San Marzano for sauce (two plants), the NYTimes-hyped Ramapo (two plants), and one plant each of Cherokee Purple, Early Girl, Green Zebra, Miracle Sweet, Sandul Moldovan, Snow White, and Yellow Pear. Summer salsa season is on the horizon.


The herbs have grown nicely too. The basil has been going in our pasta sauces and salads for a few weeks now. The mint, sage, lavender, and lemon thyme (pictured below) are now edible too, and have been used occasionally.


The best is yet to come!

Neighborhood Fruit

This week's New York Times Food section had an interesting article on new networks dedicated to sharing or locating fresh produce in your area. One such resource is the site neighborhoodfruit.com, which allows users to post descriptions of the fruit ripening on their property.

The idea is that if you have, say, more peaches than you know what to do with for a few short weeks in July, you can register your peach tree and post an announcement when they are ripe, allowing your neighbors to come at a designated time and pick some of your bounty. Then, when their apples or blackberries are ripe later in the summer, they return the favor, building bonds in your community as well as diversifying the fresh produce available to you, free of cost.

Another section of the site allows you to map the location of known publicly available fruit in your city along with the dates when the fruit is ripe. There's a stand of mulberry trees in a park near me and the fruit usually goes to waste, so I posted their location online so any Pittsburghers interested in using the fruit can stop by and pick their fill. No other yinzers seem to be using the site yet, so I urge anyone who lets fruit in their yard rot or knows of public sources of fruit to register their trees so they can be mapped online.