Editor’s note: In the inaugural post of our new recurring feature, First Stop, we ask Chef Ana Sortun of the much-beloved restaurant Oleana and bakery Sofra in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she heads first for food when she arrives in Istanbul. Sortun received the James Beard Foundation’s award for “Best Chef Northeast” in 2005 and wrote the cookbook Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean. Her newest restaurant, Sarma, opened at the end of 2013 in Somerville, Massachusetts.
When I arrive in Istanbul, I usually arrive in the afternoon and try to stay awake through an early dinner. If I am by myself, I shoot for dinner at the bar at Yeni Lokanta, which Şemsa Denizsel [chef of Kantin] had told me about, and have [Civan Er’s] dried eggplant mantı and hummus with za’atar. When I was there last October, I fell in love with a stuffed grape leaf that was round and flat and crispy from the oven – it looked like a small grape leaf pie – and topped with labne. In fact, that last time I loved the experience so much, I visited two nights during my stay and brought some friends with me on the second visit so I could try more things! Everyone was so friendly and it was a nice relaxing spot to enjoy delicious food on my own.
When I arrive in Istanbul and am with a group, my first stop is Asmalı Cavit for the meyhane experience. I love going there because it’s lively and it keeps me awake. The food is classic and executed wonderfully. I always get fava and meat börek. It’s a great re-entry to all the things I love about eating in Istanbul. The quality of the food preparation and the lively atmosphere is timeless.
For quick eats, I run to Dürümzade for their dürüm. I’m in awe of how they “marinate” the bread, and they achieve the perfect proportions of bread to meat to onion and tomato.
My favorite restaurant (still after so many years) is Musa Dağdeviren’s Çiya Sofrası. I’ve never met anyone who cooks like him. He has a rich, soulful approach to cooking. There isn’t anyone I know who balances and builds flavors like Musa. And of course he sources the best ingredients. I had the best yogurt of my life there that he made, and I crave his muhammara and katmer.
- September 15, 2021 A Regaleira
“Bom filho à casa torna,” we like to say in Portuguese, a maxim that translates to “a […] Posted in Porto - December 12, 2013 Culture Clubs
In a recent New Yorker profile of Turkish entrepreneur Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of […] Posted in Athens - July 14, 2016 Summer Picnics
Maybe it’s the fresh air, maybe it’s the smell of the grass and the trees or maybe our […] Posted in Barcelona
Published on March 29, 2014
Related stories
September 15, 2021
Porto | By Cláudia Brandão
Porto“Bom filho à casa torna,” we like to say in Portuguese, a maxim that translates to “a good son comes home.” Can the saying be applied to a sandwich? In Porto, we would argue, the answer is yes, especially now that A Regaleira, the birthplace of the francesinha – Porto’s signature dish – is open…
December 12, 2013
AthensIn a recent New Yorker profile of Turkish entrepreneur Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of Chobani, a wildly successful company that makes Greek-style yogurt in the U.S., we read with great interest about the trip writer Rebecca Mead made to Argos, in the Peloponnese, where renowned cookbook author Diane Kochilas had told Mead she’d had “the best…
July 14, 2016
BarcelonaMaybe it’s the fresh air, maybe it’s the smell of the grass and the trees or maybe our senses are more alert, but it seems to us that when we eat outdoors, food just tastes better. And Barcelona, blessed as it is with so many sunny days, a municipal market in every neighborhood, a growing…