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As the calendar year turns over, we’ve grown accustomed to the barrage of lists telling us where to travel during the next 12 months. Often these places are a country or even a whole region – you could spend an entire year exploring just one of the locations listed and still barely make a dent.

We like to travel on a smaller scale. Forget countries and cities, for us the neighborhood is the ideal unit of exploration. Celebrating neighborhood life and businesses is, of course, essential to what we do as Culinary Backstreets. Since our founding in 2012, we’ve been dedicated to publishing the stories of unsung local culinary heroes and visiting them on our food walks, particularly in neighborhoods that are off the beaten path.

Plus, we recognize that tourism, while a justifiably important economic force in many cities, can devastate the urban ecosystem if not distributed responsibly into neighborhoods otherwise neglected by the travel industry. To help that process along, two years ago we launched an annual “Neighborhoods to Visit” guide, featuring areas off the main tourist trail from all the cities that we cover.

Yet as various other annual “must-visit” guides have made clear, following the same formula year after year can lead to selecting destinations solely for the purpose of a complete list. So we’re changing it up in 2020, focusing on a smaller selection of neighborhoods (as well as the people and places that keep them going) that truly deserve the extra attention. Below is a compilation of six less-visited areas that our correspondents are eager to explore this year:

Istanbul: Fatih/Akşemsettin Street

Though Fatih is a district in Istanbul, one that encompasses the entirety of the old city and all of its historic glory, and home to a variety of neighborhoods (including Samatya and Yedikule, which were our Istanbul neighborhood guide selections for 2019), for many Istanbullites the term recalls the areas located in close proximity to the expansive Fatih mosque complex. Among these include the Çarşamba quarter, which is home to one of the country’s most influential Islamic religious orders and among the most conservative places in the city.

Many neighborhoods in the district have also become home to large populations of Syrian refugees following the outbreak of civil war in that country, with entire streets now lined with a variety of shops and restaurants run by Syrians. Among these is Akşemsettin Street, which runs between the M1 metro line and the main avenue where the Fatih mosque is located. Over the past several years, we’ve made a number of discoveries on and around this street, which is why we are excited to include it among our neighborhoods to explore in 2020.

Among the most popular establishments on the street is Saruja, which serves Damascus-style home cooking, including a heady serving of mulukhiyah leaves (a vegetable we had never tried before) served over rice and topped with shredded chicken and cashews. Across the street is Bouz Al-Jidi, a tiny, narrow restaurant with only a few tables that is nevertheless smartly decorated, with the charming waiters donning spiffy uniforms. On the (nonexistent) menu are Syrian staples like falafel and fatteh; two of us had trouble finishing a single portion of the latter, enjoying dipping pita bread in the cold leftovers later that evening. The falafel wraps are formidable and cost just 6 TL with a complimentary glass of ayran.

Nearby is Hadramot, a two-story Yemeni restaurant that was among our favorite discoveries in 2016, where we reveled in Yemen’s national dish of salteh, a hearty, complex stew of meat and vegetables where the various flavors are united by a dollop of pastel green fenugreek drizzled on top. It’s served with fresh, hot flatbread not unlike Indian naan. Other delicious dishes include perfectly seasoned chicken or lamb atop a large bed of saffron rice, while an ambitious juice bar serves a range of fresh-squeezed, refreshing beverages including a neon-green lemonade made with freshly minced mint leaves. The building’s sign in Latin characters remains on the left hand side of its facade, but the Arabic equivalent on the right has been removed, a consequence of the government cracking down on businesses with Arabic signage in recent years.

Akşemsettin Street is dotted with shops serving Syrian shwarma and fried chicken, as well as those selling Syrian-style cheese and olives, just slightly different from their Turkish counterparts and often produced in the border province of Hatay. On one corner is Keyfine Göre Falafel, around which a cluster of hungry patrons have gathered just shy of 5 p.m. to purchase their fresh, crispy, made-to-order falafel wraps (6 TL) as well as packages of Syrian-style flatbread to take home.

The street abruptly changes names to Mütercim Asim before the main intersection, and near this corner can be found Muhtar Tatlı and Cafe, which offers a decadent and tantalizing array of Syrian desserts, where the seductive green hue of pistachio seems to have permeated everything. Steps later one encounters Fevzi Paşa Avenue, a wide boulevard where most of the buildings seem to be full of kebab joints and clothing stores selling wedding gowns and other attire that is appropriate for a conservative Islamic dress code.

There are certainly no shops in sight to purchase alcohol, let alone a restaurant serving it. But a few minutes away, at the very end of Islambol Street, a narrow pedestrian alley adjacent to the Fatih mosque complex, is Bonce ve Mevid, a hole-in-the-wall coffee stand that serves excellent Syrian-style coffee. This brew is akin to the Turkish variety but with the added benefit of a strong dose of freshly ground cardamom seeds, which sit above the espresso machine in a container next to the beans. A small cup of this sensational brew is just 3 TL, and is the perfect way to end your Syrian culinary excursion in Fatih. – Paul Benjamin Osterlund

Published on January 14, 2020

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