<p><a target="null" rel="null" class="text-[#781e2a] underline ce-link" href="https://culinarybackstreets.com/stories/istanbul/doyuran-2"><strong><u>Breakfast of Kaymak Champions: </u></strong></a>Escape the tourist throngs and find one of the Old City’s most rewarding breakfasts at this 90-year-old institution in Kumkapı. The main event at Boris’in Yeri is the legendary bal-kaymak – a transcendent, cloud-like clotted buffalo milk cream drizzled with honey. Pair it with a plate of sunny-side-up eggs dotted with spicy sucuk sausage for a perfect start to your day of touristing.</p>

<p><a target="null" rel="null" class="text-[#781e2a] underline ce-link" href="https://culinarybackstreets.com/stories/istanbul/aynen-durum"><strong><u>Get Your Kebab On: </u></strong></a>As we’ve written here before, if you do a little rooting around, the Grand Bazaar can be as much about the food as it is about the shopping. Case in point: Aynen Dürüm, a microscopic kebab shack at the edge of the sprawling bazaar that serves exceptionally good wraps (or, as they’re called in Turkish, dürüm).</p><p></p><p>Dining in Turkey tends to be a genteel affair, even at the humblest kebab restaurants, but there was something different going on at this place. First, there’s the competitive eating contest-like setup – a double-sided outdoor counter with about 10 stools around it and a trough in the middle that holds containers overflowing with grilled peppers, sliced pickles and sprigs of parsley. Then there’s the eaters themselves – usually a crowd of hungry Bazaar locals chowing down with a kind of reckless abandon rarely seen in other places around town.</p><p></p><p>Aynen’s tiny interior, meanwhile, is taken up by a charcoal grill and İsmail, the joint’s grill master, who has been fanning the flames here for the last 10 years. The no-nonsense İsmail takes the wrap business seriously, letting his customers choose between two different kinds of lavaş (the flatbread used to make a dürüm): the traditional thin variety and a thicker, chewier version. İsmail clearly sets the bar high for himself. His restaurant's tagline? "The Motherland of Kebab."</p><p></p>

<p><a target="null" rel="null" class="text-[#781e2a] underline ce-link" href="https://culinarybackstreets.com/stories/istanbul/recipe-24"><strong><u>For An Unforgettable Meze Dinner: </u></strong></a>For an unforgettable meze dinner, head to this elegant yet comfortable fish restaurant. Specializing in the cuisine of Cretan Turks, Giritli offers a tasty prix fixe menu best enjoyed in its beautiful, tree-shaded garden. While the grilled octopus is near perfection, the real standouts are the creative mezes, like the seafood and orzo salad and olives stuffed with walnuts and feta.</p>

<p><strong><u>A Classic Sultanahmet Restaurant&nbsp;: </u></strong>Things haven’t changed much from when we first wrote about this place in 2012: “All those framed, handwritten letters from movie stars, politicians and military generals that cover the walls of this Sultanahmet mainstay are not complaints. The restaurant’s İnegöl-style köfte – that’s the log format of the meatball, not the patty – is pleasantly springy, aromatic and juicy. When dressed with a spicy red pepper sauce (served upon request) and stuffed into a fresh hunk of bread, it borders on divine.”</p><p></p>

<p><strong>Home-Style Eats: </strong>At Sefa Restaurant, just where Sultanhmet meets the Grand Bazaar, there are no dishes offered up to appease a tourist sensibility. Ergo, every dish is made as (or perhaps, ahem, better than) every Turkish mother would make it – and everything is delicious. Choose according to your own taste, confident that whatever you choose, it will rock. On one visit, a dish of stewed celeriac had us elevated to heights of rapture we usually reserve for the nearby Hagia Sophia.</p><p>Sefa is bustling all day, every day, but do not be intimidated by the ranks of besuited locals hunched over their plates. Traffic moves swiflty and efficiently, another sign of Sefa's workingman's cred. Belly uo to the glass display clse in back and feed your inner tradesman. Don't be shy about putting together a karişik (mixed) plate, with small bits of a number of things, or ordering "az" (just a little) of a few dishes to share.</p>