Kurtuluş is a neighborhood often overlooked by first-time tourists searching out big museums or monuments. What Kurtuluş lacks in famous sights, it more than makes up for in its laid-back sophistication, multiculturalism, and stellar food. Here you can experience old, cosmopolitan Istanbul like a local. Long a home to various minority communities, Kurtuluş has a rich cultural diversity no longer present in most parts of Istanbul, and this is reflected in the way the neighborhood eats. During the day in this unassuming historic residential neighborhood, a hive of small artisanal shops – charcuteries, meze counters, ice cream parlors, bakers, butchers, dairy specialists – uphold city traditions otherwise lost. After dark, a hopping scene of craft beer bars and kebab houses hold it down until the morning, when the weekly organic market attracts those serious about what they eat and cook with. To top it off, there’s a whole street lined with shops and restaurants devoted to the fabled breakfast spread of eastern Turkey’s Erzincan region. Not surprisingly, a visit to Kurtuluş can be an eye-popping and gut-busting experience. This full-day tour of the neighborhood – still home to significant Greek, Armenian and Sephardic Jewish communities, as well as newcomers from Turkey’s east – will take in the very best of the neighborhood’s bounty, honoring the people and places that keep local culinary life alive and well. We’ll start with a tribute to the neighborhood’s Rum, or Greek, heritage with an exclusive visit to a sports club belonging to that historic community, where we’ll begin with a tasing of a few essential foods of the neighborhood, followed by a stop for the heavenly dairy delights of Erzincan, think pillowy kaymak blanketed in raw honey, a slice of crumbly tulum peyniri, aged in a goatskin. We’ll walk off this bounty with visits to local artisans which may include artichoke peelers, a hidden yufka artisan, Armenian book sellers and more- as we continue with our movable feast. There will be Sephardic borekitas from one of the last Kosher bakeries in the city, stunning meze samples, including top-grade stuffed vine leaves and topik, a classic Armenian speciality. Down the street, kebabs at a real-deal grill house will arrive sizzling, fresh from the fire. Depending on the season, there may be boza, a fermented millet drink with Ottoman roots, or Turkish-style ice cream at a beloved dairy bar run by the third generation of a local family whose business began right here in these streets as a door-to-door salesmen of milk and yogurt. When our movable feast in Kurtuluş has come to an end, you’ll see what we mean about what makes this neighborhood so unique, and, like many people, you may not want to leave. Not to worry: here in Istanbul’s most diverse streets, you are always welcome back.
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