Yigal Schleifer & Ansel Mullins, Istanbul CB’ers

With more than 12 years of combined experience eating their way through Istanbul, the founders of IstanbulEats.com, which is providing Culinary Backstreets with coverage from Turkey, bring you into the best undiscovered local eateries you might not always find on your own. We’re talking about serious food for serious eaters, hold the frills.

Launched in 2009, Istanbul Eats is considered Istanbul’s leading food blog, named “Best Travel Blog” by The Guardian the year the blog was founded and “Best Culinary Travel Blog of 2012” by Saveur. The site was created by:

Chicago native Ansel Mullins, lived in Istanbul between 2001 and 2015, working as a restorer of historic homes and a freelance writer. In addition to co-authoring Istanbul Eats, he has written for The Guardian, The New York Times and Monocle and co-hosted a radio show, Soul Sendikası, which brought classic R&B to listeners throughout Turkey. He currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal.

Yigal Schleifer is a journalist who lived between 2002 and 2010 in Istanbul, where he worked as correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and the German Press Agency (dpa). His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Times (London), Toronto Star and other publications. He is also one of the authors of the 2009 Fodor’s guidebook to Turkey. He is currently based in Washington, D.C.