Istanbul: Sultan Kosesi, Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, and other stuff

We had done a good deal of walking so my appetite was in great shape. Not wanting to go far out of the way nor in the mood for anything particularly fancy, we asked the folks at the hotel for a recommendation. They came up with Sultan Kosesi which was just a couple of blocks away and a bit off the main tourist track of Divan Yolu Caddesi.

The restaurant was roomy and brightly lit, the menu full of the standards with a couple of interesting items. Most fun of all was our Server…..who was so very nice, but kinda looked and sounded like PeeWee Herman. All angles and twitches, he was unable to remember more than two items and when we had questions we got him thoroughly confused! But he was so genuinely friendly, that whatever he did, we could never hold it against the fellow.

This being Turkey, we were of course provided with an entire loaf of bread……

I went with a cup of ayran, the ubiquitous yogurt drink. It wasn't as light and foamy as other versions, but gladly not a salty either.

The Missus saw a couple of items that interested Her. The first one being sahlep, which She just had to try and turned out being one of the most wonderful items we had on this trip. Sahlep is a warm milk based drink that is flavored with a wonderfully fragrant flour made from Anatolian mountain orchids. It is mildly sweet, a bit thicker than plain milk, and wraps you in that comforting warmness that a great cup of chocolate would.

The other item didn't quite work out as well. We'd seen Kuru Patlican, dried eggplant, hanging from strings in shops and had been wondering about the taste and texture. The Missus order the Kuru Patlican Dolmasi – stuffed dried eggplant.

The filling was seasoned nicely, tangy and mildly spicy like ezme. The texture of the dry eggplant was….well, we couldn't cut it with a knife. It was really hard and had a flavor I could recall from my childhood…..cardboard. I don't know if it wasn't re-hydrated enough or what, but this wasn't the best thing I had to eat on this trip.

I ordered the Sac Tava, in this case a very mild meat was used. The Tava is a steel pan in which the food is cooked….for some reason it sort of reminded me of a hub cap.

Nicely flavored, this was quite good with the bread. The menu said that veal was used for this dish…..I can tell you it wasn't lamb or goat.

Overall, the food was decent, the prices a bit lower than many other places….the Server was so nice and kept us in stitches with his antics……and the Missus discovered sahlep. I'd say that this was a pretty good time.

After dinner we decided to take a walk down these back streets. And like I said before, there's history around every corner in Istanbul. At the end of one of the streets we came across this mosque.

This mosque is known as Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, "Little Hagia Sofia". You know, it does look like Hagia Sofia. This was previously the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, built by Justinian I in 527 AD, making it one of the first buildings ordered by Justinian. During the Ottoman reign it was converted to a mosque.

As we walked the grounds….we were eagerly welcomed into the mosque. The older gentleman waved us in……the interior is quite striking.

Climbing up the stairs so we could view the colonnades and the rest of the mosque, I noticed how worn the stone stairs were…….

It made me wonder….how many pairs of feet had climbed up these stairs?

History is everywhere here……

Leaving the mosque, we took a different street back to our hotel. And at the corner of Aksakal and Nakilbent we came across a market……

There are few things we enjoy more than explroing the local markets and bazaars…..

The ones like these….the neighborhood versions show us what folks are eating and buying.

This was a nice little stop for us. After a while we walked back to the hotel….we needed to get some sleep, we'd have to get up at 5am for our transfer to the airport the next morning…….