When traveling we rarely cooked our own meals, although we tried to have breakfasts in the apartment. We had a lot of great restaurant meals in Istanbul, including the second night, when we ate at this rooftop restaurant.
It had a great view of the Sea of Marmara, as you can see above, and of our street. The kids often got fancy fruit drinks, like Cielo's here.
The bunny thing in the picture above is part of the kids' pack they gave out on Lufthansa. Flying Lufthansa was great, and that little packet of games lasted us the whole trip.
Another feature of Istanbul are the ice cream vendors, or, as the kids called them, "funny guys". They do a whole little show with their ice cream stick, a long metal rod with a small spatula blade on the end. The show includes extending ice cream cones to the customer, with the ice cream stuck to the blade and the cone stuck to the ice cream, then pulling it away when the kid reaches for it. It's done with great humor and showmanship, although the quality of the performance varies from shop to shop. The guy in the picture below had already served Eero, and was just spinning up the show for Cielo's cone.
The funny guys sometimes combined "grab the boy's hat" with their regular routine, too.
One nice meal we had was at the Sultanahmet Fish House, a restaurant not far from our apartment. It's on a corner and the waiters are not shy about inviting you over to look at the menu. Once you go in, they bring out today's catch to let you pick your fish, and after you choose, they bring out a scale to weigh it and quote you a price. We went with the orange guy at the top of the tray, since it was a local fish.
We actually picked two of that type and they prepared them two different ways. They were both good, but the simpler preparation - sauteed with vegetables, the platter shown below - was the standout. Cielo and Eero also discovered a new mysterious Eastern drink on this trip, the amazing "Fanta".
Another drink popular with the kids in Istanbul was apple tea, which you see everywhere. In the shopping areas there are young men and kids running around with swinging trays of apple tea glasses and saucers. You can flag one down for a drink, and leave the utensils on the ground when you're done. Cielo and Eero mostly enjoyed mixing in the sugar cube they serve with each glass - because apple juice just isn't sweet enough otherwise.
A lot of the restaurants along our street we prepare a Hookah for you for a fee, too. We never took advantage of that service, but we did ask for a chess board at this place that was right outside our apartment, and Cielo and Eero had fun playing for a while.
We did cook some at home - Cielo made scrambled eggs one morning, and the day we went to the Spice Bazaar, we bought enough food to come back and have dinner - bread, cheese, olives and some sausage to grill up, with Turkish Delight and honeycomb for dessert.
Our best meal in Instabul was at a restaurant called Asitane. It was by far our longest walking day to get there, but it was well worth it. We actually got there an hour before they opened, but when they saw us peering in the hostess waved us in and they started early just for us - we were the only guests for that first hour.
Asitane's menu lists the dates next to many items - some dishes go back hundreds of years. Among other things, we had Stuffed Vine Leaves with Sour Cherries (from 1844 - the dish close to Cielo, below) and Almond Soup (1539).
