Photo: Cgreb

Last Sunday, I felt like having fish at one of the restaurants under the Galata Bridge and strolled down the cobble stoned Yuksek Kaldirim onto the Karaköy pier. It was a crisp and beautiful afternoon and the sun shone gleefully on the turquoise waters of the Golden Horn. I love to stand just before the foot of the bridge to listen to the clink and rustle of thousands of reels released from atop the bridge by the weekend fishers of Galata.

Photo: Birasuegi

Fishing on the Galata bridge seem to be a men only affair, so Galata fishers, unlike their counterparts in Emirgan or Istinye who park their station wagons by the water, set up a barbeque and play cards while their rods rest against a fold up chair, reaffirm their fraternity by jigging their bait in perfect harmony.

The customers of the Galata bridge fish restaurants stare at the curtain of plastic lines wondering when the band of fishermen will applaud and jeer another successful catch. So, I sat down over beer and grilled fish in Galatea Restaurant and joined the group of ’watchers’.

Just as I had taken my first bite, the waiter who served me and his friend, with a mischievous grin, jerked down one of the lines hanging from the bridge. The line bounced off his hands and got tangled in someone else’s line. Instantly, from upstairs a man yelled. Both waiters broke into a cheeky giggle and the restaurant staff and managers joined in the rumble.

Photo: Urbanlegend

It was interesting to witness the two waiters’ fascination with the sea and the fraternal awe shared by all the frequenters of the Galata bridge; these men of whom many have come to Istanbul from remote parts of Turkey, where they have grown up without ever hearing the seagulls sing in tune to the ferryboats baritone horn. Once there, the dark, mystical bosom of the Bosphorus that is the Golden Horn has lured these men to its banks and bridges.

Photo: WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

Public holidays in Turkey are very much public events that won’t go unnoticed by visitors. The national holidays are celebrated with massive displays of Turkish flags from light posts and balconies as well as gigantic posters of Atatürk, the founding father, hanging from public buildings. On November 10th parts of the country come to a standstill shortly after nine am, when air sirens remind people of the exact time of his death. In that comparison the religious holidays are more festive. Not so because everybody takes the religion very serious, but because the holidays are an opportunity for both religious and laicist to gather the family and indulge in sweets and lavish meals.

Last year in November I was invited to a friends place to celebrate the Kurban Bayram – or feast of sacrifice - marking the culmination of the of Hajj. My bayram began early morning with a visit to a charming red, wooden mosque in the Üsküdar district for a short prayer. Although my friend and I aren’t Muslim, we were most welcome to join in and try to get the series of moves for the prayer right. I think it’s fair to say we almost blended in. The holiday continued at an uncle and aunts place were they had been preparing food for days. The women did most of the work, but given the unusual appearance of a man in the kitchen, uncle Metin received a lot more applause for his baklava dessert than any of the women.

After the meal, I set out to see what the holiday was all about, as on that day Muslims all over the world sacrifice an animal and share the meat with the poor. In Turkey the streets even in Istanbul used to be soaked in blood as fathers of every house hold slaughtered sheeps and goats on the pavement. But in recent years hygiene and animal welfare awareness has kept more and more from doing it at home. In stead municipalities now offer professional and clean slaughtering. Some organisations even offer to have the animal killed in African countries were the need is bigger than in modern Turkey. That service saved uncle Metin the hassle of butchering him self, as the family had decided to sacrifice a sheep in Niger instead of on the back yard. Later they received a dvd to show that a good deed had been done.

Turkish national holidays

April 23rd: National Sovereignty and Children's Day
May 19th: Atatürk Commemoration and Youth & Sports Day
August 30th: Victory Day
October 29th: Republic Day

The religious holidays follow the Islamic calendar and changes every year. In 2008 the Kurban Bayram celebration will be held from December 8 to December 11.

This rumbustious city is an incredibly attractive spot for internal and external migrants who, upon entry into Istanbul, are engulfed by its rundown shantytowns and ghettos.

Tarlabasi, a shantytown located in the heart of Istanbul just a few minutes walk from Taksim Square, is considered to be a no-go area among many Istanbullus and tourists alike because it is believed to house the most discontent of the migrant communities in Istanbul.

It’s amusing to watch many a backpacker dive randomly from Tarlabasi Avenue into one of the side streets only to come out looking petrified minutes later. I, on the other hand, consider myself a local in Istanbul and I confidently venture into the core of Tarlabasi, passing smiles and nods at voluptuous Roma women perched on the sidewalk washing the sooth off their carpets into the street and at dozens of loquacious youths playing football.

Although the ethnic composition of each wave of migration that Tarlabasi received since the 1990s is disputed, the prevalence of Kurdish and Roma residents is quite obvious. Passing by barbershops and bakkals, small grocery stores selling mostly outdated goods, I also hear what I assume to be Nigerian and Arabic blending into the beat of the Arabesque music whizzing out of the butchers.

In fact, this dainty and piquant neighborhood in the Beyoglu district is traditionally home to Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox community and has for long been a proud, affluent area known for its beautiful apartments, breezy alleys, and the city’s largest Syriac church.

I usually stop in front of large, ornate buildings to read the engravings over the gate or on the façade. Most buildings are dated around 1800s and look tired, grim and hung-over.

There and then I wonder: Is Tarlabasi, once a lively, throbbing neighborhood accommodating Greeks, Armenians, Syriacs, and Muslims, now nearing its poor and destitute death? Then again, I gaze at the jazzy collection of wigs, boas, and funky underwear lining the windows of Tarlabasi Avenue shops, and listen to the jeer of countless children playing hopscotch on its streets and think: “Tarlabasi will outlive us all”.

How does a small, modest establishment survive amidst a string of luxurious waterside mansions, several state-of-the-art shops of international coffee retailers and expensive fish restaurants? The answer is simple really: With its staff of five jumpy waiters, a boisterous and jovial cook, and a pleasant smell of fresh ground Turkish coffee oozing out of small, uneven, wooden windows, Emek Kahve defeats capitalism in one quick blow.

Located beautifully by the Yeniköy pier on the northern part of the Bosporus, the front part of coffee house hosts bands of local shopkeepers, cabbies, grocers and unemployed men, who perch on their chairs all day playing cards and sipping tea. Out in the back of the coffee house, though, lies a more fascinating and quite obscure dining hall, which initially seems to be merely an extension of the kitchen.

One must follow the smell of eggs scrambled in butter to figure out that this dining hall stretches out towards the waterfront and can seat 40 people on its old, wooden benches under a cascade of vine leaves. Sorry Starbucks!

I usually go there on a weekday morning and after securing a nice chair by the water, I order the menemen, an authentic egg dish, dunk some crisp white bread in its juice and wash it down with some freshly brewed Turkish tea.

As I unroll my newspaper, I listen to the sound of the leaves bristling overhead- only to be interrupted by the giggle of one of the older waiters of Emek. I don’t know if he enjoys picking on regulars but he almost always attempts to play tricks on me.

Once, after acknowledging that I am annoyingly picky about which ingredients I wanted in my menemen and yet unbearably hungry, he brought before me an omelette containing a huge chunk of sucuk, a spicy Turkish sausage. Confused, miserable and somewhat angry, I looked up and quipped, »This is not what I ordered«. He coolly shook his head and said »Oh yes it is. It’s omelette with extra sucuk. Now eat it«! I was aghast! While I babbled quite ineffectively, he began chuckling and eventually broke into laughter. He gave me a friendly pat on the back and handed over the brass pan containing the correct order. In his broken English, he admitted that he enjoyed laughing with foreigners.

’Laughing at or laughing with’ I wondered as I watched him walk away. Towards the end of my second cup of freshly brewed tea, he was a few tables away, pulling someone else’s leg…

EMEK KAHVE, Daire Sokak No:17/1 Yeniköy, Istanbul

Dilara Sabra Cadabra is a food magician living in Istanbul.  Recently she opened a new restaurant that she calls Abracadabra, right on the Bosphorus water front. She has previously run her own restaurants along with doing consulting and creative styling for kitchens all over the city.

Dilara is know for her traditional Turkish cousine with a mashup of flavors she found on her many trips around the world. She travelled and lived in India, South America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and did a apprenticeship at the Tribecca Grill Restaurant in New York in 2001.

Dilara Erbay's lovely personality and charm shines out over the delightful restaurant as she roams the kitchen with a loud laughter.

The food is displayed and served on large wooden paddles, placed right on the table. Each board gets a small food installation with a variety of dishes, snacks, sauces and drinks.

Located right by the water with an outdoor terras, the combination of the breeze from the Bosphorus, the hot Istanbul summer and the magic dishes served from Cadabra's kitchen is pure joy.

One can almost smell the garlic oil from the above snails and with the local beer Efes, some cheese, some nuts and a Raki on the side makes a tear come to the eye. 

View from the top window of the restaurant overlooking Bosphorus and the bridge, connecting the East to the West.

Dilara Erbay also has a degree from the Economical and Management Sciences from the Galatasaray University. Her thesis was on “The Role of Non-Government Organizations in Turkish Political Life, and the Bergama Event”. In other words, if you come to visit Dilara at her place, you will be able to talk to her about other things than the spectacular view and what you are eating.

Links:

www.abracadabra-ist.com

www.dilaraerbay.com 

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