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The Taste Istanbul blog.

Essays and reading on Istanbul food culture, the editorial position behind the app, and what we're building. New posts on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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A round copper pan of freshly-baked künefe — the shredded kadayıf pastry top is dark amber from the oven heat, glistening with sugar syrup, with a heavy mound of crushed bright-green Antep pistachios in the center

15 June 2026 · 9-minute read

What is künefe?

The hot Turkish dessert from the southern Antakya / Hatay border — shredded kadayıf pastry baked over molten white cheese, soaked in light syrup, crowned with crushed Antep pistachios. Why it's the only Turkish dessert eaten hot, why the cheese stretches, the southern origin, and the four canonical Istanbul rooms.

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Hand-cut pieces of lokum piled together and heavily dusted in powdered sugar — the irregular cube shapes clearly visible, the natural muted tones of rose-amber, walnut-brown and mastic-white catching the light, with pistachio pieces embedded in some of the cubes

11 June 2026 · 9-minute read

What is lokum (Turkish delight)?

The slow-cooked, hand-cut, powdered-sugar- dusted Ottoman confection — the canonical flavour family (rose / mastic / pistachio / pomegranate / walnut / cinnamon), why industrial rainbow lokum is the fake, the 1777 Hacı Bekir shop where the name "Turkish delight" entered English, and the four canonical Istanbul rooms.

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A whole round tray of freshly-baked su böreği on a metal pan — the golden-brown crinkled top layer is the defining surface, with the multi-layered cross-section visible at the cut edge of a wedge in the foreground

9 June 2026 · 8-minute read

What is su böreği, and how do you eat it?

The hand-rolled phyllo-and-cheese pastry of the Istanbul kahvaltı table — sheets of paper-thin yufka briefly boiled in salted water before being layered with white cheese and parsley, then baked golden. The water bath that gives it its name, what to drink with it, and the three börekçi rooms in Istanbul that do it best.

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Two traditional Turkish drink urns on a marble surface in front of a shop window: on the left, a tall brass-and-copper urn with a pointed conical lid labeled Salep; on the right, a white ceramic urn with a wooden lid bearing a printed What is Boza notice

7 June 2026 · 8-minute read

What is boza? The 1876 Vefa drink Istanbul still pours

The slightly-fermented millet drink Istanbul has been pouring for centuries — thick, ivory, lightly fizzy, served cold with cinnamon and roasted leblebi. The seasonality (winter only — May through September the same shops pour sour-cherry sherbet), and the 1876 Vefa room where Atatürk's tasting glass still sits behind the counter.

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Two long Adana kebabs on flat metal skewers laid on a black platter over warm lavaş bread, with the rough irregular hand-chopped texture of the meat clearly visible, alongside grilled long green peppers, charred tomatoes and a grilled long aubergine

6 June 2026 · 8-minute read

What is Adana kebab, and how is real Adana hand-chopped?

The hand-chopped charcoal-grilled lamb kebab from southern Turkey — minced is the fake; the real thing is chopped with a zırh, a curved Turkish butcher's knife. The technique, the red Maraş pepper heat, the mild Urfa sister, and the four canonical Istanbul rooms.

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A horizontal cağ kebabı setup — long layers of marinated lamb stacked vertically and mounted on a horizontal rotating iron rod above glowing wood embers, with a green-tiled hearth surround behind

4 June 2026 · 8-minute read

What is cağ kebabı, and why is the skewer horizontal?

The Erzurum-tradition lamb kebab cooked on a horizontal wood-fire skewer — the older Anatolian ancestor of the vertical-spit döner that has gone international. The technique, the Erzurum origin, how to eat it, and the Sirkeci room that does it best in Istanbul.

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A plate of Turkish köfte — five short flat charcoal-grilled meatballs in the centre, a mound of white rice on the side, two charred long green peppers, three wedges of red tomato, fresh parsley, on a white round plate at a marble café table

2 June 2026 · 8-minute read

What is köfte? An Istanbul primer

The hand-shaped, charcoal-grilled meatball that is the most everyday dish on the Turkish table — what it is, how it differs from a Western meatball, the regional spread (Sultanahmet, Adana, İnegöl, Tekirdağ, Akçaabat, Şanlıurfa), and the four canonical Istanbul rooms that do it best.

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Illustrated overhead spread of a Turkish dessert table on a round marble café at golden hour: a central diamond-cut tray of pistachio baklava, a small dish of rose-and-pistachio lokum, a copper pan of freshly-baked künefe, two small bowls of kazandibi and sütlaç, a dish of keşkül, profiterol drowned in cocoa sauce, two scoops of Maraş dondurma stretching between them, a small board of revani and şöbiyet, two tulip glasses of black çay

18 May 2026 · 12-minute read

Best Turkish desserts in Istanbul: baklava, lokum, künefe and the seven sweets to know

The Ottoman dessert tradition is one of the world's three great pastry cultures. The seven Turkish sweets every visitor should be able to tell apart — baklava, lokum, künefe, kazandibi, sütlaç, dondurma, profiterol — plus boza, the 1876 fermented-millet honorary entry. The dynasty rooms in Istanbul that do each one properly, and the order to eat them in.

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Illustrated overhead flatlay of a traveller's three-day Istanbul food itinerary on a marble café table: an open leather notebook with hand-drawn ink sketches and route arrows across two pages labelled Day 1 and Day 2, a third half-folded page labelled Day 3, a folded paper map of Istanbul, a brass cezve with a porcelain demitasse of Turkish coffee, a tulip glass of black çay, a small dish of baklava and lokum, a leather wallet with an Istanbulkart

16 May 2026 · 14-minute read

Istanbul in 3 days: the complete food itinerary

The editor's three-day Istanbul food plan, built from ten neighbourhood guides and seven walking tours. Day 1 historic peninsula (Sultanahmet dawn → Eminönü fish & spice). Day 2 European Bosphorus (Beşiktaş kahvaltı → Karaköy coffee → Beyoğlu evening → Bosphorus fish dinner). Day 3 Asian side and the polished northern uphill.

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Illustrated Istanbul fish meyhane spread on a marble table at golden hour: whole grilled bluefish on an oval platter as the centrepiece, charcoal-grilled sea bass, fried calamari, fried hamsi, grilled octopus, a long meze trolley plate of six cold mezes, a clay pot of bubbling shrimp casserole, a carafe of rakı with two tulip glasses, with the European Bosphorus shore and a passing ferry behind

15 May 2026 · 11-minute read

Best fish and seafood meyhanes in Istanbul: the long evening, the fast street meal, the palace dining room

Istanbul's three distinct fish cultures — the long Bosphorus-shore meyhane evening with cold mezes and rakı, the standing street meal of balık ekmek and midye dolma at Eminönü, and the Ottoman-Greek dining rooms above the Spice Bazaar — the named rooms, the lüfer season, and the order to eat a Turkish fish meal in.

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Illustrated overhead view of a Turkish kahvaltı spread on a marble café table with small dishes of olives, white cheese, kaymak, honey in the comb, walnut paste, sliced tomato and cucumber, fried eggs in a copper pan, simit, a basket of bread, and tulip glasses of black tea

14 May 2026 · 10-minute read

Best Turkish breakfast in Istanbul: the four neighbourhoods, the order, the rules

What kahvaltı actually is, the four neighbourhoods that built the tradition (Beşiktaş Çarşı, Üsküdar, Balat, Bebek), how to order at a proper Saturday spread, and the rooms that do each style best.

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Illustrated diptych on a long marble café table — left: a copper cezve on a brass charcoal brazier with a porcelain demitasse and rose lokum; right: a V60 pour-over dripper with a glass carafe, espresso cup and kitchen scale; the Galata Tower silhouette behind

12 May 2026 · 10-minute read

Best Turkish coffee in Istanbul: the 460-year history, where to drink it now

Istanbul invented the modern coffeehouse in 1554. The 1871 roaster the city still queues outside is a five-minute walk from where that coffeehouse stood. The full arc, the 2010 third-wave renaissance, and the named addresses for each tradition today.

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Illustrated overhead view of three Istanbul kebab plates side by side on a wooden cutting board with charcoal embers glowing at the top — Şanlıurfa-style lamb skewers with lavaş and sumac onion, vivid red Adana kebab with cacık, and Gaziantep pistachio kebab with ezme and bulgur pilavı

10 May 2026 · 9-minute read

Best kebab in Istanbul: Şanlıurfa, Adana, Gaziantep, explained

Three regional kebab styles to be able to tell apart, the venues in Istanbul that do each one best, the Erzurum cağ kebabı bonus, the 1920 köfte institution, and what to ask for at the counter.

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Illustrated overhead flatlay of a traveller's planning desk in an Istanbul café — open notebook with hand-drawn food sketches, çay glass on saucer, leather walking boots, folded paper map of Istanbul with red dotted route lines, and a dish of pistachios

9 May 2026 · 9-minute read

Walking food tours of Istanbul: which one's right for you

A frank meta-guide to the 16 walking food tours in the app — what each covers, who it's for, when to do it, and how to combine three of them into a long weekend that lands.

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Illustrated round copper tray of pistachio baklava cut into diamond portions on a marble café table

8 May 2026 · 7-minute read

Best baklava in Istanbul, ranked and explained

Three places worth crossing the city for, what to ask for at each counter, and the four-second test that separates the real thing from the souvenir-shop version.

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Illustrated platter of essential Istanbul dishes on a marble café table with the silhouette of a mosque through the window

7 May 2026 · 8-minute read

The 10 dishes you must eat in Istanbul

A seasonal field guide to the ten Istanbul dishes worth crossing the city for, paired with the district where each is at its best.

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Illustrated editor's desk in an Istanbul apartment at golden hour, with notebook, tea glass, paper map and basil pot

6 May 2026 · 6-minute read

Why we built a food guide that doesn't track you

Most travel apps quietly track you. We chose not to. Here's the engineering that backs the claim, and why the economics of an honest free travel app actually work.

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What's next

The four launch essays are now live. From here on, new posts land on Tuesdays and Fridays — alternating long-form district reading with single-dish deep dives and quieter pieces from the editor's desk.

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