Last day in Istanbul

Then, before we knew it, the last day in Istanbul came along.

Hannah and I ventured out to a Turkish bath the morning of my last day in Istanbul and even though Hannah has previously had a bad experience with it, we had a fantastic time. We just felt a bit "dazed" after the thorough cleansing process. I would definitely recommend it to people even if you feel uncomfortable with it when you hear about it. I am not going to lie, I was a little bit shy about it at first, but once I got there, I had a fantastic time and did not want to leave.

Of course after the thorough cleansing comes the craving to do your body harm. So, I ordered myself a beer at Khorasani, to which we returned to after our delicious lunch a couple of days ago. 

For apps, we went for the divine hummus and we also ordered a red pepper dip. Both were delicious although I have to say that the hummus was just out of this world. As was to be expected.

For my main dish, I got a lamb stew with tomatoes and some bread. (surprise surprise). It was quite delicious although I think the pistachio kebabs were even better. 

With this meal still fresh on my palate, I had to say goodbye to this city that I absolutely fell in love with. It was unlike any other city that I have been to, I am not sure when I will come back to visit it, but I had a great time. Great food and great company. What else could you ask for?

Day 3 in Istanbul

If you have been checking my blog periodically, thank you. I am sorry that I have been so terrible at updating it. I would like to thank summer Organic Chemistry for giving me a proper excuse for not having updated my blog for the past... forever.

Anyway, to pick up where I have left off, here is Day 3 in Istanbul.

We thought it would be silly to skip on the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar so we decided to dedicate an entire day to it. Oh, and of course an afternoon cooking class! So, in between our bazaar explorations, we stopped by a random restaurant for lunch and it turned out to be better than expected! I ordered this eggplant dish with lamb in between and some roasted tomatoes and peppers as you can see in the picture below, and it was actually quite delicious! It also didn't hurt that the restaurant was air conditioned!

Then, we headed over to our cooking class at Cooking Alaturka. It was absolutely an amazing experience and I think we had our best meal in Istanbul there.

Us just prepping some tomaters.

Delicious eggplants roasting away.

And here are our final results:

Red Lentil Bulgur Soup

Type of green beans stewed and zucchini pancakes on the side

Lamb stew with roasted eggplant on the bottom

Dried figs stuffed with walnuts! 

And of course some turkish coffee and fig flavored liquor to wrap up our epic meal!

Not only was the food fantastic, but we also had a great meal and we got to meet some awesome people as well!