Back in Turkey after Four Years – Week 1

While in Istanbul, Halim’s Diary becomes a Travel Diary, which will come out each week and will record my experiences and observations. We will return to my regular format after mid-June.

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Turkish version to be issued later. Time is scarce in Istanbul.

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Before COVID, we would go to Istanbul every year.

After four years, we are in Istanbul again.  With a Singapore stopover, it was a 24-hour flight.

Taxi from Istanbul Airport to Home in Besiktas

I keep a “Turkish” wallet with my Turkish credit cards; for buses, trains and ferries Istanbul Card (like Go card in Brisbane); and some cash for the taxi fares.  This wallet had nine hundred Turkish liras left from last trip. I was not sure if it would be enough for the taxi fare as our Istanbul home is 40 km away from the Airport.  The last we paid was less than 100 TL four years ago but the Turkish inflation rate has been horrific lately.  The generic ATMs at the Airport failed to read my Bank of Queensland Visa card.  I had Australian dollars in cash as Plan B and I got A$200 converted to 2183 TL.  It is good I did this because the cab fare took 1000 TL, a tenfold increase over December 2019 (for comparison, we paid A$100 in Brisbane for the taxi from our home to Brisbane Airport, a distance of 30 km).

It is not only the taxis, the price of everything seems to have gone up by a factor of 10 compared to four years ago.  This means an annual inflation rate of 78% (1.78^4=10.0).  .

Beşiktaş has changed

Our Istanbul home is a 2+1 apartment in Beşiktaş. Over the years, this suburb has become a food and entertainment centre.  In Brisbane terms, it is like Paddington on steroids. The change seems to have accelerated over the last four years.   Many of the more traditional shops (e.g. furniture, hardware, etc.) were replaced by cafes or beer houses.

New face of Barbaros Plaza

I remember playing in Barbaros Plaza sixty years ago when it was a park.  When we bought our apartment 15 years ago, the park had been converted to a bus exchange place with tens of buses driving in and out.  They now moved the buses somewhere else and the plaza is vacant again.  People walk around and there are street buskers. It is pleasant but in need of landscaping.

Fish Restaurants

The traditional fish restaurants of Beşiktaş are now surrounded by taverns, cafes and pubs.  Our favourite fish restaurant was Olta Balık.  It has now moved one street up and became Balıkçı Hasan.  The same people, different building.  We went there with different friends, two nights in a row. The first night we had seafood and nothing else.  The Fener Kavurma (Fried Fener Fish) was exquisite.  The sautéed octopus was also very nice.  The second night, Meliz stayed with fish and had fried Gümüş (Spelt).  She said it was excellent

I wanted to try the charcoal barbecue Hasan and partners added to the menu in this new place and had Adana Kebap:

It was quite good.  The meat was lean and yet not dry. The peppers and the salad on the side were tasty.

The total bill came to 3000TL, about  ten times higher than what we would be paying for a similar dinner four years ago. Nevertheless, it was worth every lira.

Coffee and Fast Food Outlets

Ever forty meters, there is café.  I counted 15 of them along the 550-m stretch from our street to the Ihlamur end of the Ihlamurdere Caddesi. Our favourite is Cup of Love as shown below

Almost every day, Meliz and I each have a cup of Turkish coffee there.  We used to pay 12 liras for two cups four years ago.  It is now 140 TL (7 A$) for the same.

A café is a good business option in an environment where all inputs bar labour are expensive. The cost of raw material for a cup of coffee is almost nil, water and a spoon of coffee. Yet they are able to charge 70-90 TL for it and this is good returns when you probably pay the minimum wage (17000 TL=A$850 per month) for the staff.

Börek

Turkish pastries (called börek) are very tasty but we do not eat them too often to avoid extra carbs and calories.

The two pastry places we used to frequent four years ago are now closed.  I think the margins on pastry are not high enough to pay for the elevated rents.  Murat Muhallebicisi is still there and we had our breakfast there on Thursday.  The following spread, kol böreği (top) and su böreği (bottom) with four glasses of tea cost 380TL (A$19). The tomatoes were quite tasteless but the pastries were OK.

Karadeniz Döner

This place serves probably the best döner kebap you can find in this part of Istanbul.  Compared to four years ago, the business is a bit slower. I say so because the döner wheel you see in the photo lasts until 4 pm.  Four years ago, even during cold winter days, it would be all gone before 2 pm every day.

Besiktas Market

The car park at the end of the Ihlamurdere Street holds a fruits and vegetables market every Saturday.  First Saturday,  I bought tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers at a total cost of 250TL (A$12.50).  The prices are about 50% of what I pay in Mt Gravatt growers markets in Brisbane.

I also bought black mulberries, strawberries, apples, and a fruit called yeni dünya (loquat) that is not much known in Australia.

The first Saturday, I did not record the prices.  Next Saturday, I bought cherry tomatoes  (60 TL or A$3 per kg); heirloom tomatoes (60TL or A$3 per kg); cucumbers (35 TL or A$1.75 per kg); green pepper (65TL or A$3.25 per kg); apples (80 TL or A$4 per kg); black mulberries (120 TL or A$6 per kg); and strawberries (100TL or A$5 per kg).  These are the market prices, which may be slightly cheaper than what you would pay in regular greengrocers.

Fine Dining in Istanbul

There are some really nice restaurants in Istanbul. They are popular and you have to book well in advance.  On Thursday, we went to Efendy Restaurant in Levent.  I had booked it while in Brisbane two weeks ago but I updated the booking to a table of four because Zerrin and Levent joined us.

The restaurant owner, Somer Sivrioglu, is a Turkish Australian who runs a restaurant of the same name in Sydney.  He is famous for his creations inspired by traditional Anatolian food.  He is also a celebrity as a Turkish MasterChef judge.

Here are some of the plates we had last night.  Below is a cold entree, batırık (330TL=A$16.5)

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Batırık is a flavoursome pesto based on marinated  frik bulghur garnished with pomegranate seeds and parsley. Turnip slices and vine leaves on the side are there as edible utensils.   You are supposed to eat Batırık (which means “dunk”) by ploughing into it using those turnip slices or vine leaves.

The following is another entree, Cabbage Kebap (420 TL=A$21) served warm:

Very thinly sliced cabbage leaves are marinated in Adana Kebap spices overnight and then skewered and barbecued as if making a regular meat kebap.  The leaves had a subtle nutty spicy taste.  I generally like cabbage and I loved this dish too.

Next is an interpretation of the Cokertme Kebap (880TL=A$44).

Traditionally, this is beef served with thinly sliced fried potato.  In Somer Chef’s interpretation, the potato slices are pressed together and served as a solid rectangular block as shown above.  I am not sure how the meat was marinated and cooked but it tasted very good.

The last one is a dessert dish, Tas Kadayif (460TL=A$23).  It is kataifi strings baked in a dough envelope, sweetened with syrup and  served with pistachio, clotted cream and tahini ice-cream.  I liked it because the syrup was quite light but the dessert was still very tasty.

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Short Takes

US inequality steadily rising

Semafor, 24 April 2024

The top 400 richest Americans controlled 2% of the US GDP in 1982. Now they control 17%. Other indicators of income inequality show a similar trend: The US Gini coefficient, rising steadily over the past five decades, now reached levels not seen since WW2.