Back in Turkey after Four Years – Part 2

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 precious in Istanbul.

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May Day Istanbul

Today was 1 May. May Day has a special significance in Turkey since the horrific 1 May 1977¹. This was 40 years ago. Today, for reasons unclear to me, the Erdogan government does not want people to go to Taksim on May Day. The opposition parties and some trade union members met in the morning to walk to Taksim but they were stopped by police.

Every morning, I take a walk climbing up to Nişantaşı and back. On the way back, I buy simit and poğaça for breakfast at home with Meliz. This morning I did the same. I observed a heavy police presence everywhere. The main two streets going up towards Nişantaşı were blocked from both ends. The police let me through after examining my bag but no vehicles were allowed on the streets. There were groups of police officers on every street corner. While approaching Maçka, I saw two bus loads of police women led by a senior woman officer holding a rifle. It was surreal. The situation was similar in Maçka and Teşvikiye. No traffic and police barriers everywhere. Following my daily route, I walked back home down Hüsrev Gerede street. This is a very steep street and walking usually is tiresome because you have to walk down the uneven steps on the pedestrian strips. Today, I could walk in the middle of the road because there was no traffic. When I came back to our neighborhood, the shops were open and I talked to some of the shopkeepers. One said that he slept in his shop last night because he was scared of not being able to come from home in the morning because most roads were closed and buses, trains and the ferries were not running. I told him he should have stayed home because his customers too would probably be confined in their homes.

The opposition parties and the trade unions did not force the issue and retreated around midday. The police presence and the traffic blocks continued until the night. Later in the afternoon, I overheard some of the police complaining about having to stand up the whole day with nothing to break the boredom. They were hoping to get the next day off as compensation.

This was May Day 2024 in Istanbul.

My Take: A long list of problems built up against the workers during the long rein of Erdogan governments. The Elite Consensus (read my past posts if you do not know what this means) prefers reduction of these problems to a war of symbols. Both the government and the opposition parties seem to be sharing this preference.

Newspapers No More

Very few places in Beşiktaş sell newspapers any more. A kiosk at the entrance of the Ihlamurdere Street still does. I asked the kiosk owner why he thought other shops did not sell papers. He said people stopped buying papers. The only reason he still was selling newspapers was because it was a condition of his kiosk licence. Otherwise, it would not be worth everyday to arrange the newspaper stand and manage the returns.

Corner Store Futures

Forty years ago when I first came to Brisbane, we had corner stores. I had rented a flat on Dobson Street, Taringa, and did my daily shopping at a small corner store at Fiveways. Shopping centres and supermarkets killed the Australian corner stores. Istanbul still has them. They are called bakkals. Our bakkal is a short walk across the street, Yıldırım Market on Hattat Tahsin road. It is a partnership between three brothers and it is open from early morning till late hours. To support our local shop, I hardly go to the supermarket and buy everything from our bakkal. This is not pure altruism. I like buying from bakkal, not only because it is always convenient to have a substantive grocer within short walking distance but also because I can rely on their judgement on product choice. So far, I have not yet been disappointed. This is probably because they cannot afford to sell inferior products. Unlike a supermarket, they have room for only one or two different brands for each product and they try to pick them to be the best of the range in terms of price and quality. Here is their spread of dry goods (sacks of rice, beans, chick peas and lentils), which I took a photo of:

More Fine Dining in Istanbul

Last week we went to Mürver, a Michelin star restaurant in Karaköy. The Chef Mevlüt Özkaya is an occasional guest at the Masterchef Turkey, where he offers his creations as examples for the contestant to try. I did the booking while still in Brisbane but added two friends, Murat and Nihal, after we arrived in Istanbul.

Meliz and I decided to dine on a selection of the entrees only. This is only because they all sounded so delicious and we wanted to try them all with no room for the mains. I left the choice of wine to our companions. They chose an Assyrian wine from Mardin: Midin Karası. I was ambivalent at first because my past impression with Assyrian wines was not good. I drank Assyrian wines when Meliz and I were travelling through south-east Turkey twenty years ago and I did not like them at that time. Midin Karası was however brilliant. Murat told me that Assyrian wines is quite big now in the Turkish wine market.

The entree I liked the most was Külde Ahtapot (Octopus on Ashes):

The marinated and barbecued octopus tentacles were very tender and tasty. Another entree I liked was Közde Kalamar (Calamari on Charcoal). It was lightly cooked but was tender to eat and the sauce was brilliant:

The grilled greens that looked like asparagus on the side are actually green beans and they are delicious too. We also had what is called Ördek Topik (Duck Topik). Topik is a traditional Armenian dish, which is basically a ball made from chick pea flour filled with nuts and herbs. In Mürver, the dominant filling item was duck meat. Meliz does not like the traditional topik but she thought this adaptation was very good.

These were the most notable dishes but we had other food, including Düve Sucuk (Veal Sudjuk). The restaurant makes their own sudjuck. The following is me posing with anticipation in front of a cold cabinet where they dry off the sudjuk rolls:

The Mürver Restaurant occupies the entire terrace floor of the Novotel Hotel. The interior is well designed and the tables are generously sized and spaced. There are also areas with large tables that are suitable for large parties (8-12 people). The restaurant was almost full, which suggests that there is still a sufficient number of people who can afford to pay for fine dining in spite of the economic crisis.

The total bill for four people was 9500 TL (A$475). We only had one bottle of wine time, so the bill is comparable to what we paid at Efendys (where we had two bottles of wine).

Street Food

On May 1st, most restaurants were closed (see the top of the page). Meliz had takeaway döner from Define Büfe. I had paça from Beyran Restaurant.

A bowl of paça at Beyran Restaurant served with a plate of ezme (tomatoes crushed with pepper flakes), rocket leaves, and bread (pide).

This restaurant is located at the end of the Ihlamurdere Street towards the multi-storey car park (the Saturday market place). I do not think it was there four years ago and it is not shown on Google Maps.

Paça is a traditional Turkish soup made in the following way from sheep feet. The following photo I found on the web is how you buy sheep feet from the butcher:

and the following explains how you cook them:

• Boil washed sheep feet in a large pot of salty water for at least two hours

• Separate the bones (some recipes keep them in)

• Season with a sauce prepared by adding lemon and whipped egg yolks into fried flour

• Add garlic mince and vinegar

• Serve in a bowl garnished with a spoon of hot fried butter with paprika

• Add crushed red pepper, more garlic, and more vinegar to the taste while drinking the soup

Beyran called it ayakpaça, presumably to distinguish it from kellepaça, which is cooked in a similar style but uses meat from sheep’s head (kelle). I had never heard of the term ayakpaça before. In my time, paça, was always made with the sheep trotters and kellepaça was the fake paça. Times change.

1. On 1 May 1977, almost a million people met in Taksim Istanbul to celebrate May Day. Towards the end of the ceremonies, guns were fired from within the crows and from building surrounding the plaza. Thirty-six people died that day. It is still not known who was responsible for the shooting.