Lost In Translation: Istanbul

Last week was spring break for the girls, at the last minute we booked flights to Istanbul. Istanbul is a city I have always wanted to explore and it didn't disappoint. I think as usual one of the main attractions for me was the thought of all that yummy authentic cuisine.

The stereotypical donars were everywhere if you couldn't see them you could certainly smell them. Served on a buttery palif, stuffed into a fresh bun or piled into a flat bread or a wrap, all of which were tried and ravished by us. Bread like in Georgia seems to be a staple of the turkish diet . There seems to be many types. The fresh baked elongated loaf of bread which looks like French bread is the bread that we consumed with our breakfast. Then there is flat bread, familiar to all of us as pita bread (pide in Turkish) which is good for wrapping stuff up in, lavash, a wafer thin type of bread also good for wrapping and simit, which is a round bread , rather like a bagel, covered with sesame seeds, sold everywhere and is a good snack on the run.

We ate hummus, baba ganoush, (chickpea and eggplant dips), cacik (yoghurt, cucumber, and garlic) stuffed eggplant, cheeses, chicken kebabs Lily's favourite, stews, and for one particular family member, who has been missing good old kiwi, easy to come by delicacy, seafood. Stuffed mussels, battered mussels and a fried fish butty all while sitting by the water. He was heaven. We ate baklava, Turkish delight and other Turkish sweets.

We visited the Blue Mosque, the Grand bazaar, the spice market, a great aquarium, people watched while drinking turkish coffee and chai, took many modes of transport and just soaked up the city.