Istanbul Day 3- A Palace, Crispy Potato And Grilled Lamb

Day three started with some wind, rain and a delicious Turkish breakfast. We bundled up and headed to the Topkapi Palace, which was walking distance to our  hotel. We spent a few hours viewing the Blue Mosque and the Palace. Somehow walking around in museums, etc makes me hungry. We came out and immediately started looking for somewhere to warm and eat. On the way, we found a vendor selling crispy potatoes. He had a machine to cut the potato open onto a stick. He then fried the whole thing and sprinkled it with spices and salt- it was delicious! We stood there for several minutes devouring many sticks of potatoes. We also had some of the Turkish pretzel again- this one was not as crispy and fresh as the other one. We finally found a restaurant/cafe and ate some kebabs and lavash and drank some buttermilk.

We then headed to do some shopping. They have beautiful ceramics, rugs and stoles all over Istanbul. The trick is to bring the prices way down by haggling with the vendors- which is a skill I don’t possess but I think I held my own as I shopped.

After a few hours of rest, lots of research, we headed to a restaurant near our hotel called Tria. As we were 9 of us, we decided to order family style and instead of an entree each, we ordered lots of appetizers. They started us off with baskets of lavash, black olives and olive tapenade- delicious!

Olive Tapenade

Meze Platter

We ordered their house red wine which was also delicious. The wine I have had so far has been quite yummy- the problem is that alcohol is not served in the very down to earth eating joints- which is where I like to eat when we travel.

The appetizers kept coming- a plate of meze, which is like eating Turkish tapas. It consisted of lots of interesting things like grated eggplant in a white sauce, lentil kebab, tomato sauce with a kick, a fresh cheese spread, some kind of grilled fish, etc. The grilled squid was yummy as well! We were quite full and satisfied when the grilled lamb over mashed eggplant arrived. I was a bit skeptical about the mashed eggplant- but it was by far the most delicious thing on the table. It was soft, velvety and delicious!  Believe it or not we were too full for dessert!

Grilled Lamb

We decided to walk some family members to the tram station which was near our favorite dessert place.. somehow the walk made the idea of dessert more palatable… so we strolled over and sat down for a few sweet things..

Tomorrow, we are off to Cappadocia!!