Hey everybody, we are in Northeast London,
we're about to go and try some Turkish cuisine
at Istanbul Restaurant.
Now, Turkish cuisine, you can expect a lot of grilled meats,
a lot of grilled vegetables, a lot of strong flavors,
things like pomegranate molasses, things like yogurts,
and I can't wait to try it.
(upbeat music)
I am very excited about all this really,
really great-looking food.
- [Waiter] Right, so you want a lot of variety, right?
- I think so. - Okay, I can give you
the meze plate, which we have a different variety
of starters, hot and cold. - Okay.
- You can go for the Istanbul special,
which is our meat platter.
Recommended for two. - Fantastic.
Well, I'll be eating. - On your own?
- I'll be eating for two. - Okay.
- No, I mean, I'm not pregnant.
That's okay, I'm kidding.
This is gonna be a lot of food, I think.
Yeah, cheers, thanks so much for your help.
- I'll look after you, yeah?
(upbeat music)
- How have you enjoyed your meal?
- It's really good, it's my first time here.
- First time here? - Yeah, my boyfriend
recommended the food here, he's been here before, yeah.
- Tell me what you thought about the food,
I noticed that you got, like, a meat platter.
- Every time I come out, wherever I go, I have to have meat.
- Okay, oh really? - Yeah.
- You're really like a carnivore.
- I am, I actually am.
- She's like, not messing around, she's like,
(woman laughs) "I gotta have it."
Every time. - I have to have meat
in my food, if there's not meat, I can't eat it.
- That's just like my dad, that is exactly what my dad says.
He says if he doesn't have meat, it's like,
he doesn't feel full.
- Yes, it just doesn't seem right.
It actually doesn't seem right.
- Is this your first time having Turkish food?
- Yes, yeah, like proper Turkish food.
- Yeah, it's pretty good, yeah?
- Really good, really good.
I would actually recommend it, really good.
(upbeat music)
- What we have here is round one.
This is the meze, these are a selection of hot
and cold, small dishes.
We'll start with these cute, little meatballs.
These are spiced lamb, which is like minced meat.
A little bit spicy.
You can see peppers, onions, parsley.
These are awesome, I would totally eat a million of these.
Moving down the line, this is kisir.
And what this is, is this is bulgur,
some chopped vegetables, peppers, parsley,
flavored with a sour pomegranate molasses.
The bulgur are like the little fish roe,
at the sushi restaurant,
how the little, individual particles just kinda pop
in your mouth.
The predominate flavor, of course,
is gonna be this pomegranate molasses.
It doesn't overpower it, but it does lend it sweetness.
But again, I'm pretty sensitive to sweet stuff,
and I don't like stuff that's overly sweet.
And this isn't.
But it's nice and sour.
Okay, we gotta get a move on, because the main course
is on its way.
We have the halloumi cheese.
This is gonna be a firm cheese.
A firm, salty, pleasingly rubbery cheese.
I was confused when they told me this was the baba ganoush,
because I didn't expect it to be white.
Typically, the baba ganoush that I have had
has been more, you know, earth tones,
the color of the vegetable.
But hey, what the hell do I know?
You can totally make baba ganoush with yogurt,
which is what they've done here.
And it really works.
What I love about baba ganoush
is that it has a real smokiness.
And in this case, you've got the benefit
of the yogurt as well, nice and sour.
Creamy, a nice contrast of flavors and textures.
Yeah, baba ganoush with yogurt.
Haven't had it before, will make a point to have it again.
- [Waiter] So you put vegetables on the right.
- Thank you very much.
These vegetables are grillin'.
We're grillin' and chillin'.
(upbeat music)
I'm sure as we go along,
we'll discover things together,
as we unearth the treasure trove of meat
that is laying before me.
The bread has just been soaked in the delicious grease
of this meat, and full of,
you know,
salt and cumin, and
fat and flavor.
I'm gonna start with what is right in front of me,
this lamb minced meat.
This is really good.
Common spices that you would expect with Turkish cuisine,
a lot of oregano.
A very strong, earthy cumin flavor
mitigates the gaminess of the lamb.
With some of the lamb doner, you would expect to see spiced
with cinnamon, allspice, you would expect that sort of more
sweetness with the doner kebab.
Invented in Turkey, they used to do the horizontal,
rotating lamb on a spit and then some Turkish guy got
the bright idea, "Why don't we put it upright
"and do it that way instead?
"And slice the meat down?"
Voila.
Lamb rib, anybody?
In Turkish cuisine, you're not gonna have rare meat.
They really like their meats well-done,
so you get that nice,
carbony, charcoally, burned quality that adds a nice,
like, texture, nice sort of hard crunchiness on the outside.
But the lamb ribs, super good.
Nice and salty, you get that nice cumin rub on the outside.
Shish kebab is the most common form of kebab.
A lot of times, in Turkish culture,
the meats are grilled together,
and the vegetables are grilled together.
Very flavorful.
And then we have a separate plate of vegetables.
Our server poured pomegranate reduction
as these were heating up.
As I've said before on this show, I think good food
and good cuisine is all about balance.
You don't want something that's purely
grilled meat.
You do need to have lighter things,
you need to have the grilled vegetables,
you need to have that sort of lightness
and that sweetness, the sour pomegranate molasses
to offset the heavy, greasy, savory, salty flavors.
And I think Turkish cuisine does it,
as good as any cuisine in the world.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of Dining on a Dime
from Istanbul Restaurant, in London, England.
If you'd like to watch more, please click here.