- All right, check it out guys.
It's Trevor James.
We just got into Istanbul, Turkey,
and I am so pumped today.
We're gonna be meeting up
with an amazing food tour company: Culinary Backstreets,
and going for a full-on street food tour.
Check it out guys.
- This is it: Istanbul.
The true meat lover's paradise
that startles both Europe and Asia.
And today, we're meeting up with Culinary Backstreets,
an amazing food tour company that provides food tours
all around the world and their amazing guide, Ben Watt,
who explores some of the hidden gems that they've found
through the years and years of exploration of his temple.
Like the world's biggest handmade Doner,
hidden workman's lunch spots,
some unreal underground lamb and more.
Let's eat.
- [Trevor] Hi Ben Watt, how are you?
Nice to meet you. Yeah.
Nice to finally meet you.
- I'm happy to see you.
- [Trevor] So we're going for a big food tour today.
Awesome.
Let's go check it out.
Okay. So we're in the back streets now.
And Ben Watt's taking us for a full on tour today
and right up here, we're going to see the making
of the biggest Doner in the world.
And there's going to be lots of food.
Hi sir, good morning, how are you?
Oh, amazing.
- [Trevor] So one side beef
- And this is lamb
Because that is very important for the taste
for the flavor, and the fat.
- [Trevor] The aroma!
Oh, it's fully beautiful!
Look at that layering.
It just gets bigger and bigger.
So you can see the lamb fat,
and the beef, and the lamb meat.
It's all mixed together. Wow.
Here's some trimming. Oh, look at that!
Wow.
Wow. It's just trimmed precisely, and he's shaping it!
Oh and then he's taking the scraps that he just caught
and then adding on top.
Oh yeah. And he's really pressing it down.
It's compact. It's tight.
Wow.
And we've been watching now for like about two hours almost.
And look, it's getting bigger and bigger.
It's huge.
- It's there. It's almost finished.
- [Trevor] Almost finished.
Look at all the fat finally coming together. It's amazing.
Then look at the space between it and the burners there.
It's getting pretty tight, pretty big.
And he's been making this for like
- 50 years
- 50 years. Wow.
There it is. It's huge.
And that's the caul fat there.
It's the fat around the organs from the sheep.
And it's making a blanket there.
Oh. And then here it comes.
The spinning. Look at the size.
It's crazy! This is it.
World's biggest handmade Doner.
And we flew into Turkey to try this.
Here he is. Master!
It's so big right?
- Yeah
- [Trevor] Wow.
Thank you.
It's his life's work here
and he's perfected it over 50 years.
And look at this.
They just added a bunch of tomatoes to the Doner.
Wow. You can see the heat
is just sizzling on the meat there.
And then the peppers go right in there too, look at that.
So we got the tomatoes and the peppers going in.
Starting to come together now
Look at that black char on the outside,
the sizzling juices coming out.
Look at that. Look at the juices when it's pressed.
So juicy in there.
Oh, and it's time to sharpen the knife.
(laughs)
Oh wow.
That's gonna slide through the meat.
Time to cut.
This is the moment we've been waiting for.
There it is. It's so juicy looking.
Tomatoes are going on. Pepper... there it is.
Ooh! Look at how much is in there!
Asimusta Doner here. Special!
And then they just get wrapped.
Oh, you can take?. Thank you.
Thank you Asimusta.
Thank you. Here we are.
Let's try it out. Wow!
And we've got the Doner.
Tomato, pickle and pepper.
Okay. Let's try it out.
Thank you.
Mm,
mm!
Oh yeah.
That's really nice.
So juicy, such a nice flavor.
Juicy, tomatoes, the pickles sour,
The bread is soft.
- And just the meat, you see?
No sauce, no mayonnaise, no ketchup.
Nothing added.
- Thank you. See you next time.
Thank you, Asimusta. The best.
Wow. That was just amazing.
Unbelievable Doner.
And next up Ben Watt is taking us for more.
We've got a full-on day of eating.
And next up, Ben Watt is taking us
to a chicken pudding joint.
It's a dessert chicken pudding dessert.
Here we are. Let's go check it out.
- Let's go straight in the kitchen.
- [Trevor] Straight in the kitchen. Let's go.
Right into the deep packages.
- [Ben] And here, Mr. Mehmet Bey.
Mehmet Donat.
- [Trevor] It's really old here.
- So it's 60 year old restaurant, Mehmet Mustafa is 79.
So he came around 20
He started when he was around 20.
- 50 years here, working from his father's recipes.
It's starting here. So what's this here?
- Broken rice.
And they dip it in water
and then it goes through a mill, it's grown
- [Trevor] Wow. Like rice starch.
- Yeah. Rice starch. Homemade rice starch.
- [Trevor] Homemade rice starch.
Look at that. I've never seen anything like this.
I've never seen this before. What's this dish called.
- Chicken breast pudding.
So, this is the chicken.
- [Trevor] It's like super fine.
- And it's a very thinly shredded chicken leaved in water
because they want the salt to go away from the water.
- [Trevor] Look at that. Wow.
- [Ben] Quickly.
- [Trevor] Oh. It's so thick.
It's thick. Whoa.
It's really thick. Oh, and here's the sugar.
Underneath there is full of sugar. Here we go to.
That's what's gonna make it really nice and addictive.
And here's the chicken! Here's the chicken! Going right in.
- Just at the moment serving
- [Trevor] Sounds great.
Oh, it's finished. Ready to go.
And that's how much, you know, Turkey loves meat.
They'll put the chicken into the desert, into the pudding.
There they are. Look at all those beautiful chicken pudding.
Okay. And then this is the next step.
They're going to caramelize the bottom, right?
Yes, exactly.
Look at the bubbling there.
Wow. And then these are those eggplants, right?
The pajama eggplant.
Oh, and here we go.
Wow. It's just stuck beautifully on a stop with tomato
and then ready to bake. Just a quick bake.
Oh, here's the Menemen.
So it's tomato, pepper, and then this is butter?
- Butter.
- [Trevor] Whoa, oh looks delicious.
Okay. So there's a couple of versions here.
There's the non caramelized version
and then the caramelized version.
And then this has to cool for a couple hours
and then they're going to slice into it
and make individual plates of this chicken pudding, right?
- Yes. Chicken breasts pudding.
- And I've got a few ready for us and let's go have a lunch.
Cause there's a lot of stuff.
Let's go
Let's get some Kofte, for sure. I think
- [Trevor] It's Misket Kofte.
- Yeah. It's Misket Kofte.
- Maybe some eggplant. Yeah.
Over here, look at that.
Right out of the oven.
- Split stomach. We call that Split Stomach. Karniyarik.
- [Trevor] So let's get three dishes
and maybe the dessert, what do you think?
- You want something healthy? Spinach?
- Yeah. That'll be good. Gotta stay healthy.
Oh, and here's the chicken rice pudding with cinnamon.
- Oh!
Oh, there it is.
Try this first, maybe?
The Ottoman way.
- [Ben] The Ottoman way.
So we've been eating something savory before that,
in the morning.
- [Trevor] Oh it's giggly.
- [Ben] So it's difficult to catch, you see.
A little bit of experience. See the fibers?
- Oh yeah. Look at that.
Try it out.
Mm!
- Interesting. Yeah.
- Mm!
You would never get the chicken in there.
- Never, but there is a nice consistency. A bunch of it.
- That is really strong.
Very thick.
And then this one here
is your favorite Menemen in the whole city.
In all of Istanbul
- Yeah, exactly.
So you can just like this...
- [Trevor] And just put it on your plate.
Mm!
That'll give you the energy all day.
Thank you, chef Mehmet. Bye bye.
- Thank you. Bye bye
- [Trevor] And here we are. Back on the streets of Istanbul.
Next up Ben was taking us to a full-on underground lamb.
Let's go check it out.
This is beautiful.
And these are like old ancient city walls.
- Yes. Roman aqueduct. For the water.
To get the water to the city.
- Aqueduct?
- Aqueduct.
- For the water?
- Yeah.
- Oh my goodness. Look at this.
This is the second generation, Levant,
who is the owner of this restaurant.
- [Trevor] Nice to meet you.
- [Ben] His father is also around, maybe he's working.
- [Trevor] Okay. And we just got invited down
to see how it's made. Thank you.
Oh, look at this!
Wow. It's a full lamb in here.
This is half a lamb.
- [Trevor] Half a lamb.
- [Ben] It's eight months old in general.
So this is one and that would be one lamb.
- [Trevor] Oh. And the bones are fully removed.
- [Ben] Yes. Only those ones.
- [Trevor] Just to get the handle
They keep a handle.
Okay. Let's see how it's done.
Ooh!
It's a deep pit.
And then we've got all the different pieces of lamb
that are going to get cooked.
So some are going to be added on the hook here
and then some are going to be added into here, right?
- [Ben] Yes, exactly.
- [Trevor] Okay. And then here come the bones,
- [Ben] The bones also in the mountains they get better fed
- [Trevor] More healthy
- [Ben] With oregano and nice spices.
- [Trevor] Yummy. Wow!
Oh yeah. They're starting to die down.
Oh, it's high technology here.
Look at this. Look at that.
Always fully in there. Right on the top of the coals.
Wow!
Fully in, no bones there.
It's going to be so tender- Fully in.
Oh, and then the next step here, the mud.
And Ben what was saying,
this is the mud from the ashes. Right?
- [Ben] Yes. Exactly.
- [Trevor] Seal it. Because you want the embers
to slowly die down.
So it creates that an oven so it can bake.
And while we're waiting for the embers to heat up,
we're going to watch some other stuff.
- [Ben] Now they prepare the Mombar.
- [Trevor] Mombar? Oh, is this intestine here?
So it says it's a spiced rice stuffed intestine.
Oh, and that's the final product. Mombar.
Nice.
So next is the Tahdig Pilaf, right?
So we've got the Pilaf here
with the almonds, with the raisins and then chicken.
- [Trevor] And then we've got this-
- [Ben] The margarine in here. Which is-
- [Trevor] Margarine.
Oh. And then loading it with the almonds
- [Ben] (Indistinct) designed with the almonds.
- [Trevor] Oh, there's a blanket.
Oh, so it goes on the bottom.
- [Ben] Exactly.
- [Trevor] Oh. I thought it would go on the top.
Oh, and then here's the rice?
- [Ben] Yep.
Oh, and it just goes in there.
Raisins, almonds.
Black pepper.
- [Ben] Yes.
- [Trevor] Oh, and then the chicken, the chicken goes in.
Oh, in the middle.
It's a chicken layer. Yeah.
Oh, there it is. The blanket rice.
Oh, just wrapped up nicely.
Like a pocket of rice.
One in the lid goes on and it's finished.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- [Trevor] Look at that. The curtain rice.
Thank you.
Here we are. So it's been an hour and a half,
and now it's time to see the clay removed.
This is the moment of truth...
Here we go.
- [Assistant] One, two, three...
- [Trevor] Oh! There it is!
(laughs)
Wow!
Quality control, here we go.
Wow!
Mm!
- Whoa.
Beautiful. Look at that. Nice crispy fatty layer, juicy...
It's dripping, and it would drop into there.
So the flavor is gonna infuse into it.
- [Trevor] Hooo! There it is.
Look at that. Look at how juicy it looks. Wow!
I just wanna take a bath in the juices,
it smells so amazing!
Like nothing else in the world. Just pure lamb flavor.
(laughs)
The full meat delivery!
Oh and here is the bones!
With the juices that dripped on it.
Oh and there's the bread. Wow.
Look at how soft it looks.
It looks like you can just pull the bone right out.
- [Cook] Yeah, exactly.
Oh, it's amazing.
Oh, and this is the blanket rice!
Oh, it's beautiful!
Oh, wow. Look at these. Just all go right into that oven.
And then here comes one coming out.
Ready to serve.
Oh my goodness.
The Mombar we started downstairs.
The blanket rice.
And then then it's like Kebab. Stuffed with beef.
Look at that. Beautiful!
Looks so good!
That's the Bergen Kebab.
So we've got a mixture of the non bone and the bone.
Oh, thank you!
Mm! (indistinct)
Ayran?
- [Ben] Yeah, Ayran.
Yogurth that has been salted.
- So this is refreshing.
It will go perfect with the meat, right?
Can you just drink it?
- [Ben] Especially when it's hot.
- Mm! Oh, refreshing.
Oh, and what's this?
- [Ben] Oh, great salad!
- [Trevor] Oh, tomato salad?
- [Ben] Tomato, pepper...
- [Trevor] Oh, and what's this?
- [Ben] This is Ezme. So it's also tomatoes, fresh herbs...
- [Trevor] Tomatoes, fresh herbs.
- [Ben] Yes
- [Trevor] Oh, there it is! Wow!
It's like mining for gold. You see the inside?
It's like a, wow, whoa,
fluffy looking Kebab with the chicken.
The almonds. And the bread is formed.
Like a crispy layer.
Mm.
Oh, oh wow.
Mm! The bread.
It gives it a crispy, mm! Like baked flavor,
like a fresh loaf of bread with sweets without rice.
Oh, there's the Mombar.
The stuffed intestine. And just take it like this.
Just take it like this.
Oh yeah.
Thank you, chef Levant, thank you!
Whoa! Amazing food.
Thank you so much.
So delicious.
And next step,
we're going to have a full-on Ashok Nashik meal, right?
- [Ben] Exactly.
- [Trevor] In front of the grilled Kebabs
- [Ben] In front of the grill.
- [Trevor] Oh, look at the grills!
Hello!
Hi sir. Nice to meet you.
Beautiful Adana Kebab.
Oh, and look at the peppers right on the grill!
And just look at this,
sitting in front of the barbecue experience.
Oh, here's the chilies.
The peppers, look at those.
Oh, and here the Shish Kebab!
Oh. And then a little salt on the liver.
Look at these spices. Just beautiful.
We've got salt, paprika oregano and chili
And then just right on the grill.
- [Ben] So here we have one piece of liver,
once piece of liver fat.
- [Trevor] Oh yeah. Meat fat, meat fat, yeah.
So you get the different burst of flavor.
Okay. And then this is the making of Adana right?
Look at the skills he's making it.
That's a nice thick Kebab.
He's being generous. Look at how thick that Kebab is.
It's such a thick Adana,
So it's lamb. beef, lamb fat,
onion, pepper, garlic, parsley.
And then here they come right on the grill. Look at that.
And here's the Adana. Look at that bread glove!
Oh, look at the juices coming out of it.
Oh. And then back on the grill,
he's just using that...
to make the bread for the grill.
So he's got the parsley and the paprika on there.
There it is. Look at that. Good.
So it's got the juices and the fat
from the Adana on the bread.
Here it is. Look at that. Wow!
Oh perfect. Oh, and then some of that onion,
Sumac parsley salad on the side, and then the peppers. Wow.
It's beautiful. Oh, (mumbles) whoa!
Okay. Just take the bread there.
And then you just take that. Wow.
Handmade by the master himself. Savak Usta.
Oh! Look at that right off the grill.
Maybe take a little more.
And now you're saying this is with the tail fat, right?
- [Ben] Yes, yes.
- Oh, wow!
Wow!
- That's one of the best kebab you'll ever eat.
That is what it's all about. The Adana Kebab is so juicy,
melts in your mouth!
And thanks to Culinary Backstreets for this amazing day.
You guys can check out the link in the description below
they offer food tours all around the world.
And, wow. Thank you chef Savak. Thank you.
And what a wonderful day it was guys.
I want to give a big thank you to Culinary Backstreets
for this food tour.
You guys can check them out in the description below
and you can also get 10%
off any of their worldwide food tours
using the promo code FOODRANGER10.
I've been looking forward
to doing this with them for so long
because Ting and I actually bought their guidebook
to Istanbul six years ago and have fallen in love
with all of their food tours around the world.
I think we're going to be joining quite a few more.
Thanks for watching guys,
and check them out in the description below.