Born on the Bosphorus: Exploring Three Distinct Waterside Neighborhoods

Our Istanbul food tour, which focuses on this fascinating part of city, starts in the market of Beşiktaş. A hub of ferry traffic, covered with the flags of its famous soccer team and with its narrow streets filled with rollicking meyhanes and simple restaurants serving breakfast all day long, this neighborhood is a slice of real, contemporary Istanbul like no other.

Among the beer bars and cheap clothing stores are a few traditional culinary mainstays for menemen, Turkish style scrambled eggs, and bal kaymak, clotted cream blanketed in honey – that’s the way we like to start a day. We’ll visit an Ottoman-era bakery to get some freshly baked goods for the boat ride across the Bosphorus to the market at Üsküdar, where a more traditional food culture is preserved.

We’ll sample the best of this market with visits to a honey vendor from Eastern Turkey, an olive shop and a third-generation candymaker, before setting off for the fairytale neighborhood of Kuzguncuk.