TURKEY
Turkish dishes--Constantinople restaurants.
Constantinople
One of the hotels in the restaurant at which very good food is
obtainable is the Pera Palace; but the hundreds of dogs that are allowed
to infest the city for scavenging purposes, and who disgracefully
neglect their business in order to bark and howl dismally all night,
would ruin the best hotel in creation. Therefore, if in the summer, I
should advise any man to go to the Summer Palace Hotel at Therapia, a
few miles from the city, on the Bosphorus, which is perfectly
delightful, and to run into Constantinople by river steamer to visit the
mosques, bazaars, etc.--but this by the way.
The best restaurant in Constantinople is Tokatlian's, in the Rue de
Pera; it is very good but expensive, for all wines, spirits, etc.,
coming into Turkey have to pay a heavy duty. There is a strong native
wine of a sauterne character made in Turkey, also Duzico, a sort of
Kümmel liqueur, not bad, and Mastic, another _chasse_, especially
nasty. You can obtain Turkish dishes at Tokatlian's. The Turkish
_kahabs_ and _pilaffs_ of chicken are good, but their appearance is not
appetising and they are too satisfying. A little rice and beef, rather
aromatic in taste, is wrapped round with a thin vine leaf, in balls the
size of a walnut, and eaten either hot or cold. This is called _Yalandji
Dolmas_. _Yaourt_ or _Lait Caillé_ is a milk curd, rather like what is
called _Dicke Milch_ in Germany. _Aubergines_ are eaten in every form;
one method of cooking them, and that one not easily forgotten, is to
smother a cold _aubergine_ in onion, garlic, salt, and oil; this is
named _Ymam Bayldi_. _Keinfté_ are small meatballs tasting strongly of
onions. Plaki fish, eaten cold; Picti fish in aspic; small octopi stewed
in oil; _Moussaka_, vegetable marrows sliced, with chopped meat between
the slices and baked; _Yachni_, meat stewed with celery and other
vegetables; _Kebap_, "kabobs" with a bay-leaf between each little bit of
meat; _Kastanato_, roasted chestnuts stewed in honey, and quinces
treated in the same manner; vermicelli stewed in honey; and preserves of
rose leaves, orange flowers, and jessamine, all are to be found in the
Turkish cuisine. The _Rôti Kouzoum_ is lamb impaled whole on a spit like
a sucking-pig, which it rather resembles in size, being very small. It
is well over-roasted and sent up whole. I am informed on the best
authority that when a host wishes to do you honour he tears pieces off
it with his fingers and places them before you, and you have to devour
them in the same manner.
When I was in Turkey last year I had the misfortune not to be
introduced to the privacy of a Turkish family gathering, so I have to
confess that I have not yet accomplished this feat myself.
There is a very good fish when in season in the summer, called
_espadon_, or sword-fish, but the butcher's meat, unless you have good
teeth, is not often eatable. The natives are mostly vegetarians; beans,
small cucumbers, rice and what cheap fruits may be in season are their
principal food; water, about which they are most particular, is the
principal beverage of all Turks from the highest to the lowest class.
I herewith give a typical Turkish dinner:--
Duzico.
Hors-d'oeuvre.
Yalandji Dolmas.
POTAGE.
Crème d'Orge.
POISSON.
Espadon. Sce. Anchois.
ENTRÉE.
Boughou Kebabs.
Carni Yanik.
RÔTI.
Kouzoum.
LÉGUMES.
Bahmieh à l'Orientale.
Ymam Bayldi.
ENTREMETS.
Yaourt et Fruits.
The charges in Turkey on the whole are moderate, but the Turkish coinage
is somewhat confusing, and even a Scotch Jew, who had been brought up in
New York, would find it a matter of difficulty to hold his own with the
unspeakable Turk when it came to a question of small change.
Tokatlian has a branch establishment of a bourgeois description for
business people just outside the big bazaar at Stamboul, the Restaurant
Grand Bazaar, where there are plenty of good dishes, besides native
experiments, which are worth trying. Here the charges are very moderate.
The food at the Royal and Bellevue Hotels and Dimitri's is also good,
and for supper you can go to Yani's, which is open practically all
night, but perhaps not so eminently respectable as the other restaurants
I have mentioned.
A.B.