Paul Benjamin Osterlund

1 week ago | culinarybackstreets.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund

Right in the heart of Istanbul’s historic Sirkeci quarter are an equal number of tourist traps and gems. At the former, overly eager employees shove menus in your face and pressure you to sit down for an average, overpriced döner kebab on a crowded corner. The latter are the exact opposite; tucked away on ground floors in unlikely alleys, hidden in plain view.

1 month ago | flanor.substack.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund

Many of you who follow my work know that I’ve been writing about Istanbul’s food culture for Culinary Backstreets for ten years now. What began in 2009 as a blog called Istanbul Eats has turned into a global project which includes excellent guided tours and daily dispatches from more than 20 cities.

1 month ago | culinarybackstreets.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund

It’s just shy of 4 p.m. on a gray Sunday afternoon in Istanbul, and there is a line out the door at Bayramoğlu, considered by many to be the best döner restaurant in Turkey. A sign on the corner of the building proudly proclaims the establishment to be the “pioneer of döner” and in the middle of the roof there is a human-sized model of a rotating döner, just in case it wasn’t clear what the star of the show is around here.

2 months ago | culinarybackstreets.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund

It’s a grey early spring day in the bustling coastal district of Üsküdar on the Anatolian side of Istanbul. The holy month of Ramadan is in its last days, and many Istanbullites are fasting until the evening. Some of those who aren’t are waiting in a long queue outside of the local kent lokantası (“city restaurant”) for a late lunch, and this is the best deal around. 40 TL (US $1.05) gets you a main course with meat, a side or two, and a bowl of soup.

2 months ago | culinarybackstreets.com | Paul Benjamin Osterlund

Perhaps the most glorious and satisfying aspect about calling Istanbul home is the infinite potential for discovery. Even on streets we’ve wandered down hundreds or thousands of times, we still find ourselves noticing small details, like a hand-painted apartment sign; a grand, winding staircase at the entrance of an old building; or the fading blue address numbers that were replaced years ago but can still be spotted here and there in Istanbul’s older, central neighborhoods.