Turkish Food for the More Adventurous

The next two things are not for everyone. Good food is not always safe, and you have to make the judgment of whether it is worth spending half a day on or over a toilet versus instant gratification of great food. I have a pretty powerful stomach, but there things I can't handle (blood, not blood pudding, but pure blood is one of them and under cooked bone marrow). If you are adventurous and willing to roll the dice, try these:

1. Kokoreç: It looks innocent enough. This is the quintessential street food of Turkey. It's a long log of god knows what, on a horizontal spit, roasted over coals. When you order it, the dude cuts a piece off the spit, chops it up and cooks it some more, throw it on some toasted bread, crushed chili peppers and done. Istanbul places will try to cook it with tomatoes, onions, and a sauce, don't get that, it makes it taste like shit. So why is this so dangerous? Kokoreç, as I found out later, is sheep intestines, wrapped up REALLY tight and sometimes stuffed with organ meats. The danger of it is that if you don't clean intestines REALLY REALLY well, you'll be eating sheep shit, which will in turn put you over or on a toilet for a long time, if not worse. But this, as Cais will attest, is my favorite food and I will not pass it by without buying it. 

2. Mussels: These aren't just ordinary mussels, these are mussels stuff with spices and rice, served with a healthy squeeze of lemon! They are so very tasty and only 0.95TL a piece. I would sit there all day and eat this stuff. But be careful! Mussels anywhere are not 100% safe. They have crappily evolved so that their ass is above their mouth. So, they produce a lot of shit water, and that water needs to be changed many times a day to keep them fresh. Lukewarm, shit eating shellfish sitting outside for hours? Always a gamble, and it's not just me Anthony Bourdain also gave the same warning during his trip to Turkey. Also to consider, mussels, like all mollusks, filter water and clean it. The places I had it, Izmir and Istanbul, were both industrial seaport. Ask yourself this question: Do I really want to risk eating a filter of crappy water in an industrial zone? The answer to me was, and always will be, yes, but sparingly. 

I ate all this stuff with no stomach issues, so I fully encourage people to try this stuff, but it's at your own risk.  Cais didn't have any issues either, and he refuses to drink tap water anywhere. 

The last are things I wasn't a fan of, which isn't much:

1. Simit and anything sold on a simit cart: Simit is the Turkish equivalent of a bagel, but taste a lot more like a bagel crossed with a pretzel. Jews and Germans don't get too excited, it's not as good as either. They also sell a variety of stuff on the cart, which I tried. All of it sucked. It was all dry and kind of tasteless. Worth a try at 1TL or less, it is the breakfast of choice for Turks.

2. Fish: This may have been my fault, but I wanted to order a fish that I never heard of. Cais wanted the salmon. The fish sucked, it was tasteless and not seasoned, not even with salt. Per chance we didn't order the right thing...who knows? Had it once, wasn't good, won't do it again.