Roadtrip

When I first landed in Turkey, my plan was to eat my way through Istambul's best kebab shops. I had planed my trip so I could stuff myself with this delicious meal that I've tried earlier in Europe.

My thought was: If american tacos taste like crap, but mexican tacos taste like heaven... european kebabs must be crap and turkish kebabs should be million times better.

I was staying on the historic part of the city, so outside my hotel I saw a little restaurant on a corner near Topkapi palace, so before I even saw the sights I was already ordering my first truly turkish kebab. With stupid anxiety and my mouth watering, the guy gave me the beautiful Döner Kebabr, and immediately I took a bite... but the taste was completely disappointing.

I thought, "this should be a bad kebab because it's next to a historic site and must be a turist trap with cheap ingredients". But I ate seven different kebabs that day, with seven different disappointments.

I went to bed saddened that the one thing that I wanted, was not what I expected. I spent two more days looking for the best kebab in town. I even went to the asian part of the city looking for it, but they all tasted similar. So you must imagine the frustration of traveling thousands of miles from Mexico to Turkey to find out that their food was crap, so I quitted my quest and spent the next days sightseeing.

It was near the walls of the old city, just a few blocks from Chora Museum, that hunger got the best of me and I entered an old, dirty café and asked for something to eat. They only had a kind of grilled cheese pie and lamb wrapped around grape leaves. That's when it hited me. Turkish truly traditional food was not kebab you stupid western boy, it was what people ate every day, and that was this glorious meal that tasted better that the best kebab in all Europe.

Turkey was immediately transformed from the city with the best sightseeings in all europe, to the city with the best sightseeings in all europe and the most complex cuisine of the continent.

Otoman chicken recipes mixed with ancient greek yogurt sauce. Modern western hamburgers with byzantine lamb and ancient nomad cheese. Sardines cooked over a thin layer of medicinal tea herbs and pomegranate.

It was obvious they had great food! I mean, well preserved culture always means great food, and Istambul was capital of the known world more times than any other city on earth, so...

I'm only glad that I could discover my mistake before it was too late.