If someone may have ever suspected me of an elitist approach to Istanbul dining this post is going to clear those doubts once and for all. I am going to sing the praises of an excellent fish sandwich, a signature Istanbul street food, I enjoyed the other day at Istanbul fine dining restaurant, SekizIstanbul. Yes, that’s right - street food at a fine dining restaurant. You think I am bragging about my decadent dining habits? No, I am talking about the current state of affairs with Istanbul food, and the fish sandwich is such a good metaphor that explains the matter.
I don’t know any single person that tried a fish sandwich in Istanbul and have not been raving about it. The most striking example is a prominent serial restauranteur of Ukraine who has defeated dozens of acclaimed restaurants around the world on his popular blog because they have not met his rigorous standards. So that very men confessed that the said fish sandwich he picked up from a florid boat rocking on the Golden Horn in Eminönü was his best meal in Istanbul. Really? The fish sandwich made of the frozen Norwegian mackerel stuffed in a half of the bread made of impossibly bleached flour and going stale 4 hours after it is baked?
I can be very bitter here suggesting that this level of food quality might be the norm in Ukraine, but I know for a fact that it is not the case. I believe that this person’s and for that matter anyone else’s fondness of the Istanbul fish sandwich can be explained by the slightly romantic and hugely Oriental idea of Istanbul and its food being real, wild and raw if you wish, the idea many travelers to Istanbul do not seem to get over even when coming face to face with this oh-so-deceiving city.
Well, Istanbul fish sandwich (balık ekmek) is quite literally the bread and circuses many seek when traveling to the city: it is made and served according to all the classic rules of the food theater. The fish is cooked on the huge grills installed on the exaggerated sham boats anchored in the bay; the boats rock insanely making you wonder how anyone can stay on it for a minute let alone grill the mackerel all day long. Many locals perched on the low tabourets and stairs of the amphitheater surrounding the square enjoy the fish sandwiches. Now without some queuing and elbowing you are handed over your little trophy, a package of huge soft loaf with shredded lettuce and thinly sliced onion revealing the juicy fillet. You grab one of the few spare seats amidst the locals and savor the treat to the sounds of Istanbul - call for prayer from the nearby mosques, horns of the ferries zigzagging the Golden horn and fuss of people crossing the Galata Bridge lined up with the fishermen. What not to love about this magic moment?
I was not surprised that an UK production company picked this scene for the Istanbul episode of their travel show with a popular British celebrity chef. I was to “occasionally” meet him at a tea house on the shore of the bay, towering mosques, afternoon light and all as a backdrop, where he was composing a dressing for the fish sandwich freshly made by one of the independent grill ustas away from the tourist boats. I loved the chef’s idea of the dressing (revolutionary for the local eaters by the way - yogurt and fish), but the essence of the sandwich remained the same. In between the shots I asked him, “You know this is imported frozen fish, right?” “Yeah, as the man picked the fish for grilling I touched it, and it did not appear well .. so fresh”, he admitted. I bet there will be more foreign mackerel coming our way to fill in the demand for the “authentic Istanbul street food” by the show-inspired travelers.
I actually do believe it all started nicely: once upon a time a fisherman brought the fresh catch to the bay on his small boat, trimmed the fish, grilled it and served simply dressed on a bread. Until he was joined by a few more enterprising fishermen, and all of them made it to a guidebook we all have to thank and.. well, you can guess the rest! But overfishing is serious, and pressure to bring the cost down is huge, so the small boats were replaced by the big ones and the “local” fish is now coming frozen all the way from Norway. But hey, why places like Istanbul are denied the mere possibility of such a development? How come we happily enjoy the benefits of global sourcing from the low-cost markets but the people of Turkey can’t? Why we buy China-made products and think that antique Turkish rugs sellers can’t source their products there? Why we prefer your own life modernized yet when traveling to the developing countries like Turkey want to see the real, the raw, the less developed and the fabricated fish sandwich?
Back to SekizIstanbul. What’s the big deal with their fish sandwich, you’d ask. Well, you may view it just an experiment around the iconic Istanbul street food, which it surely is. You can easily see that Maksut Aşkar for whom SekizIstanbul is the second establishment he authored, is a talented and fiercely experimenting chef. His open kitchen feels like a lab, and SekizIstanbul ‘s regularly changing menu looks like a status report of the lab experiments: the choice of dishes and ingredients is driven by the season, by the new obsessions of the chef and and by his desire and his team ability to grow. Look at their take on the fish sandwich. Instead of the frozen Norwegian mackerel comes the local oven grilled sea-bass, tender and juicy. Their lovely house wholewheat sourdough, bread of our forefathers, might look light and airy but definitely takes an effort to chew like all the great bread does. There is no lettuce but plenty of local rocket salad, some comes shredded and dressed on the side, and some is turned into the rocket pesto on the bread. And the onion: yes, you can’t skip the onion, so why not the red onion chutney, tart and sweet, and a bit of crunch in the roasted sesame seeds? Here is your very Istanbul fish sandwich!
To me, there is more that just a play of a chef’s imagination around the re-incarnation of the Istanbul street food. It is a statement that sounds to me as follows: we can dream how our city and its food should be, we know that one does not need sham boats to drag clients, we believe that eaters traveling to Istanbul and living here demand not only to be fed by also be surprised by the food they are served at a restaurant, we think that everyday Turkish dishes and ingredients can be worth a fine dining restaurant menu. And you know what’s even better? Maksut Aşkar and his team have got the right skills set to make their dreams come true, to cook and serve bold food that looks as good on they plate as it does on the menu. Say, they take two popular fish restaurant meze - marinated sea bass and cooked samphire - add lime, red onions, fresh herbs and serve with the slightly nutty flat bread chips. Or they use a rare breed of couscous, huge matfoul, that arrives dressed in the beet-like color laced with herbs and scallions and could have been a main if not its bright flavor matching the bold color that satisfies you after just one spoon (not that I did not have the second, and the third, and the ..). There is no flashy entourage, just a spacious dining room with wooden tables and comfortable chairs that encourage you to linger over your food, a large bar and a mixed bag of music so well chosen, and glassed kitchen you should fee free to poke in. If you believe that Istanbul can look like this, you should come for a meal.
SekizIstanbul. Address: Gazetci Erol Dernek Sokak No: 1 Taksim (ground flour of the 8 İstanbul Suites). Phone (212) 249 8924 Website. Reservations are a good idea for dinner. Open daily 1 pm - 1 am (kitchen closes at 10.30 pm)
