Steamed Buns and Baba Ganoush

                Hokay, so

Sirin called me up and asked me to meet her in Taksim square for some tea and meze. I had blisters from my sandals so I wore my boat shoes, sans socks due to the heat, and now hobble around the house nursing hotspots all over my feet. But it was worth it, because Taksim and the neighboring area of Tunel are the go-to spots for local youth looking for weekend shenanigans. We had tea on the upper floor of a café overlooking a side street. We sat down and the skies opened up, quitting just as we finished the plate (this meze was more or less hummus, baba ganoush and other pureed veggie dips served with bread, quite good – and I promise photos will come to this blog in short time). One of the nice things about that area is the historic tram which has been preserved and still runs:

                And what’s the one thing that you can always count on next to bars? No, not hookers – drunk food! While they serve kebabs, the favorite food, Sirin politely informs me, is wet hamburgers.  I could probably have invented a more appealing name, but it’s a hamburger that’s been sitting in a steamer for god knows how long. I will be trying it, and I will let you know. One surprising thing is the lack of meat served in its “natural form,” meaning not spiced and stuffed or stacked and roasted. I imagine that this tradition is probably hard to break, as spiced meat means to many that it has been preserved. Still, if I have to eat cold salami, why does it have to be the Oscar Meyer kind? – I want the aged, moldy Italian stuff. I’m probably just shopping in the wrong areas, but for now the search for good, affordable meat continues.

                I went to the Istanbul Modern, and while they seem to have missed the memo that all modern art museums need obstreperous structures of gargantuan scale, the collection was pretty good. Sure, most showed the tendency of Turkish painters to mimic the European masters, but there was still a certain something that was fresh. The real treat was actually a temporary fashion exhibition, and I saw a few good films that dealt with fashion in the age of terror, individuality and xenophobia, etc. All in all, very well done collection and a good café overlooking the Bosphorus.

                I’ve just checked the weather and it’s supposed to creep into the nineties this Sunday. I need September to come soon.