Moda
Nov 17 – 28, 2023
Yuva and I decided to spend two weeks in Istanbul since she was already going to be there for a bit, wanted to share her hometown with me, and it had the benefit for me of being outside the Schengen Zone.
Istanbul might be the city I have fallen for the hardest and fastest in the entire world.
I've always had a gnawing sadness about New York - for the city that never sleeps, it's never felt very alive to me. Something about the city feels to me like everything happens "behind closed doors" - like one can't follow their nose of their ears to a restaurant, party, cafe, one needs to know where to go. We don't have a lot of public, lively outdoor nighttime spots. Even in pandemic, with the spread of outdoor dining, I still didn't feel an aliveness.
There are actually a few simple answers as to why this is the case. A lack of car-free roads, and on-street parking. A grid system of roads that doesn't lend itself to plazas. And, the cold weather half the year makes it both inhospitable to year-round plaza life, which in turn lessens the will to build for plaza life. But, seriously, it's the cars. Ban cars.
Istanbul, by virtue of being an incredibly old sprawling city, has tons of car free (or virtually car-free) streets, whole neighborhoods of it, where at worst, the cars limp along at the same or lower precedence as the pedestrians. And on both sides of the street are infinite, lively, dense restaurants, cafes, patisseries and tea houses.
The neighborhood of Moda is everything I've ever wanted - iconic sea-side views, lively restaurants, food markets, sundry stores and grocers open late, a few cool performance venues, a lot more venues with casual live music, and infinite bakeries.
PATISSERIES! I have never in my life been to a place that worships wheat and sugar like Istanbul does. Sometimes I would walk down a street and there would be an ice cream shop, a (bread) bakery, a candy store and a patisserie all in a row. Oh, and maybe also a place that specializes in baklava. And this would repeat every block. For entire neighborhoods. If I ever live in Istanbul I will either need a lobotomy or prophylactic insulin for my sweet tooth. My favorites were poğaça and crunchy simit. And how can I forget about borek - which comes in a "water" version that reminds me of noodle kugel and the more traditional dry pastry version. On the sweet side ... all of it. I am not picky. There's a cookie called an "Izmir Bomb" that's a wafer thin cookie crust around a quarter cup of nutella. Tahini bread. Tahini cookies! Honey roasted nuts. Walnut and pistachio baklava. Eclairs. Rice pudding. Halvah. Kunefe, which I somehow managed to not eat. Pişmaniye (candyfloss sesame candy). Lokma (tiny donuts soaked in honey). A million varieties of turkish delight including İncir Lokumu ( Turkish delight with whole pistachios inside and toasted coconut outside). Do I sound like a crazy person?
Istanbul is one of those cities where it appears that almost every restaurant is at the very least decent, and more likely, quite good. A lambachun from a random back alley bakery is as delicious as the one at Çiya, a restaurant featured on Chef's Table that has now taken over at least four storefronts on their block as a result of their popularity. I love all the food (well, except for cold mezes which often strike out for me for being cold, gloopy, fishy, or all three!).
Moda also turns out to be home to the original arkaoda, which I knew as a listening bar and experimental music venue in Berlin (it's their younger sibling venue). The one in Istanbul is great, though it's far less "for the (music) heads" than the one in Berlin. The bartenders never know when there's a live performance and don't seem to care, the live shows appear to have audiences numbering in the single digits, and they don't update their online calendar (even though they loving make a beautiful printed calendar every month with in depth descriptions of the performances!). Which is not to say it's bad, it's just different. It's always a good vibe, like ... everywhere in Istanbul I visited.
The city is full of stray cats - famous for it - and many of them are friendly enough to temporarily adopt your lap for an hour for warmth and then destroy your clothing with their untrimmed nails when you try to remove them! They are very cute.
I've totally failed to mention how incredibly beautiful the city is. Obviously. It's a 2500 year old city that's been at the heart of three empires. How could it not be. I don't have words to describe the constant beauty of the place.
Other highlights
- Our airbnb had a panoramic view of the European side of Istanbul with all its famous mosques
- Yuva arranged with her local friends to host a traditional American thanksgiving and we cooked half the courses
- Daily pilgrimages to Fırın Anatolia for heartbreakingly good poğaça and crunchy simit
- Seeing Yuva's great aunt's paintings in the Istanbul modern
