All posts filed under: Eating Out

Restaurant reviews

Best Way to Enjoy Ramadan in Istanbul

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Ramadan bayram (holiday after finishing the fast) has started and this year will be longer, which is good news. This post was written on Tuesday but I get to post it just now. I’m so busy right now and will be even more so for a few months. Ramadan means something different for people who have different beliefs and values. Nevertheless, the one thing that is shared by many is that it is an once-a-year event, which reflects a big part of the culture. Whether you fast or not, you try to get the most of this holy and festive period. Now the end of this madness of late night eating is less than a week away. People must be fed up with pide – I can’t wait to get my regular sourdough bread – and the genetic set menu, so called iftar menu by now. Iftar means ‘break fast’ and consists of simple food, most commonly dates, pide, or soup. But these days many restaurants seem to make an event out of it. I …

Suadiye Hidden Gem – Şaşkın Balık

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I am quite critical when it comes to reviewing restaurants because of my high(?) standards and low pocket. And I don’t judge a restaurant right after the first visit as my experience can be affected by various factors, some of which lead to a biased and subjective conclusion. If I don’t go to the same place twice, it already proves itself that I didn’t like it, therefore there is no need to write about it, unless it’s great without a doubt in every aspect. I came across this restaurant, Şaşkın Balık, which means Confused fish, all by chance and I couldn’t have been more pleased, knowing that I’d have another place added to my very limited eat-out list. Tucked away in a tree-lined small street in Suadiye, known as a rather posh area, this modest fish restaurant serves dishes that you don’t find anywhere else in Turkey. The chef, who friendly presented every single dish while explaining about the dish, makes sure he creates something different with his inspiration from other cuisines. Now I don’t …

Chateau Franc Maillet

Wine More Time – Bordeaux Wine Bar

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I am going through an adjustment phase after I got back from the Burgundy tour; feeling burnt out and lazy. During my tour, I started to miss Bordeaux just after 2 days and became rather desperate for Bordeaux wines after the third day, finding myself counting down to the last day of the tour. The feeling that I had developed about Bordeaux wines, kind of a comfort thing, was so unexpected and surprising that it seemed that my relationship with Bordeaux and Bordeaux wines had gone into a deeper stage in our time apart, like in “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I didn’t realise I would miss you this much, the charming small streets, the vibrant energy and all.

Wine Talk (sulfites) and review – Château Mirambeau-Papin 2008 at l’oenolimit

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I am quite annoyed and sad because I’ve lost the draft of my review of St-Emilion. I don’t know what’s happened. Yesterday I had finished writing and save it before I went out  to meet an expert in oenology and food science. That is just life…maybe my blog got hacked by a pro-St-Emilion because my blog was full of disappointment and disgust at times toward the St-Emilion’s money business and bad wines. I used to use another program for drafting but I stopped it recently and this thing happened. Anyway…let’s not look back and move on. Recently I’ve been having a lot of discussions with people on various subjects such as sulfites in wine, wine headaches, whole berry fermentation, oak barrels, price vs quality, wine export business, etc. I’d met so many people who talk about sulfites and hangover, which I never believed there was any connections because I’ve never had hangovers from eating dried apricots, which contains more sulfites than wine. So I always ask the same question to the people who blame wine …

wine cork

Cheese, People, Pulltex and Worst Restaurant

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This post is going to be just random stories reflecting on the past few days with extra bits left off from my trip to Nice and a horror story of my dining experience in Taksim. I overindulged myself in cheese while in Nice for sure and was meant to bring some back home. However, the mission failed as I woke up too late on the morning of my return flight because my alarm failed to go off. Upon waking up to the warmth and bright sunlight, I was instantly attacked by the fear that it might be midday – the time I was supposed to be boarding the plane. A big sigh of relief; I had 30 mins to get ready and leave the hotel. So I jolted out of bed, packed up my stuff and I ran to the bus stop; thank god, the airport was only 20 mins away and I still had 10 mins according to the bus timetable. So began the mental conflicts: should I pick up survival packages of cheese …

Nice Winey Break in Nice

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My apologies for the long silence. As I had mentioned in previous posts, I was in Nice for a wine qualification course. It was my second time in Nice and I got to explore small corners of the city more this time, and I actually enjoyed it more than I’d expected. Maybe it was because I was walking around in the evening under the influence of alcohol after tasting wines all day on the wine course, OR the city is nicer at night. Nice is Nicer at Nite? There’s lots of N, innit?