I was exhausted after hoofing it for hours in hot sweaty Fatih going to a few churches and mosques. I needed a break. So, I checked my Parla Istanbul app, just to see what -- if anything -- was nearby. Jackpot! I'd never heard of pide, but I was just a block away from Fatih Karadeniz Pidecisi. Katie's app says it serves one of the best pides in town. I had the "kiymali" version (ground meat with onions + an egg), which looks like this:
It's kind of a long crispy thin Noah's Ark-shaped flat-bread, that is filled with a thin layer of the meat and onion, with a wonderful egg on top, which the owner showed me how to mash in and spread (along with a pat of butter). He also then showed me how to eat it, which is mostly with your hands. The point is that it was absolutely delish. (I'm curious: has anyone seen this in Turkish restaurants in other parts of the world? We gotta get these in the US and in Roma.)
Had another awesome breakfast too. Total props to The House Cafe:
OK, back to the sights. First of all, a must-do when you're here is to walk across the Galata Bridge from Beyoglu to the old city. The views are fantastic, and it's fun to see all the men fishing. The fish sandwich that I mentioned in the previous post is obligatory as well.
Then I used my master of the Istanbul public transit system to venture on to Fatih. As I said in yesterday's post, this is a more conservative section of the city. Here is a group of demonstrators who are pro-government.
I kept my distance from them and headed over to the Kariye Museum, which used to be called the Chora Church. The interior here has a superbly preserved series of frescoes and mosaics about the life of Jesus, and they are considered to be among the most evocative of Istanbul's many Byzantine treasures. They were OK. (Given that the frescoes and mosaics were created in around 1320, maybe they're a little more than OK.)
Next up was another Byzantine gem, which is not on the agenda for too many tourists. I was the only one at the Fethiye Museum or Fethiye Camii, formerly known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos. It was hard to find too. It is a small church that was built in the 12th Century. There are fewer mosaics here, but they are alright as well.
I then left the Christian world to visit the Fatih Camii, or Mosque of the Conqueror. Work on this mosque began in 1463 -- 10 years after the conquest of Constantinople -- on the site of what had been one of the city's most important Christian sites. I liked this mosque. I especially liked the cemetery located on the grounds. I don't think I've ever seen a Muslim cemetery up-close.
Does anyone know where to get pide in Rome?
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