he has a giant knife and I have a feeling he's going to feed me in this oh right here right here I'll attempt to eat nothing but Turkish Street Food in four hours [Music] oh we are in Istanbul Turkey and we're going to take you on a food tour like you have never seen before let's get to it Istanbul the only major city that divides two continents with Europe to the west and Asia to the east this Metropolis of 15 million is a Melting Pot for all the absolute best street food in the country so
let's get started [Music] foreign it's the most ubiquitous street food in the city eat it for a snack or grab one for breakfast Summit isn't it's a chewy rain-shaped bread covered with sesame seeds give it a ton of flavor because they're so toasted straight bread is great but I'm looking for something a little more substantial it is nine in the morning we are just starting the day and we are starting with breakfast we've come to a very typical Turkish breakfast spot this is basically the Denny's of turkey although way better let's go inside and check
it out [Music] so this is the kitchen right behind me there are some orders that are about to go out if you sneak around here you can see somebody has ordered some fried bread some teeth even french fries for breakfast it's amazing I'm gonna go inside and figure out what's going on we are starting with a local fried bread known as pishi this one is going to be stuffed with this Pastrami and also a little bit of cheese so he starts with the Jelly plants it out he's put some oil on the counter already it
just gets a little rip of pastrami and then some cheese on top too close it up like an envelope oh almost like an empanada give it a bit of a crimp and that is going to head off to the oil very nice [Music] welcome to breakfast it's big it's heavy I mean obviously all this could feed probably enough for three to four people let's do a quick tour of the table first of all right here we have the Minutemen we have feta cheese with some cheese I don't know and then another cheese I don't know
I'm gonna have some bread and then right here we have a beautiful tomato paste olives for breakfast mixed salad this is clotted cream with honey on top we have hishi this is a fried bread with cheese and pastrami inside I'm just gonna rip it right open and we're going to see the cheese oozing melting and then he put a pretty conservative amount of pastrami on there that is the money bite right there I'm gonna go for it the pastrami is like a little bit dry super oily this to me is a very heavy breakfast I
love this but I don't know I can eat what a half of these how does a country with people eating this stay productive it's probably no different than Americans eating Donuts but if I ate this for breakfast about two hours later I'd be sleeping in my cubicle under the desk next right here we have the main course this is the miniment if you're looking for a classic Turkish breakfast go for the Minutemen it starts with a combination of tomato paste and green chilies and soon some eggs but the toppings here are endless this morning I'm
going with the spicy sausage then they add some eggs [Music] and some mozzarella cheese it's not a soup it's not an omelet it's metament take a look at this you can see the big chunks of sausage one thing you have to remember whenever you're in a Muslim country like this that is not gonna be pork sausage stop talking let's try it out [Music] oh how do you even categorize that it doesn't feel very wet omelette I mean obviously super tomatoy there's not really a spice to it it's not spicy but you can taste the fresh
green chilies inside as well I'm still trying to figure out if this is a spicy country or not so far my instincts tell me not really so that is just the beginning of our day we are eating Turkish food for 24 hours which is not going to be that hard because we're in Turkey let's keep moving most of turkey's borders are surrounded by water and in those Waters you'll find these one of the most unique Street Foods in Istanbul mussels but with a little bit of a twist 22 years ago the owner of this establishment
started on the street with this little platter and it was so popular um or he got Investments or he went on Shark Tank and then somehow he pitched them on making a whole restaurant with multiple flavors of mussels and here we are all right let's go inside the kitchen I didn't actually ask permission let's see if they get wise what I'm doing [Music] no reaction so far boom and now I work here so right here I've ordered some of the spicy mussels he puts it in the steamer once those are hot they're gonna come right
out all right just like that and right now you can see he opens up each one and he puts it on the plate for us and you can just eat it right out of the shell like a spoon they also have some more modern muscle dishes right here fried mussels on a stick I'm gonna try that out too so right here we have three different courses and uh I don't know if you're a pirate in the 1700s this is another course you might want to so we have five muscles and then two others right here
I want to stick with the five ones immediately because they're hot and crispy and I don't want them to cool down and get soggy or anything like that I feel like this is something you would see at the Minnesota State Fair it's on a stick it's fried but with it comes a very unique and interesting sauce a sauce full of bread crumbs garlic vinegar salt and walnuts try it out oh wow that's a delicious sauce slightly sour really thick very lovely and these mussels my gosh look how crispy this thing is the way he cooked
it is so interesting he employed a frying technique I've never seen before in my life the mussels have already been battered flowered they're on this tray here getting the oil ready first he puts it in the solution here of mineral water and baking soda he says it's going to make it even more crispy but I've never seen anything like that I want to try one just alone [Music] you can really feel the crunchiness but you can taste the muscle too and the mussels taste great so this is a more modern take on muscles but I'm
a real traditionalist so right here we have the OG version to be honest when I first saw people selling muscles on the street it freaked out a little bit because I was looking for ice I was looking for some way to preserve the muscles because sometimes it can still get hot here now that I see inside I see how it's prepared it makes a little bit more sense to me I mean the rice is in there the mussels cooked already and the shell is like a little lunch box keeping it fresh dolma must have a
fresh squeeze of lemon before you throw them back basically want him to feed me hmm here a green lemon in the sunlight it's glistening it balances it out a little bit and I'm talking let's try this muscle oh so many thoughts and emotions you can see if I remove the muscle there is a load of rice in there oh it's like a little taco so you can see some of the seasonings on there too with the pepper the cinnamon when is the last time you had mussels with cinnamon so this right here is a spicy
version of this the only difference is they put some chili paste on there as well give it some lemon and let's try it out thank you oh it's a little bit spicy it's got a little bit of cake I respect it it's got to be the spiciest thing I've had so far in Turkey oh wait I've been dying to ask it since I was a kid do you guys eat turkey yeah or New Years the U.S fish for New Years turkey eats turkey so that is mussels in Turkey it's a completely different approach to the
seafood what I've never seen before but it's really fun to try out we've just entered a Turkish pickle shop here they pickle everything you can imagine let's take a quick tour these are two different types of chilies garlic and pickle pickles here we have carrots they've got chilies they've got small pickles they just pickled a whole cabbage basically they've got cauliflower they've got jalapenos they have okra a little bit of everything I'm gonna get kind of a grab bag of random pickles let's go for it in Turkey you'll find pickled veggies of all kinds then
there's the Pickled fruits and even just some straight up pickled juice some pickling I see going on in this establishment is downright Reckless I saw pine cone somewhere you can't pickle a pine cone you can't even eat a pine cone can you I want to try this first this is an unripe Plum that's interesting because it tastes like a little like sour apple this is a pickled unripe melon They begged me to slice it I said no let's see how much I regret that huh probably slicing it would be a good idea very intense different
from a cucumber type pickle I like it I give this one in passing grade of course if the pickles get to be too much you can cleanse your palate with pickle juice and I believe they've garnished it with a pickle I heard they have a giant bottle in the back with a pickled body the weirdest Among Us have finished all their pickles and thought I'll drink some pickle juice right here they have a cabbage bundle it's like a pickled vegetable roll wow this would be so good if you sliced it up a little bit they
have like really finely minced cabbage and carrots and stuff in there it tastes quite good here finally they pickled an entire eggplant that's the weirdest one so far overall I love the way they prepare it I think the move here would be cut everything small have it with something else have it with beer or wine or your meal in between other heavy bites in between heavy meat or cheese then sounds pretty good I don't think anyone's meant to just eat it this way unless you're just a complete animal our final location is cooking up kebabs
on a massive scale you may be familiar with the famous glittering Turkish donor kebabs but this is also a kebab and this is a kebab too fear in Kebab welcome to cubanella this is a restaurant specializing in all things lamb meat I've got the meat man right next to me right here we're gonna do a quick meet tour if you're in Kebab is made from giant chunks of lamb meat slow cooked in their own animal oils for hours right there we have a lamb shank with one flick of the spoon the meat just comes right
off so you can see how extremely soft and tender that meat is you want to try something oh just me all right [Music] so oily and so rich juicy and decadent incredibly soft gentle lamb flavor we are gonna order this but we're gonna order a few different meat selections and then see how they prepare it this looks like a lamb neck right here we've got the shoulder oh he has to stop after this I could not possibly eat this in a week this is so much meat he just gives a thumbs up he's like yeah
take it you came to the wrong place if you're not hungry next the plate is covered with a thin layer of dough before heading straight to the oven time has passed and this is complete next this is what I call a long Turkish Pizza it takes a lot of skill to not tear this to not put a hole into the dough itself next comes a big heaping mound of chopped lamb tomato green pepper parsley just a plethora of ingredients inside he says to the baker good luck so he puts it to the very Tippy tip
of this giant wooden Oar this could be used to propel a ship right now it's being used to cook pizza traditionally it's just going to be made with meat but here you can see one that's just been made with delicious gooey bubbling cheese all right ours is about to come out in one moment boom look at that thing that is massive Chef thank you amazing so we've just received our first course right here about three feet of food I like to measure my food in feet it looks like we have some fried chili some lemon
that meat sauce on top and then some cilantro too I believe they have chopped it up to make it much easier to eat I should have kept it in one piece but I forgot to let them know it is super thin and that meat has really just kind of been embedded into the dough it's surprisingly soft in the middle and kind of crunchy on the edges you can see how it's cooked underneath edges are a little bit more Brown they said you can do cheese or meat but not both I mean they would do both
for me but traditionally people would have one or the other let's go for it have doughy have crackerine a hint of lamb flavor tons of spices I love how juicy it is that's our warm-up that's our appetizer I'm ready for that main course let's bring it down the main course is here my man Hussein the owner of this whole operation if you couldn't tell from all the pictures uh caricatures of him around the restaurant this is non-complete because he has a giant knife and I don't think he's mad at me so I think he's gonna
stab this all right epic reveal he is cutting away the bread now normally the guests would not have seen anything at this point so this would be a complete surprise as to what's inside for me it's a second surprise oh yes I have a feeling he's gonna feed me we've got some bread can put some meat in there uh it's succulent and soft it's so delicious like the oil is caking my lips right now this is uh oh my God it's like are there spices on here a lot of spices no spices they put some
of the tail pad in there to help give it flavor but really the meat has so much flavor already it doesn't really need any help it's just like a Barbacoa that I had in Mexico and it is outstanding [Applause] he's making airplane sounds this is like a meat Masterpiece one of the best Lambs I've ever had in my life I think I can feed myself from here on out if you'll allow me to I've got some gloves right here of my own you don't have to have gloves but I also don't want my hands to
smell like lamb because then I'm gonna have stray dogs following me the dogs here are huge and it's because they eat tourists the neck is really one of my favorite Parts I just want to eat it as it is like this incredibly soft you can see here it's just so full of musculature and meat it's been sitting here for a long time and it is still insanely hot put some neck meat on a cracker [Music] it's been good it is incredibly rich as you can imagine I'm super impressed this is one of the most interesting
places I've ever been to especially to eat lamb Nobody Does it like this place delicious lamb flavor a little bit of salt and a lot of care love and time given to each body part as they cook it 10 out of 10 highly recommend oh guys that is the end of the video I want to say a huge thank you to culinary back streets at culinary backstreets.com for making this happen they are a food tour company they're doing Food Tours here in Istanbul and around the world it wasn't for them I wouldn't have found all
these awesome interesting and unique places here in this city I always recommend doing a food tour if you're short on time if you want to get the most out of your time while you're traveling or on vacation do a food tour and do it here with culinary backstreets.com that is it for this episode thank you so much for watching I will see you next time a piece [Music] welcome to the best ever merch store where you can check out our brand new designs best ever bandanas in black white and red the please send nudes hoodie
pillow soft fabric with a quality custom graphic inlay and are street food around the world graphic tea we're now shipping everywhere around the world just visit shopfest over food.com or click the link in the description below to get your new merch today a piece
