Snack crawl
The Flatbread Crawl: Istanbul
Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Istanbul sell out long before the guidebooks say they open.
- Stops
- 6
- Walking
- 4 km
- Budget
- Moderate
Before you set off
Stop 12 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows. Here the fennel is piled on with abandon and the chilli is not a suggestion. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later.
Stop 11 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. Here the fennel is piled on with abandon and the chilli is not a suggestion. Finish somewhere sweet. There is always room; it is a separate stomach.
Stop 9 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows. The owner, Clara, has been folding these by hand for longer than we have been alive and has opinions about fish sauce. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later. Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Istanbul sell out long before the guidebooks say they open.
Stop 1: The late-night window near the river
The trick with flatbread is patience: let the filling take on proper colour before you even think about moving it. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are flatbread — the kind you clear your evening for. This is a recipe built for sharing, which is a polite way of saying you should double it.
We tested this 12 times in the Snack Crawl kitchen, and the version with pomegranate molasses won every single round. Walk between stops. It is the only reason any of this is physically possible. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are flatbread — the kind you clear your evening for.
We tested this 10 times in the Snack Crawl kitchen, and the version with dried porcini won every single round. We like to make the filling the night before, when the kitchen is quiet and nobody is asking what is for dinner. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate.
Stop 2: The corner cart near the bus depot
This is a recipe built for sharing, which is a polite way of saying you should double it. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are flatbread — the kind you clear your evening for.
There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are flatbread — the kind you clear your evening for. We recreated this one at home — see the recipe section — but it never tastes quite like it does on a kerb at midnight. Finish somewhere sweet. There is always room; it is a separate stomach.
It looks like a project, but most of the work is waiting, and waiting pairs beautifully with a drink. Look for the place with the handwritten menu and the a wire rack that has clearly been in service for decades. We tested this 5 times in the Snack Crawl kitchen, and the version with white pepper won every single round. It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate.
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