Part 2 of our Eating Adventure, in Which We Eat More.

Looking back, I'm astounded at how much good stuff got to try on our Istanbul Eats tour.

A spicy soup to top all soups, with kale and beans and corn and a broth made out of the fat of a fat-tailed sheep. It was heaven.

Istanbul is in the unique position of being half in Asia and half in Europe, and the confluence of cultures shows in the cuisine. Mainly, it's delicious and unique and the passion their chefs show rivals that of Paris.

Plus, you can eat really well here for not a lot of money. While they do have fancy upscale places, the best places seemed to be a little bit divey, or streetside.

We darted and wove our way off Istiklal Caddesi, a huge pedestrian street that is the main drag in Beyoğlu. There were Parisian-style covered shopping malls, hidden churches, and so much food to be had.

We stopped at a stand where Hassan made us the most incredible fried sardines.

I've said it before, but one thing I just don't like food-wise are fishy-fish. Sardines, anchovies, mackerel, bluefish. I try them every time, but I generally just can't get past oily fishy taste. These sardines were amazing though- I've only ever had them this good one other time in Morocco. They were fresh, light and airy, and so fresh that you could barely detect the oily taste before it dissolves on your tongue. Sublime.

The next stop was a little squeamish.

There are butchers that specialize in sheeps heads.

This guy was amazing- he deftly butchered the head, separated all the good bits, and put them on a paper plate for us to try.

Here's look at you, kid.

So...the cheek and tongue were fine, but for someone who lives in France, that's fairly pedestrian. The brain was a bit tough to choke down. It's got a super creamy fatty texture that made it really hard for me to get down. I just swallowed and got it over with, but it was bland.

We were very proud to be able to clean that plate.

There were kebaps. Oh, they were good.

I watched the chef wipe the fatty grease from the skewers onto the bread, and I was in love.

Most kebap places had a huge hood over an open charcoal fire, but the tiny shops would fill up with fragrant lamb smoke anyway.

We tried many varieties of baklava. Walnut was the winner- despite my love for pistachios, they were too rich in the butter pastry, and walnuts had the right amount of bitterness to balance the butter and the sugar.

I wasn't a fan of the Turkish coffee. Chewing coffee and getting a beautiful gril of coffee grinds just wasn't worth the jolt. This guy totally cared for his craft though.

Manti, lovely little turkish ravioli stuffed with lamb, covered with yogurt and spice.

And our last stop...a little lunch dive that served really delicious stuffed eggplant and zucchini and fresh chick peas.

I was only taking a bite or two of each dish, so I didn't feel over-full (except for the soup. I ate the entire bowl) but there was a pleasant glow of knowing that eating was done for the day. Six hours of walking and eating was exhausting!

Plus, Megan was amazing and she gave us recommendations for the rest of our week in Istanbul, and I can honestly say she didn't steer us wrong at all.

Truly, someone you are going to want to know when you are in Istanbul. Cheers to her, and the rest of the Istanbul Eats team for putting together such a fun and delicious tour and informative blog. Our trip was so much more enjoyable when we knew exactly what to eat.

Istanbul Eats Tour

Istanbul is an enormous city. Seriously. It's twice the size of New York.

While nothing could prepare me for it, I came as prepared as possible. Pinpoints on maps and advice and a huge list of restaurants to check out. Istanbul Eats was invaluable- they really have their shit together when it comes to food and restaurant recommendations and did not steer us wrong.

After a rather hairy experience trying to find a friend at the overcrowded airport, and an even hairier cab ride into the city to our temporary home near the Galata Tower, we set out immediately to our the first dining destination that had been dancing in our heads since we heard about it- Siirt Seref Buryan, whose specialty is pit BBQ lamb.

First, getting there. After consulting a few maps, we decided to walk from Galata. As we wound our way down the hill, we tried to cross the Golden Horn via the Alaturka bridge. Despite there being tons of people fishing off the bridge, it ended up not being a pedestrian bridge at all, with no way to actually get onto the bridge without dodging highway traffic on the on-ramp and jumping over knee-high fences to get to it, and getting off was just as bad. It was stressful, but we kept seeing locals do it and there was no other real way to get across where we needed to.

Finally, we found the old city Aqueduct, and nestled in the shadow, our destination.

Oh, it was good. Smokey, fatty, lamby goodness.

The walk home we decided to take a different route home, and we ended up down some really dark alleyways behind the Süleymaniye Mosque. It was an adventure!

But we did wisely choose to pick our way home over the more pedestrian-friendly Galata Bridge.

The next day was what we were all so excited for. We thought that a good way to get our bearings around such a huge city with such amazing culinary discoveries to pick our way around, a highly recommended Istanbul Eats tour was booked. While I'm normally loathe to book a tour, a full day of exploring and eating our way through the Beyoğlu neighborhood sounded like a wonderful way to really dive into such a culturally rich city.

We met our lovely expat guide, Megan, after navigating some of the wicked hills of Beyoğlu. Like Rome, Istanbul is built upon seven hills. And what hills they were.

We started out our day at a small hole-in the wall local joint that had a reputation for amazing, homemade food.

An incredibly indulgent spread of sweet buffalo milk cheese drizzled with honey and a spicy dish of baked eggs got things started. I was determined to pace myself for this epic day of eating and it took quite a bit of willpower to keep myself from cleaning all the plates right away.

The cooks, while they didn't speak English, were gracious and let us peer in the kitchen. They were incredibly proud of the work they did. In fact, everyone we met on the tour was insanely proud of what they did.

This guy did speak a bit of French, so I was able to at least convey how much we loved everything. I think it was totally unnecessary as I think that when you really love a bit of cooking, you don't really need words in any language to let the chefs know they are doing their jobs.

The other dish we tried here was odd, but addictive:

A pudding made out of chicken breast.

More walking, more eating.

Hot fresh simit, so buttery. Like croissants in Paris, they are the default pastry here.

A stop at the pickle shot was next. Turks will pickle anything.

I will venture to say I've never seen such a variety of pickles. They only brine things in season, and when they run out, they close down shop and take a nice summer vacation. Depending on what time of year you are in Istanbul, you might have a variety or you might be licking the bottoms of the pickle barrels.

One mystery solved: the small, bitter green plums we kept trying to eat fresh were much better pickled.

Tomorrow: MORE EATING.