Istanbul/Taipei Food Exchange

One of the advantages of being a famous blogger is you get to meet up with other famous bloggers who come through your city and who give you good tips for eating in their home cities for free -- the kind of tips that are often readily available on their own blogs! Searching can be hard so that's nice!

We breakfasted with Robyn and Dave of the splendid Eating Asia last week at Van Kahvaltı, which has declined in quality substantially over the last year or so but still serves up a pretty good bal kaymak. We've scrolled through Van breakfast, passed into and out of Diyabakır breakfast and are now big fans of Crete breakfast, but that's fodder for another post we'll probably never get around to writing. Can't say enough good about the fried cheese at Kale, but Anthony Bourdain was all over that place like a cheap suit, so it seems redundant to mention.

Since we were headed to Taipei, Robyn passed along her favorite place for beef noodles, for which the city is noted, in the back streets behind the train station. We found it because we had a printout of her blog with the guy's picture and we recognized him straightaway, wearing what appeared to be the exact same outfit.

Holy shit, these noodles were delicious. Go read her post because she writes well about food and her husband, Dave, takes gorgeous photos. Both will save us the time and effort from having to describe it. But you know how Vietnamese Pho can be sort of lame and brothy and full of chewy tendon? Those Taiwanese will have none of that. The beef was, uh, beefy and the broth was full of chilis and ginger and you could add even more deliciousness from the nameless containers on the table if you wanted, which we did. The noodles were like eels!

In less than 24 hours, we have eaten at least two dozen pork dumplings and a kilo of litchis. We're a bit disappointed in Taipei's famed night markets, though, which seem like little more than midways for Taiwanese teenagers. We were hoping for more congealed pig blood and less Hello Kitty, but maybe this is the new Asia.

In exchange for this bounty, we sent Eating Asia off to Çercis Murat in Mardin, Crete Breakfast and the Beşiktaş Kaykmakcı, which has, without question, the best kaymak in the world. We also told her to just look at Istanbul Eats, which, even more than this seldom-updated blog, is the must-read for all Istanbul visits (In a misguided attempt to be more web 2.0, we took down all our links and got a complaint only from IE, so we feel obligated to show some link love. Plus, they pretty much rule and deserve to be included in any discussion of eating in Istanbul.)

Comments

[SB]

Pho lame and brothy?? I'm questioning your palate or choice of places to eat and judge delicious pho! Hmph.

[Pilotman]

Pho lame and brothy or not, I really don't care. It's just good to see one of my favorite bloggers back on line. You've been missed.

[Rene]

Carpetblogger - from Istanbul to Taipei, two places I have called "home" in the last decade! (With a stop in Bali in between!) A mutual friend once promised to introduce us and never did, but I'm sure our paths will cross someday. Happy eating! (Try the "snake alley" night-market with a visit to nearby "Lung-sham Temple", it'll be more to your liking.)

[carpetblogger]

Hi Rene -- I did end up going to Lungsham temple and inadvertedly ended up on Snake Alley. I did like the night market there more than the Shilin one. More food!