City of stars – Exploring Istanbul's award-winning gastronomy

Istanbul, the largest city in Türkiye, is well known all over the world for its history and culture. But we can say it’s a paradise for food lovers too. Tradition and the classical go hand in hand with innovation and creativity in Turkish cuisine.

There’s no better place to start this culinary journey than the famous Kadıköy market, situated on the Asian side of Istanbul. Colours and smells assail you as you step inside this market, made by stands, shops, bars and restaurants.

Here you can pop into family-run grocery stores, historical pickle shops, spice and fish stands. Or you can try sweets famous across the city, such as baklava, lokum and many more.

Kadıköy market perfectly reflects the direction Istanbul is taking: towards becoming a paradise for food lovers. With one peculiarity, as Sevtap Baş Şengil, deputy head of gastronomy, TÜRSAB, explains to us: “This city is one of the oldest cities in the entire world. And we’re very lucky that, you know, here in Istanbul we have this Byzantine and Greek heritage. And we have Anatolian and Turkish heritage. We have minorities... All these come together and make our unique Ottoman cuisine”.

It’s really hard to choose what to taste here. We’d like to go home with our bags filled up! As Istanbulites do. “People come here to buy fish and vegetables and also spices”, Sevtap tells us “I’m also going to show you some breakfast items here. These olives come from all over Türkiye. And it's very traditional Turkish to eat olives at breakfast”.

The “ritual” Turkish breakfast, or kahvaltı - which literally means “before coffee” in Turkish - is the most important meal for the Turkish.The flavours of Turkish breakfast include sweet, spicy and salty. This unique concept consists of small