Hello, my fellow Read.cash readers. Have a good day, those that are waking up. And good night, for all of us on the other side of the world.
One of the things I love to write about is my travel experiences. And of course, about food. And if it's a combination of both, much better. And here I have published some articles related to food. But not with travel experiences. So today, I'm going to share one.
Something I love about travel is that I live the experience in all its stages. The before, during, and after. I'm freaky when it comes to looking for information about the destination where I'm going. It doesn't matter if the destination will be a city that I will visit for the first time on the other side of the world. Or a town a few hours from where I live. I always want to know more about where I'm going. What foods can I try, and even learn something about the customs of the place.
Kebabs are grilled meat dishes eaten in the Middle East. So if you are a vegetarian, sorry if I hurt your susceptibility because here I'm going to tell you about one of the types of kebab I ate on my visit to Istanbul.
I'm going to start with what, outside of Turkey, is perhaps the least known of the types of kebabs. The Cag Kebab, or as it's called in Turkish Cağ kebabı.
In the Cag kebab, the meat is cooked in a horizontal skewer with a wood fire, unlike those kebabs that can be found outside Turkey, in which the meat is cooked in a vertical big skewer. This kebab is originally from the Erzurum province in Turkey.
Cag Kebab is made solely with lamb meat, actually with fatty lamb meat. The lamb meat is marinated for hours in a seasoning made of onion, sweet basil, black pepper, and salt before cooking.
Source 1, to know about the origin of the Cag Kebab. And how to cook it.
Looking for the best kebab
I did my homework before traveling to Turkey and had searched the internet for the best places to eat kebabs in Istanbul. One of the many that caught my attention was the Sehzade Cag Kebab, which happened to be very close to the hotel where I stayed.
And where according to The New York Times, they make the best Cag Kebab in Istanbul.
And a note aside on the subject of kebabs about something that caught my attention in Turkey, It's that unlike in other places where people don't like to be filmed or photographed. In Turkey is quite the opposite. They rather like to have the attention. They like their places to be photographed and filmed. They see the value of the potential free advertising like this one ;). It's no coincidence that they have a reputation for skillful merchants.
So back to Sehzade Cag Kebap, they proudly display the New York Times review for them. And in this place, you won't find any other dish on the menu. People go to this place exclusively to eat Cag kebab. And they are really delicious.
Inside the premises, you can see how they cook the lamb meat in the wood fire.
They served the meat in a skewer with lavash flatbread, fresh tomatoes, cucumber parsley, raw seasoned onions, lime, and a mezze (Turkish word for starter) called Ezme.
Ezme means crushed. And it's a starter made with tomatoes, green pepper, parsley, garlic, onion, freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, red pepper paste, and salt. It's super tasty. And It's usually served as a mezze in kebabs places. But on my trip to Istanbul, we even had it as one of the dishes in the breakfast, too.
Source 2 to know more about Ezme and how to cook it.
In case you travel to Istanbul. The address to get to this place is Hocapasa Sokak No: 6 Sirkeci, Istanbul, Turkey.
The price of the food in this place and in general in all those we visited in Istanbul was very affordable.
In a future post, I will tell you more about the kebabs I ate in Istanbul.
Disclaimer: I'm not related to this place. And I haven't been paid to write this article. It's just some notes based on my experience visiting the place.
To all my dear readers and wonderful sponsors, thank you so much!
All images and writings are my own. Copyright CoquiCoin 2021.
Until next time! ;)
July 31, 2021
Take me to Turkey now, please!