New York Street Food

I love anything made with phyllo dough.  I’ve enjoyed “cigars” at some of the Mediterranean street food vendors like Bistro Truck and the Comme Ci, Comme Ça Truck.  When I was in Washington DC last week, I also had cigars as an appetizer at a Turkish-American  restaurant that were very light and flaky, but were filled with ricotta cheese and herbs, not meat.  You can easily make vegetarian cigars with potatoes, or substitute ground lamb for ground beef if you prefer that.

This recipe is courtesy of the Utne Reader.

Sigara Borek (Turkey)

Meat filling ingredients:
–2 tablespoons olive oil
–1 lb. lean ground beef
–1 onion, chopped
–2 garlic cloves, minced
–4 tablespoons pine nuts
–2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
–3 teaspoons dried oregano
–1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
–Salt and pepper to taste

Wrapping ingredients:
–1 egg
–1/2 cup olive oil
–2 tablespoons milk
–1 lb phyllo sheets (about 18)
–2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Preparation:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion. Cook for 2-3 minutes until onion begins to soften, then add minced garlic and pine nuts. Saute for an additional 1-2 minutes or until pine nuts begin to turn golden.

Add ground beef to the skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes, then add cinnamon, oregano and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, then set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil and milk. This mix will be slightly thick and will be used to moisten the phyllo dough.

Take a sheet of phyllo dough and lay it out on a flat surface with the longest side facing you. Keep the remaining phyllo covered with a moist towel until ready to use. Lightly brush the left half of the phyllo with the egg mixture. Gently lift the right side of the phyllo and fold it over the left side. The phyllo dough will now be half the size of when you started and you will now have the shortest side facing you.

Brush the top of the phyllo with the egg mixture. Take 1/4 cup of the beef mixture (make sure it has cooled) and place it 2 inches in from the nearest edge of the phyllo and leave 2 inches of spaces on either side of the meat. Fold in each of the long sides by 2 inches. Beginning at the edge closest to you, fold the narrow end over the meat mixture. Continue rolling the dough away from you as you form a cigarette-shaped roll. When you near the end, brush the final 2 inches with the egg mixture. Fold the roll over this final bit of dough to seal it. Place seam side down on a baking sheet.

Before baking, brush the tops and sides of each roll with more of the egg mixture. Sprinkle the tops with sesame seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Feta cheese, potatoes or other vegetables can be substituted for minced meat.

Steamed pork bun from NYC Food Crawl

Who has the best (falafel, brownies, pork buns, samosas, hot chocolate, etc) in New York?  Join the next NYC Food Crawl on April 29th to find out who has the best tacos.

We first told you about the NYC Food Crawl covering samosas back in December.  Now Gothamist has an interview with Mara Sorkin, the founder of NYC Food Crawl. [Gothamist]

(more…)

With 17 inches of snow in Central Park, which is 2 blocks from my office, I stayed near the office for lunch again.  Today’s Lunch is a doner kebab from Istanbul Cafe located at 325 West 57th St, between 8th & 9th Ave.

You don’t see a lot of Turkish food in New York, although there are a few restaurants.  Istanbul Cafe is a cafe with a very warm, inviting feel to it.  When you step inside, it does not feel like you’re in New York any more.  It’s all Turkish-style furniture and decor, and in the middle is a large case with lots of desserts and pastries, such as baklava, kadayif and various puddings (coconut, chocolate, rice).

I wanted lunch and ordered the doner kebab wrap for $6.95.  They have several other kebabs (chicken, lamb, etc), kofte (ground lamb and beef), and a bunch of other dishes, which you can also get as platters for $12.95-$14.95, which is out of my price range for lunch, but the wraps were right in my lunch price range.  You can also get appetizers like hummus, falafel, boreks and stuffed grape leaves.

The doner kebab came with white sauce and hot sauce packaged separately.  I opened up the wrap, poured in some white sauce and hot sauce, and re-rolled the wrap.  There was a lot of meat in the wrap, and it was not so easy to close the wrap up again, but I persevered and finally succeeded.  There was also lettuce in the wrap, and tomato if you want, which I didn’t.  The meat was nicely spiced, with the lettuce giving the wrap some crunch.  The white sauce was yogurt-based and complemented the meat well.  The hot sauce was actually hot, which added another dimension to the sandwich.

Istanbul Cafe also looks like a really nice place to come for coffee or tea and dessert.  The dessert case looked like you were actually in Turkey.

Today’s Lunch was a solid 9 out of 10.  It was definitely street food, but came from a restaurant today because of the weather.

Istanbul Eats did a feature on the top 5 street foods in Istanbul.  Counting backwards, their favorites are:

#5 – The Galata Cucumber Man -We eagerly await the reappearance in the spring of the vendor simply known as the “cucumber man of Galata” (pictured below, smoking), a chubby fellow with Coke bottle glasses who sells what may be the city’s simplest, yet most satisfying street food: peeled and salted cukes, a fresh green rebuke to all those starchy and fried snacks out there.

His method is simple: take a chilled cucumber, peel it, slice it twice down the middle so that it splays out like a flower, and salt it generously. It may sound basic, but on a hot summer’s day, the cucumber man usually has a good crowd that gathers around his cart clamoring for this refreshing bite (this past summer he branched out and started selling carrots and apples, too). Of course, at 50 kurus (33 cents) a cucumber, it’s a snack that’s hard to refuse.  Address: The plaza in front of the Galata Tower, Galata

#4 – Maya Kumpir – In Istanbul’s Bosphorus-side village of Ortakoy, the potato takes center stage for locals and tourists alike as one of the city’s most beloved street foods. Known in Turkish as “kumpir”, think of this Istanbul street food icon as the baked potato on steroids –a motley mix of flavors piled high into an inexpensive meal roughly the size of a small child’s head.

A few minutes of observation revealed “Maya Kumpir” to be the most popular stand amongst the locals.  We ordered our potato and gazed over the mind-boggling myriad of available toppings under the glass-enclosed case.  As Muhettin split the potato down the middle and began mixing in a small amount of butter and kasar cheese, we started pointing out our selection of toppings to be added next. Among the options were hotdog slices, corn, peas, vegetable salad, pickles, pickled beets, green and black olives, yogurt, and even kisir, a couscous-like bulgur dish.  The potato was perfectly cooked, soft and moist throughout, and the variety of flavors piled on top made for an interesting combination of tastes and textures.

There are probably few places in Istanbul where one can go and have a full meal for less than 10YTL, while dining seaside, under the shade of one of the most stunning mosques in the world, and admire the sprawling Asian coastline across the water at the same time. And, though the seating is first-come first served and consists of park benches and stone steps, the show-stopping potato and it’s supporting cast of toppings make the kumpir an experience to behold.  “Kumpir Sokak” is located on the main pedestrian street leading to Ortakoy Mosque and is hard to miss. Just look for all of the stands lined side by side. “Maya Kumpir” is No. 5.

#3 - Kizilkayalar’s Wet Burger – The sign may read “Wet Burger” (“Islak Burger” in Turkish), but there’s a lot more to say about Kizilkayalar’s moist mini patties than that. How about “Heavenly Slider,” “Binge Drinker’s Delight,” or “The Best 2 Lira Ever Spent in Taksim Square?”

The Kizilkayalar experience starts from a distance, most vividly late at night. It begins with a whiff of garlic detected well across Taksim Square, then, through the bustling crowd, eyes lock onto the bright lights of the steam box holding the burger bounty. Hungry customers are finally tugged in, like a tanker on the Bosphorus, by the steady foghorn voice of the Kizilkayalar hamburger man bellowing “buyurun, buyurun, buyurun!” (roughly: “come and get it!”).  Make no mistake, the burger is wet, having been doused by an oily, tomato-based sauce before incubating in a glass-lined burger hamam.  But at 2 AM on a Friday night, nothing is as good as a Kizilkayalar wet burger – except for another one.  Address: Siraselviler Caddesi 6, Taksim Square (Open 24-7)

(NYSF Note: The Wet Burger was also featured recently in an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain.)

#2 – Citir Simit Bakery -With only a few ingredients to its name, the simit, a sesame-encrusted bread ring has gone on to become the most ubiquitous snack in Istanbul, and has even made its way to New York.

Let’s hear it for the (deceptively simple) simit.

Despite its crisp exterior, the simit is actually a softie, and starts to fade as soon as it leaves the oven.  By the time many simits reach the streets, they are already past their prime and heading towards a state where they make better hockey pucks or paperweights than snacks.  That’s why it’s best to get simits straight from the source.  There are small simit bakeries hidden all over town, but one of the favorites is Çitir in the Karakoy neighborhood, where the somewhat gruff Emir Ozdemir has been manning the brick oven for 20 years. All day long, Ozdemir turns out tray after tray of hot simits, all for only 75 kurus (50 cents).  Address: Mumhane Cadessi No. 83-85, Karakoy
Telephone: 212-244-7775

#1 – Sabirtasi’s Icli Kofte -For years on Istiklal Caddesi, in one calm spot stood the beatific Ali Bey, an angel in a white doctor’s coat offering salvation in the form of golden fried icli kofte.  Though he passed away recently, Ali Bey left his post and his streetside stand — as much a part of the Istiklal streetscape as the red trolley cars that run up and down the boulevard and the belle époque apartment buildings that line it — to his son, who fills it with the same panache, white jacket and all. And thanks to Ali bey’s wife, Fatma hanim, the icli kofte lives on.

Known as kibbeh in the Arab world, icli kofte is a savory snack consisting of a bulgur wheat shell that holds a filling of ground meat, onions, parsley and spices. These little torpedoes are handmade upstairs by Fatma hanim, who spends most of the day at a large table with her daughter-in-law working the stuffing into the casing before passing them on for final preparation.  Unlike many of this city’s icli kofte, which often look and taste like a fried mini football, Sabirtasi’s are a refined delicacy. It’s as if each grain of bulgur and every bit of filling were specifically designed to rise into a spicy, steamy, heavenly waltz across the palette as the fortunate snacker breaks the crunchy seal of the outer crust.  Address: Istiklal Caddesi 112 (across from Yapi Kredi Bank), Beyoglu; Telephone: 212-251-9423 [Istanbul Eats]