Episode 7 Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul

'I'm on a gastronomic journey that started with

'the pleasingly simple food of Venice

'and will end with the vibrant and spicy dishes of Istanbul.

'In between the culinary melting pot of East meeting West - Croatia.'

This is my lunch.

'Back to basics - Albania.'

Ham, salt, beans, water.

Life.

'And a place I know and love - Greece.'

What would I do with them? Put them on the barbecue.

What would you do with them?

'Who could ask for anything more?'

We're just entering the Dardanelles. The first time I've ever been here

and the last leg of my journey to Istanbul.

Sort of thinking of the journey to Byzantium

in Yates' famous poem.

And thinking of Byzantium as being

this wonderful, golden, splendid place

with royal food and opulence everywhere.

And here, I don't know why, but just remembering Yates' poem,

the mackerel-crowded seas, I'm looking at that blue Dardanelles

and thinking, full of mackerel,

and we're on our way to Byzantium.

Is there any mint sauce?

I don't know that it goes with goat, does it?

'It's lunchtime and this is a very special crew lunch

'but, unlike normal people, we have to film everything

'before we eat, which always makes us ever so hungry.

'This cafe, which is very famous here,

'specialises in tender, sweet, golden, crispy young goat.

'The very sight of it makes the taste buds

'explode with anticipation.'

The smell of roast goat is so wonderful

and I think the great thing about cooking on a spit like this

is just the way the skin crisps up.

I'm just itching to sneak a bit of that skin.

I hope he doesn't mind if I do.

Best bit.

There's something very lovely about spit roasted goat, don't you think?

'What could be better, this lovely roasted goat and fresh salad

'and sweet peppers straight from the garden?'

It would be really nice to have some roast potatoes, do you not think?

No, not really.

I think it's just really nice. I love these pickles.

You know, chilli, lovely salad and ayran.

No, I'm as happy as Larry.

This goat is so exquisite.

-Mint sauce?

-No, we don't need blinking mint sauce, Dave. God!

'This is halva - probably the most famous dessert in Turkey

'and, for that matter, all over the eastern Mediterranean.

'It's hazelnuts fried in oil, then the main bit is semolina.

'That makes a roux and when that's nice and stiff,

'in goes the hot milk with lots of sugar and lemon zest.

'And basically that's it.

'In India, it's cooked in ghee and flavoured with saffron and cardamom.

'I can't think of a more universally popular desert

'from Greece and Turkey, Egypt to Israel, India and Pakistan,

'Iraq to Iran.

'This is more popular than apple crumble

'and spotted dick put together!'

Cok guzel.

-What are you going on about?

-You know that little way of remembering.

There's a little chocolate gazelle on the mantelpiece,

especially at Christmas time.

-I don't know what you're talking about.

-Cok guzel means very good.

I can't remember Turkish words so I have to think of a chocolate gazelle

on the mantelpiece and then I can remember it.

So you're saying it's delicious?

It is. It's cok guzel.

This is the sort of thing I love doing,

just walking through a tomato field,

gosh, finding some lovely ripe tomatoes.

I've borrowed a knife from one of these ladies.

Do you know, they also had some salt.

I mean, what would a tomato be without salt?

So now...

..this...

..is heaven.

This small field produces 14 tonnes of tomatoes in a season.

It just shows how... I'm going to use the word again,

fecund this area is.

It's so fertile.

The reason, apart from the great soil, is the climate.

It's a mixture of Mediterranean - hot, dry,

and Balkans - a little milder, a little wetter.

When you look around you can see there's a lot more rainfall here

than there was south, producing these most divine tomatoes.

'One of the great revelations of this journey has been the tomato.

'Every meal I've really enjoyed has been full of chopped, sweet,

'juicy tomatoes

'that's provided all the liquid needed for so many dishes.

'The Turks go one better with salca -

'a rich, fruity tomato paste.

'Squeezed tomatoes minus the pips, plus salt and lots of sunshine -

'about two weeks of sun until the liquid dries off.

'Ishanou, a restaurateur, has been making it all her life.

'She told me about her aunt, who came up with a very simple dish

'using pumpkins and salca.

'Well, I've always said the simpler the better

'but, personally, when I hear the word pumpkin I want to run a mile.

'But, in fact, this has proved to be the most popular dish

'in Ishanou's restaurant.'

-So this is your aunt's dish?

-Yeah, my aunt's dish, called sinkonta.

But my aunt didn't cook a lot in the...

-Family.

-Family!

-But...?

-But her dish is the most popular one in my restaurant

and everybody just comes and looks for sinkonta.

So you line the bottom with a pumpkin.

Do you mind if I try a bit because I've got this theory...

..about Turkish pumpkin.

I'm quite right, it's quite the sweetest pumpkin in the world.

Lovely.

-Anyway, carry on.

-OK, I'm going to just put some salt on my onions.

-Why are you scrunching it all up?

-Just to soften the onion.

-I put some salca...

-In there.

We used to just cook it and eat big trays of it.

But it can be a starter also.

Then the salt and the onion and salca.

They're just giving the taste.

And some...flour.

A pinch of pepper like this.

-So it's really easy.

-It is.

You know, nobody can understand how I cook this.

-Really?!

-It's so easy.

-I love those. I love that sort of thing.

There's this story about a woman in France who made an omelette,

the best omelettes in France, and all these journalists are going,

"What's so special about it?"

She just said, "It's eggs and butter and salt."

-That's it?

-That's it.

We're going to bake it for 40 minutes in the bread oven.

If only all the dishes we filmed were like this.

-So simple, you know it's going to taste nice.

-Very delicious.

Very delicious, yeah.

'Ishanou pours on plenty of olive oil

'and it goes into her bread oven for about 40 minutes.

'I'm always on the lookout for really simple dishes

'and this looks so appetising when it comes out of the oven.

'The onions have a lovely burnt caramelised look,

'the pumpkin soft and yielding

'and it's all flavoured with that sweet tomato salca.

'This is the sort of dish that would go down very well in Totnes,

'if you catch my drift?

'She puts on yoghurt and chilli oil - olive oil with a bit of a kick.'

-Your aunt's one and only dish.

-Yeah.

-That is lovely.

-Oh.

-Really?

-Mmm!

-Thank you.

-That's delicious.

It's yummy. That's what we say.

You can really taste the salca and of course the pumpkins.

The pumpkin is so sweet.

'All I can say, if that's the most popular dish in her restaurant,

'she must be making a fortune.

'So cheap to make, I wish I could come up with something like that.

'You can see salca sold in jars by the side of the road.

'But there's one spice that grows all over the place

'in great abundance

'and if anyone was to say what the quintessential taste of Turkey was

'then it could be this.'

I'm very pleased to have got hold of this.

This is sumac. It comes from the Arab word "sumac",

which means "red".

I'm lucky because as soon as the rains start in the autumn,

all the flavour which surrounds these little seeds go.

It always ends up in the back of my larder, just dried out

and forgotten, but now I'm into Turkish food, never again.

It's really lemony. Unbelievably lemony.

Quite often it's used in place of lemon juice in soups and stews

and sprinkled over meze.

It's quite the most distinctive flavour in Turkey, I would say.

'And so to cook in my fab kitchen on the island of Sinni.

'I'll miss this a lot.

'What could be better than having a kitchen overlooking the Aegean,

'cooking dishes I've discovered on my journey like this one?'

This is sumac chicken.

I'm just crushing my garlic under my knife like that.

Now, pul biber, which is this hot red pepper -

chilli hot red pepper from Turkey.

Sometimes called Aleppo pepper as well.

And now sumac. Lots of sumac.

This is the main ingredient in the dish.

It's got a fruity lemoniness which is very distinctive

and goes very well with chicken.

So, now, sun-dried tomato paste.

Salca.

Two good teaspoons of that.

And another great Turkish produce, pomegranate molasses.

Slightly a stringent, almost vinegary flavour

but sweet as well.

Fabulous in salads and fabulous with this chicken.

Now some salt. A fair bit as this is just a coating.

And some olive oil.

There we go.

This is very simple, this dish, but I love it.

I think the children will love it too.

Not too spicy but full of flavour.

And now just add my chicken pieces.

Now just turn that all over and...

work the marinade into the chicken.

Looking lovely, smelling great, I must say.

Now I'll leave that to sit and marinade for an hour or so...

..while I wash my hands.

'Yes, the marinating takes an hour at least -

'enough time to watch life going by on this lovely island.

'Notice I've never said, "Here's one I prepared earlier."'

Olive oil.

And some sesame seeds all over the top.

So when I bake this I'm looking for it to come out

a really deep golden brown and slightly charred

because I suspect dishes like this would have originally been done

in a Turkish tandoor, like the Indian tandoori ovens,

where you get this lovely intense dry heat

and you do want a bit of a charred look at the end.

So that goes in a hot oven, about 200 degrees,

for about 20 to 25 minutes.

It's very handy having somewhere to cook like that.

I mean, when I've put something in the oven,

I come out for a bit of fishing or go for a swim.

-Nice job if you've got one like that, eh?

-Yeah, all right.

'I was really surprised by this. It's good to discover new tastes.

'We've all cooked roasted barbecue chicken

'but this is really different.

'It's got a fresh, clean, lemony, zesty taste,

'and with a kick of chilli. I love it.

'And I'm serving it with some pilaf rice. It goes very well.

'I'm travelling north towards Istanbul.

'Later, I shall be crossing the Dardanelles by ferry.

'But here, where Europe meets Asia, the fishing's good.

'At the seaside village of Guzelyali,

'where the population goes from 500 to 5,000 in the summer,

'it helps to have an unlimited supply of these.

'The humble sardine.'

I have to say this is a very no-nonsense macho way

of dealing with sardines

Pulling the head and getting the guts out at the same time.

And this dish that Osman's going to cook for me today

is very popular all along the Dardanelles.

Just a very simple way with sardines.

'There's nothing more evocative than a beachside cafe

'serving freshly grilled fish.

'Osman is showing me the local way

'and that's with olive oil, salt and pepper.

'And make sure they've all had a good coating.

'Now Osman wraps the sardines in vine leaves.

'There's no shortage of these down the west Turkish coast.'

I've never tried grilling sardines in vine leaves

but I'm sure it's going to be really full of flavour.

And of course there's no chance of them sticking to the grill bars

because they've got this lovely covering on them.

It seems like an obvious thing to do somehow

but I've never come across it before.

HE SPEAKS TURKISH

Now I wish that I could understand Turkish

but I do know what Osman's saying because I asked him earlier on

what he thought was so special about sardines.

He just said that they're really, really good in the Dardanelles.

Fantastic flavour, lovely firmness.

And people everywhere cook them, not just in the restaurants

but they cook them in their gardens and this way of doing sardines,

cooking them on the mangal, the barbecue, is very, very popular.

These are really exquisite.

And such a good way of cooking them.

It keeps all the moistness in them.

It's actually a great way of eating them too

because it stops you getting particularly greasy.

Obviously you're going to get a bit.

But they're so sweet.

-MAN SPEAKS TURKISH

-Cok guzel. Absolutely.

Lovely.

'I suppose you can say this is the penultimate part of my journey,

'where I cross the Dardanelles back to Europe.

'Although it's a really short hop,

'it's across one of the most famous stretches of water in the world.

'The Hellespont - the channel that separates Europe from Asia.

'I have to cross it to go to Istanbul,

'but when I knew I was coming here,

'I thought instead of taking the ferry, I could swim it.

'It seemed like a good idea at the time.

'Well, Byron did it.

'In fact, he swam the length of Venice too.'

Byron swam from that town there on the European side

and landed about here in Canakkale on the Asian side.

A distance of about 1.5 kilometres.

I think I could do that. I like a swim.

But he wouldn't have had to content with

these tankers, ferries and container ships.

Getting on a bit, I think perhaps I'd give it a miss.

But after Byron did it, remembering that he was lame,

he considered it as one of his greatest achievements.

In fact, he actually wrote,

"I plume myself on this achievement more than any other glory,

"poetical, political or rhetorical."

BOAT SOUNDS HORN

'This is Gallipoli, scene of dreadful horrors

'during the First World War.

'And this is where the Australians and the New Zealanders came ashore,

'under the withering fire from the Turks.'

Making these programmes, everything has to have a food connection,

but this time I just couldn't pass here because my wife's Australian

and I'm so conscious of what happened here on this beach.

Looking at it, it's just appalling.

It's such a lovely beach, I feel like going for a swim.

And when you try and think of the carnage and the horror,

it just makes it worse in some sort of way.

If you look there, it was just bad luck that they landed on this beach.

It was supposed to be down there

where there was a much bigger hinterland.

You land here, thousands of troops,

you've got those hills behind which they called Razor Ridge.

No opportunity here for getting out of the guns of the Turks.

Appalling, appalling carnage.

'The trenches were so unbelievably close to each other,

'the soldiers could smell their enemies cooking,

'their tobacco smoke, hear their laughter and pain.

'When there was a lull in fighting,

'they would sometimes throw gifts to each other.

'Cigarettes, hazelnuts, almonds and cans of fruit and jam.

'No-one ever followed a treat with a hand grenade.

'These were expressions of genuine goodwill.'

'My interpreter is passionate about kofte kebabs.

'He calls them kuftehs and he says this place on the motorway

'with an unpronounceable name is as good as it gets.'

Wow. It's big.

'I can fully understand why they're so popular, not just in Turkey.

'I think every single country to the east of Istanbul

'possibly excluding China, has its own version of kofte or kuftehs.

'Here, it's traditionally eaten with a salad of white beans

'sprinkled with lemon juice,

'a glass of ayran - that's yoghurt, very creamy,

'and a spicy dip with lots of chilli.

'Very definitely yummo!'

Thanks for bringing me here. I must say, this looks really good.

This restaurant is very famous for the kofte

and all people come here just for tasting

this amazing taste.

They are smooth, they are savoury.

Yeah.

Delicious. The taste of Turkey to me.

That is so good.

'And so, in my backyard, overlooking the Aegean,

'what better dish to cook than this?'

These are koftes. Yummo!

It is a very, very good addition to a kofte - pistachios.

It's nice if they're bit lumpy

and you get almost half a pistachio in a bite

and you taste that lovely green sweetness of the pistachio nut.

Next, some Turkish red pepper. Pul biber it's called.

And now I'm going to grind up three spices.

Coriander, fennel seeds and cumin seeds.

I wish I'd brought a bigger mortar and pestle

but I was sure they didn't have one in the house and they don't

so I brought it over on the plane.

It was one of those cheaper airlines that insist on your luggage

not being too heavy.

OK, that will do. Put those on top.

Now some dried mint.

Oddly enough, mint is one of those soft-leaved herbs

which actually almost improves with drying.

I was given a bag in Greece when we were filming earlier

and it is very, very strong.

There we go. Now some garlic.

I quite like bashing things.

I'm just chopping those and adding a bit of salt

just to aid traction

because I'm going to smear them out on the board like that.

There we go.

Now an egg.

Just to bind everything together.

And parsley.

And now a little bit of olive oil.

And finally, quite a lot of salt.

Close your eyes if you're... you know, worried about salt.

But it does need quite a lot.

And plenty of black pepper.

I normally write 20 turns of the black pepper mill.

Now, mix this up.

The word kofte is Persian.

It means ground or it means minced

and they used to do it in big mortar and pestles.

I think the word kofte has travelled all over North Africa,

all over the Middle East and Greece.

Keftedes is obviously a derivation of kofte.

The great thing about koftes is they're very easy to cook.

In other words, they don't require a great deal of fuel

in dry countries where you have only got a little bit of wood.

OK, now we're ready to start moulding those up.

This is quite clever, this skewer, because it's flat

and it does conduct the heat right to the centre of the kofte

but also it allows for something quite soft like this

to be put on the barbecue and turn over easily.

Just dip my head in the... Head?

Put your head in it?

Just dip my hand in a bit of water to smooth them off a bit.

There we go. That's one.

Now for the next.

I've probably said this before but if as a child you were fond of

making mud pies, you will love making koftes.

'I sometimes wonder how well-known dishes came to be.

'It's quite good fun actually.

'It's usually something simple and practical

'like a sailor coming back home to the sea port of Hamburg.

'He's tried the lovely koftes of Istanbul and thinks,

'hang on, I know that people at home would love this

'so he makes a flat version of it,

'maybe because he didn't have any proper skewers.

'I'm sure it's as simple as that.

'And he called it...'

Mm!

'..the kofte burger.'

LAUGHTER

'This is journey's end.

'Once called Byzantium, then Constantinople

'and now Istanbul.

'And it's the start of the bluefish season,

'when this delicious fish begins its journey down the Bosphorus.'

Have you got one, Rick?

Two.

'What better backdrop could there be than this?

'The perfect symmetry of the Blue Mosque

'and, next door, I think the most famous piece of architecture

'in the world - the Hagia Sophia.

'The central headquarters of the Byzantine Empire

'and one of the reasons I made this journey.'

That's the third bluefish we've caught this morning.

I can't wait for my next bite. I've had two bites, two fish.

I feel so privileged to be out here right in the middle of the Bosphorus

between Europe and Asia.

With all these blinking great boats passing, I feel a bit vulnerable,

but it's the most sensational feeling.

A beautiful morning, light coming up over Topkapi Palace over there,

it's just great to be alive.

I'm a very happy boy. Look at those lovely bluefish.

We don't get them in Padstow but I wish we did.

But Massoud, the captain, who steered me through all that

really quite nerve-racking waves from the wash of those tankers

and the tankers going past like this,

he's going to cook a fish stew.

I'm really looking forward to it.

'I've noticed over the years that fishermen, probably,

'because they usually cook when the boat is bobbing about,

'put all the ingredients in the pan first before putting it on the heat.

'It makes a lot of sense when you're at sea.

'So what Massoud does, is to put onions in the bottom of the pan,

'then he seasons the lovely bluefish just with salt

'and he's put a slash in the side to help season it right through.

'Now, fresh chillies.

'It must be the right time of the year, because they're everywhere.

'Then he puts in a whole bulb of garlic.

We're surrounded by cats.

They're all watching, waiting for a taste.

I was just thinking, watching, "No, no, we don't like garlic.

"Not too much garlic!"

'He seasons with black pepper, torn parsley

'and some lovely ripe tomatoes.'

Just watching Massoud make this, is just the most relaxing thing.

I mean, this is a proper fishermen making a proper fishermen's stew.

The number of times I've done recipes for taking the skins

off tomatoes and putting them in boiling water and all this stuff,

he's just peeling them. It's easy.

CAT MEOWS

The cat is now saying, "Not tomatoes! We don't like tomatoes,

"just stick to the fish!"

'Finally, lemon slices and olive oil.

'That's Massoud's fishermen stew.

'That's how they do it here and this is how it's done,

'cooked for 20 to 25 minutes, nice and gently.

'You mustn't overcook the fish.'

This is smelling so good.

I think I've only had a fish stew cooked by a fisherman

once before, in Spain, so it's a bit of a rare occasion, really.

I'm very much looking forward to trying it.

What I really like about this, is all that large quantity of green

chillies in there.

It's going to make it very hot on a slightly brisk morning.

Oh! Wow! What a lovely fish.

This bluefish is just perfect.

It's got this delicious creaminess about it, because it's so fresh.

Like a lot of oily fish, if it's dead fresh like this,

it's just the best tasting fish in the world.

When it's not so fresh, it doesn't taste quite so good.

-CAMERAMAN:

-Oh, no thank you, Massoud.

But, gosh, this is good.

If you could recreate this in a restaurant,

you'd be worth squillions, but the trouble is,

it never tastes quite as good as sitting here in this little fishing

harbour, having had it freshly cooked by Massoud.

That's my thought.

'This place is all about trade.

'In its heyday, it was silk, because it was the end of the route

'from China and, obviously, spices from the western shores of India,

'because they were so important,

'not just for flavouring food, but medicine, too.

'Constantinople, as it was known then, was the jewel in the crown.

'Much envied by the world at large,

'a bit like Venice where I started this journey months ago.

'You get a feel for those heady days, especially in the spice market

'when the air was full of sweet smelling dust from the sacks of

'spice being offloaded from the ships that came

'from the East and afar.'

I think the reason that people love this spice market so much,

is because it reminds them of Christmas, well,

certainly it does for me.

Because when I was little, it was only at Christmas

we got things like Turkish delight, flavoured with rose petals

and dried fruit like apricots and figs and dates, particularly dates.

And nuts, hazelnuts, whole hazelnuts, toasted hazelnuts.

And only later in life did I start to get

so interested in the spices, like over here, where we've

got all these different types of chilli pepper,

dried chilli pepper and saffron and turmeric

and peppercorns and dried mint.

The whole exotic-ness of this spice market now really,

really overtakes me and the smell, you come in here

and you smell all these spices and you just feel so excited.

'My friends, all cooks, I have to say,

'get very excited about this place and they tell me

'to meet up with Bilga, a legend, a spice girl, a real spice girl.

Bilga, we're doing this journey,

it's almost like a journey to Byzantium.

We started in Venice and we've been coming all the way here

to Istanbul and every day, spice is mentioned in some way.

What does spice mean to you and to Turkey?

So, for me, spice is everything.

I'm fifth generation in this store and it's in my blood.

It comes from my family, so it means a lot to me, but for the world, it

means a lot as well because many people have been killed for spices.

America was found because of spices.

Capitalism, the most important word in the whole world started

with spices and spice trading, so I think spices means a lot

to everybody.

Spices are always the top notch of all the food ingredients

we own in the world.

What are these, then? They look like some sort of currants.

In Turkey, we call it zereshk.

It comes from Iran, so when I make biryani rice...

-I've had it, in Bombay.

-That is exactly what they use.

What are they called, then?

Zereshk in Turkish and in Iran, they call it zereshk,

but the Latin name for it is barberries,

not Burberry. Barberries.

I love the colour of this.

OK, these are early house ground pistachios

and we use it for vanilla ice cream and baklava,

one of the most famous desserts on the Earth and most tasty.

But if you want to get a lazy, quick dessert,

I use these sun-dried natural apricots

and I make a small Turkish sandwich and feed my loved ones.

Oh, I love the look of that.

Mmm! Perfect.

This is what I call food porn.

Absolutely. Two of my favourite flavours in one.

I love all these, sort of, perfumes. What...

"Aphrodisiac for man." I would see that, wouldn't I?

Something you don't need but I still want to show you.

If you want to get Turkish girls, this is the way to do it.

-You just put a little bit...

-It's intense! It's lovely.

This has all kinds of essential oils,

pure essential oils to make women like you.

"Poison," I like the look of that. Well, don't like the look of it.

Is it for killing people?

-OK, this is for your mother-in-law, I would say.

-Fine.

-OK. First of all...

-No comment.

I'm not married, so I'm very comfortable talking about all this.

-Oh, it's actually rather nice.

-OK.

So the thing is, it's nice at first, it says, "Come,"

-but at the same time, it says, "Not that much."

-That makes sense.

-Sorry if my mother-in-law is watching.

-You have, right? Sorry.

'Spices, as I've said, remind me of Christmas treats

'and I have to say, I couldn't come here to Istanbul without

'seeing how they make one Christmas memory and that's Turkish delight.

'Made in this shop for well over 100 years.

'It's loads and loads of cornflour, water, of course, masses of sugar,

heated up, and rose petals, and a tiny bit of red colouring.

Roses can be traced back to Persia, Babylon, Egypt and China.

Look at that. It's like strawberry jam,

hot out of the pot and it smells divine!

Apparently, this came about because a sultan had

some very grumpy concubines and he wanted to sweeten them up,

so he called for his chief confectioner and told him

to concoct something that would make them smile,

and this is it.

The smell in here is so wonderfully exotic, of rose petals.

-Oh.

-This.

Tesekkur ederim.

I am a serious fan of Turkish delight.

I mean, nothing sums up the opulence of those sultans,

the Ottoman sultans, than Turkish delight

and when I think that it was a secret recipe

for Suleyman the Magnificent and his family

and his 700 women in his harem,

it just adds to it, and I'm told that tasting it when it's still warm

is an experience you're never going to forget.

Oh!

Topkapi, the 700 women, the gold, the silver -

this is Byzantium.

'Call me old-fashioned, call me what you like,

'but I associate Istanbul with pomegranate juice.

'People say it keeps you young,

'it's good for the heart, et cetera, et cetera.

'Well, I don't know about that.

'I just do know that in September and October, it's at its best.'

Just love to see these fresh juices everywhere

and they slice the tops of pomegranates, grapefruits,

oranges, lemons - you get this lovely smell, it sells the drink.

'It's not just a drink it's used for.

'The seeds mixed with pearl barley, spring onions,

'loads of parsley, fresh mint - they go really well together.'

'It's a symbol of abundance, fertility and good luck.

'I know that in parts of Greece, it's lucky to receive

'a pomegranate as a first gift when you buy a new house.

'Chopped pistachios, sweet pistachios, olive oil -

'oh, and then, the most important thing, pomegranate molasses.

'Mark my words, people will be asking for this in supermarkets.

'A touch of seasoning and that's it.'

I think, sometimes in Britain, we sort of think of salads

as a bit of an afterthought.

You know, we've got a steak, maybe some chops,

and say, "Oh, let's do a salad," and you go into the fridge

and you've got lettuce and tomato, but in Turkey, it's anything but.

Salads like this are really common. I think it's one of the real

stars of Turkish cooking, these salads like this.

They're so beautiful and they taste so good.

'The most iconic culinary symbol of Istanbul can be seen

'mostly at breakfast time.

'It's the simit, a ring of dough

'dipped in grape, or pomegranate molasses,

'and sesame seeds and then baked.'

'And the second most popular dish here, maybe for a lunchtime snack,

'comes from these mackerel crowded seas.'

Tesekkur. There you go. Thanks.

For me, just as visiting the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sophia,

having a fish sandwich on the banks of the Golden Horn

is absolutely an essential thing to do in Istanbul.

They are so tasty and what I love about Turkey is it's not just

about the fish sandwich, which is salad and mackerel,

but it's also about pickles.

This is sour pickle juice, tursu suyu it's called.

A drink of that...

a bite of mackerel, I'm in heaven.

'One of the things that interests me here

'is restaurants serving home-cooked food.

'We used to have lots of them in the UK, but we've fallen in love,

'it seems, with more exotic dishes from other lands.'

This is the place.

'This type of cafe is called esnaf,

'this means Artisan food for tradesmen.

'It's my sort of place and I went there with Tuba,

'a passionate food blogger

'who has her finger on the culinary pulse here.'

-We come through?

-Yeah.

-That's where the food is.

-Oh, this looks great!

-Yeah.

-What, you choose whatever you want?

-Look at that, beautiful.

-I'll go with some kapuska.

-Kapuska? What a nice name!

-It's made with white cabbage and some minced meat and some pastes.

-Paste?

-Yes, paste.

-Chilli paste?

-Chilli paste.

-Fab! Done!

-Have some of that.

-Yes.

-What's this one here, then?

This one is karniyarik, made with eggplant and some minced meat,

-together cooked with some onions.

-I've had ones like that,

-but what's this white one at the top?

-This is beautiful.

-This is begendi.

-Begendi.

-Oh, I've had that in Greece. It's aubergine puree.

-Yes, it is.

That's lovely. What, in that stew pot, looks very nice.

SHE SPEAKS TURKISH

It's a stew. They've put some chunks of veal inside

and lots of different vegetables.

Wow! I love the way how, in Turkey,

-you have so many vegetables in stews.

-Yeah.

I think, other than that, I'd quite like some rice.

-Is that bulgur at the back?

-Yes, that's bulgur back there.

-Fab!

-Fabulous!

-How was I?

-It was good.

-I chose quick. I'm quite impressed.

-That's good.

-I love this.

It reminds me of going to Greece, years and years ago

and they'd say, "Come into the kitchen,"

-and I bet it's cheap too.

-It is cheaper. I mean,

it's not that cheap, but if you compare it with the quality,

-it's very decent.

-Compared with London.

THEY CHUCKLE

'This is home from home cooking.

'I wish there were more of these around in the UK

'selling home-made steak and kidney pie, stews with dumplings,

'liver and bacon and cauliflower cheese.

'Home cooking in the high street - yes!'

-Oh, look at that.

-That looks nice.

-I wish I'd ordered that now.

-We can share. We always share.

-That's family style.

-Well, I'm looking forward to this.

How about that?

Oh, that veal... I just love the way you have loads of vegetables.

It's melt in the mouth, isn't it? Yummy.

-That's really generous, honest cooking, to me.

-Yeah.

That's the first time I eat kapuska this season.

-This is a home cooked meal.

-That's it, I think.

I write books that go with these TV series

and just to make it easy for me, right?

Tell me, so I can write in the book,

what is so special about Turkish food.

What is the essence, the heart of it?

We have one of the most fertile,

the greatest land in the world, if you ask me.

We have the sea, we have the land, we have beautiful weather

and we have been farming for ages and years and centuries now.

You know, we have them...

we have the Byzantines,

we have Ottomans, we have palace cookings

and we have the real heart cooking, home cooked meals.

You see what you're eating and this is what you get.

-And we like it, we like it very much.

-Yes.

And our grannies and our mothers are our best chefs ever

so it's hard to top that.

-I love a country that loves their food.

-Exactly.

This is kapuska, fab cabbage stew.

It's Turkish but Russian, too.

It's funny because when I first tasted this in Istanbul,

it was just one of a load of dishes in a sort of hot buffet

and I just thought, "Oh, well, that's really nice."

And then I started looking up about it and, I mean,

it's incredibly famous all over Asia and it's a really,

really representative dish of the type of cooking

on the Black Sea coast of Turkey.

And it's absolutely wonderful.

'This is minced lamb and I'm just browning it all.

'Now, chopped red onion. I love red onion.

'I can remember a time when all the onions in the country

'were brown-skinned but now red!

'Garlic - chopped and into the pan, then tomatoes.

'What a joy to peel them with a knife.'

This is red pepper paste,

hot red pepper paste - biber salcasi.

So, next we've got tomato paste or salca which is actually

sun-dried tomato paste. Lovely flavour.

'A drop of water to loosen it up

'and then salt and some grinds of black pepper.

'I love dishes like this, all in one pot, thank you very much!

'Quite easy and very, very tasty.'

Just thinking about cabbage, I don't think Britain's really

well-endowed with good cabbage recipes.

If we think about the Russians, the Turkish, the Chinese,

even the Indians have fantastic cabbage recipes but maybe not us.

But I do love buttered cabbage with my roast beef, I must say.

Anyway, pressing on, pressing on.

Now, you might think this is too much to go in there

but no, it will all cook down.

I must say though I've never seen such a big cabbage.

It could do as a rugby ball.

It's important not to add too much liquid

because there's a lot of water in the cabbage

but I did have to add a bit just to help it steam down.

But it's beginning to look done now.

Can't wait to try it.

'I think this is a great lunchtime dish,

'it's really quick

'and I like the idea of cabbage and mince coming together.

'Mince and tatties and bashed neeps comes to mind,

'really because neeps and cabbage are the same family.

'Now, a sprinkling of aleppo pepper.

'I've made this loads of times since Istanbul, it's so popular.

'There's one simple rule when making these programmes and that is,

'if if's raining first thing in the morning,

'get to a fish market quick.

'And this one on the banks of the Bosporus is called Uskudar.

'Once upon a time, this would be packed with loads of camels.

'There'd be people unloading silks, sandalwoods, spices,

'which were worth a lot of money,

'to put onboard ships heading for Genoa or Venice or Spain.

'But I bet there were people selling fish to the traders just like now.'

I suppose this is testimony to how much the Turkish love their fish.

This is some of the freshest fish I've ever seen

and the thing that really, really impresses me are these,

these palamut, which are actually bonito,

because I've never seen that before.

The way they open up the gills

so you can see exactly how fresh they are.

I'm always going on about lifting up the gill cover

and looking at the colour of the gills

but I've never seen them being on display like that.

So, we've got bonito,

we've got lufer over there which are trevalla,

we've got lovely anchovies there, look at those.

You'd almost want to eat them raw they're so fresh

and some lovely little red mullet up there, some bream over there...

-Rick?

-Well, I'm blowed!

-How are you?

-So good to see you here.

Well, I knew I was going to see you sometime.

Well, you're in my neighbourhood.

Sirhan. We filmed with him some time ago, I know him well.

-Exactly seven years and 7kg ago.

-Seven years ago.

-7kg ago!

-I know!

After all this food.

-Well, let's go off and find somewhere to have some lunch.

-OK.

'Sirhan lives nearby and he took me to his favourite restaurant.

'It's right on the water and it specialises in fish.

'The Queen Victoria was setting off and the film crew wondered

'if they were serving roast beef onboard with Yorkshire puddings

'and horseradish sauce and maybe a pint of bitter.

'That's all they talk about!

'But fish is the order of the day here,

'plus a rather surprising view of a seagull's undercarriage.

'Reminds me a bit of Padstow.

'This is a meze, it's from the Persian meaning "a taste".

'A taste of lots of things.'

Well, to me the mezes are the really special thing

about Turkish cuisine and, as you've seen,

there's a big tray, you just choose what you want.

But here I've chosen some pickled bass with mustard sauce.

Pickled sea bass with mustard sauce. Here I've got some green beans

and tomato sauce which I always love.

I love the way they cook them for a long time.

-Here we've got lakerda?

-Lakerda.

Lakerda which is bonito and it's pickled and served with red onion.

Here we've got aubergine puree and Sirhan says the quality

of the aubergine puree really denotes how good the restaurant is.

And finally, one I really wanted to try which is hamsi

which is anchovies that are pickled with lots of dill.

-And now we're ready to drink.

-OK.

-Remember the etiquette.

-We say, "Serefe."

-Serefe.

Remember, it's always courtesy to hit lower than your counterpart's

-because everybody tries to do it we lift the raki up...

-High.

-..so that leaves some space so we can go down.

-OK.

BOTH: Serefe.

-I'd forgotten how nice it was.

-Ah, welcome to Istanbul.

So, Sirhan, this is the end of what's turned out to be

a long journey from Venice all the way to Istanbul.

-I'm so pleased to be here, the food is really good.

-Yes.

Why do you think that is? Why is it so wonderful, the food, here?

Rick, it's the melting pot.

I mean, this city itself is one of the most diverse places on the planet

and I'm talking about historically and even today,

the diversity and cosmopolitanism.

I mean, in the 15th century under the Ottomans,

the Middle Eastern and the Central Asian influences came in.

You know, the kebabs, the mezes and all the Middle East

and Central influences blended with the local existing,

let's say Byzantine Greek culture.

Fish and the meze is maybe an outcome of that

and then under the Ottoman Empire there was incredible diversity

and cosmopolitanism.

The Jews who escaped from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492

were welcomed to Istanbul and they brought their own cultures.

Some of the cooking, some of the bread names in the Turkish language

still today carry the Jewish names which they came from Spain.

Sirhan, the way you're speaking now, the way you've just said that,

I can imagine people watching the programme thinking,

"I've got to go there!" On the internet going...

-"I've got to go and eat in Istanbul!"

-I guarantee good food.

-Certainly.

-Cheers.

Sorry, should've been a bit lower.

'It's my last day and I haven't been inside Hagia Sophia

'or the Blue Mosque or the fabulous museum,

'there's so much to see and I feel a bit guilty.

'But mine's a food journey and a sultan's home,

'the Topkapi Palace, housed his harem,

'his family, his guards, tutors,

'courtiers and cooks - 5,000 people in all.

'So, the royal kitchens with their massive chimneys

'interested me very much indeed.

'And they're just recently open to the public.

'My friend Sirhan, being a bit of a foodie, was the perfect guide.'

Amazing all these people here.

I remember when I was young we always went to the torture chamber,

-now it's kitchens!

-All about food.

-It is.

So, Rick, we're under those chimneys now in the kitchens of the palace.

This is where they cooked basically, they had rooms,

lots of rooms like this and these are the famous Ottoman cauldrons,

famous because they had a big role in the Ottoman history

because the main elite troops,

military force of the Ottoman Army for centuries were the Janissaries.

-Yeah.

-These were mercenaries and once in every three months

they had to get their salary from the sultan so the sultan gave them

a big feast and if they're not happy with their payment

they turn the cauldron over and they didn't eat the food

and that's very big trouble for the sultan.

So really, eating this, taking it, eating it,

-it's signing the contract.

-Exactly.

So if the Janissaries were happy with the payment,

here in this confectionary kitchen

they cooked the candy called akide sekeri

which literally means the contract can be.

That means the contract is signed and sealed with a candy.

I think we sort of tend to forget how important food is,

not just for feeding yourself but in life and political life.

I mean, the word "salary" comes from salt, payment in salt,

and here we have the same thing.

-A little candy for sealing the contract.

-Exactly.

-Fab.

I suppose my main thoughts are,

just at the moment on this last day of filming,

a mixture of relief and sadness, really.

I say relief because we started filming way back in May in Venice.

It was cold, it was wet, it was windy

and now here we are,

overlooking Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque behind me

and it's such a glorious day.

And in a way it sort of sums up the way the journey has triumphed

and to start with I was worried,

how do you tie together in a culinary way such diverse places

as Venice, Croatia?

I mean, Venice was full of wonderful richness, food-wise.

Croatia - full of wonderful raw materials, not so much richness.

Albania - very thin in good food,

very lovely in natural beauty.

Greece - well, my happy hunting ground.

I've been there so many times and to revisit, to me,

was like going back to my youth

and I felt those sort of pangs of emotion

as I drank a glass of retsina or ate a Greek salad.

And finally to Turkey,

a place I've been twice before but never in such detail

and never really getting to understand the food as I do now

and I do believe it has the most sophisticated cuisine.

Now, I didn't realise that before

so to finish in late-September

on a sunny afternoon like this, to me, is a wonderful experience.