just the combination of everything,

the little patties, the fluffy loaf.

(energetic music)

Good morning everyone.

It's Mark Wiens with migrationology.com.

We just boarded our Turkish Airlines flight,

and we are flying to Istanbul this morning.

It's about 1:30AM.

I am getting really sleepy,

so I'm probably gonna sleep right now

until we take off, and I will hopefully wake up

for the food.

One of the things that is very important

and very famous is Turkish breakfast,

and I am having my first ever Turkish breakfast

on Turkish Airlines.

Got an assortment of cheese and vegetables,

some fruit, some olives.

I'm not sure what this is.

I think some sweets and some bread and some chocolate.

I'm gonna go.

And this is the piece of bread I chose,

a nutty little loaf.

Oh that is some good cheese.

And olive.

I just read on the menu, this is sun-dried tomato spread.

I think I will add that to my bread

and maybe go in for some cheese as well.

Those are like sour, tart tomatoes in jam form.

Oh yeah.

It's like a little mini pizza I just created.

And then this is honey comb.

Oh I've never seen honey like that before.

That is some good honey.

Sweet and very fragrant.

Now this is the main course.

I got the omelet with spinach and potatoes on the bottom.

Check out this little pepper bottle.

Omelets and pepper is always a good idea.

Dig into the omelet.

Oh that has a very nice kinda spongy texture to it.

(upbeat electronic music)

(flight attendant speaking in foreign language)

Okay, welcome to Istanbul.

I think it's sometime around five AM,

and we are exiting to take a bus to the terminal.

I was hoping since we arrived just after five AM

that immigration was gonna be pretty easy,

but it was packed.

We waited in line for at least an hour,

but we got through.

Now gonna grab our bag and then head into the city.

That being said, I am extremely excited

to be in Istanbul.

Because we're not in a rush,

we're gonna try to look for a bus

that's going to take us to Taksim,

which I think is straight up ahead.

That morning sunshine is wonderful.

Taksim.

- Two person?

- Two person.

We found the bus right outside the terminal

on the second lane, and it's called Havabus.

It goes directly to Taksim, and the price for the ticket

is 11 lira.

(upbeat music)

The bus took only 30 minutes.

Maybe that's because there was no traffic this morning,

and we are going to walk to our hotel from here.

Ying was feeling a little bit hungry,

so she wanted to stop into this bakery,

which is like right across the street

from where we got off the bus,

and we ordered a simit, which is the very typical bread.

It is a circular shaped bread with lots and lots

of sesame seeds.

Oh yeah.

Crusty on the outside, fluffy in the middle,

and then the sesame seeds.

It's all about the sesame seeds.

(upbeat music)

For the rest of this round the world trip for food,

the Marriott and all of the sub-brands, Marriott sub-brands,

are gonna be sponsoring the accommodation for Ying and I,

so in Istanbul, we are staying at the Ritz Carlton,

and we are walking there now.

Actually it's coming up very soon,

and yeah this is gonna be a real treat.

It's gonna be a nice place to stay.

It's only, it's a little before eight AM,

so I'm not sure if we'll be able to check in,

but we're gonna show up there,

see if we can get an early check in,

or at least drop our bags.

Hello, good morning.

I have a reservation for Marc Wiens.

- Sure, welcome to Ritz Carlton Istanbul.

- Thank you very much.

Okay, they allowed us to check in early,

so we got into our room, and wow this room is insane.

Not only the room, but check out this view!

I'm gonna give you a little quick tour of this room.

And I haven't even seen the whole room yet.

Here's a sofa seat, bed is right here in the middle,

and there is a desk and have no idea what that is,

so is that a, maybe some kind of shoe rack.

And this is the whole entrance area.

Oh yes, the little coffee station.

Oh, I'm gonna be using this immediately.

And then over to the left hand side here is,

where's the light, shower, toilet, sink,

tub on the side.

This is a really nice room, and the view

of the Bosphorus, oh I'm excited to be here in Istanbul.

I think for right now, we're gonna hang out in the room

for a little while, maybe take a nap,

we didn't really sleep much last night,

and then after that, we will go do something.

If it hadn't have been for the bellboy

who rang the bell, I think Ying and I

would've just kept on sleeping the entire day.

That bed is like a cloud.

Yeah we were definitely very tired.

It's already noon now, so we slept for two and a half hours,

but that was a very much needed sleep.

Yesterday when we were in Oman,

it reached up to 48 degrees.

It was burning hot, but today in Istanbul,

I just checked the temperature,

and it says it's 25 degrees.

I'm almost shivering, but this is like

perfect weather right now.

Oh and that breeze off of the sea.

Oh man, even the air feels so fresh here.

(upbeat music)

I didn't know where to eat our first meal,

but I was just doing some searching,

and I found there's a street food stall

which is very close to our hotel

located right across the intersection,

right behind those garbage cans,

and luckily, they are open right now,

so let's go check them out.

Oh yeah, you can smell that grilling meat.

Hello.

One chicken, one beef.

Is it called kofte?

Okay.

This is an amazing stall, and he grilled up the fresh,

kofte is like little little ground meat patties.

Quite a significant, thick loaf of bread,

and he cut it in half, he grilled it on the same grill

where the meat is grilling, so the bread

probably soaked up a little meat juice

and a little smoke.

He added in some chili, he added some peppers,

some tomatoes, handful of onions,

and some other herbs, and then seasoned it

with some more salt, and with some chili.

Thank you.

Want anything to drink?

Just water.

Just water is okay.

Yes, one.

Thank you.

The aroma of this is absolutely irresistible.

I'm gonna just give you guys a,

or let's all get a close up look at what's all inside.

Ooh, look at that.

It is just smashed within a fluffy loaf.

Oh those tomatoes look wonderful.

I'm gonna scoot a tomato forward,

so I get that on my first bite.

Okay, there we go.

Oh, kinda smash it down a little bit.

Oh yeah.

That is as good as it smells and it looks.

The little patties of meat are nice and salty

with a little bit of a spice blend to them.

That is unbelievably good,

and just the combination of everything,

the little patties, the fluffy loaf.

The tomatoes are wonderful.

The tomatoes are like smoky, but really juicy,

really really juicy.

We're standing for a little while,

but now we've managed to grab some seats

in the back of the stall, so not only am I eating,

but I have the whole aromatherapy of the smoke

from the grilling meat right behind me.

That is so wonderful.

It's so nice and salty, and then what I really like

is how the tomato, like the slightly cooked tomato

and the grilled pepper just sort of melt into the meat

and the bread.

That is superb.

Ying also loved it.

Ying had the chicken.

Oh that was so good, and the combination of a drink

and a sandwich cost 10 lira.

Oh that is given me just a complete positive,

wonderful, grilled meat experience

for my first meal in Istanbul,

and where we just ate, it seems to be a very popular spot

with taxi drivers.

Taxi drivers know where the good food is.

We are walking around now, stumbled into this

nice little green park

and trying to get across the park somehow.

So now we found ourselves in this beautifully shaded

little neighborhood park.

This is fantastic.

The air is so fresh and so cool,

and I'm loving this shade.

Even this is just a normal neighborhood park,

and it is wonderful.

Ying and I are just sitting here soaking up the shade,

the breeze, and the enjoyment after that lunch.

(upbeat music)

And we have arrived at Taksim Square.

(upbeat music)

But this is just a huge open square area,

and it is not open to traffic,

but it's only foot traffic, so it has this,

it has just a gigantic plaza feel to it.

(upbeat music)

Walking through Taksim Square,

it's such a gigantic open public space,

and there's always so much going on.

It's a great place to people watch.

There are some street food snack vendors,

there are lots of restaurants and cafes and parks

in this area.

What I really like is that the street is open air,

and it's like a giant open air shopping mall,

but there are buildings on both sides of the road,

there's an antique tramway that runs down the middle,

and you'll find all sorts of modern shops

and boutique shops, but at the same time,

some of the buildings are old

and historical antique buildings.

Oh there goes the tram.

There is a cafe along this street

that is supposed to serve some of the best Turkish coffee,

and so that's where I'm going to try to find next.

(upbeat music)

Mandabatmaz Cafe, and this is an amazing

little hideaway down a quiet alley

right off the main street, but it just has

a completely quiet, relaxed feel to it.

We got a table outside, and I just ordered a cup

of Turkish coffee.

This is the type of ambiance I think of

when I think of Istanbul, just an old alley like this

sandwiched between two buildings drinking coffee.

Thank you.