Chicken stuffed with spinach, served with cheese, potato cubes and rice. The tour guide for the tour I joined recommended Anatolian Kitchen for food and so I went for dinner after that. Maybe not the best choice, but I find the chicken was a bit dry, TL185. 

The one below is Kuru Kiymali Kasarli Pide (or Pita dry minced meat with kashar cheese). It was described as roasted ground beef, onion, mint, chilli flakes and kashar cheese. This was simple, tasty and cheap, TL60.

When I was wondering where to go for dinner, a fellow traveller came out of Seven Spices İndian restaurant and told me his dinner was superb, and I was sold. Eatery was busy but the owner pre-empted that service would be slow. I wasn't in rush for time so happily sat down and waited for dinner. I gained weight despite walking some ridiculous number of steps daily which my friend said must be all the kebabs I consumed. He wasn't wrong I guess. 

Lokanta is something like an eatery or “restaurant.” It serves home-style casserole dishes, mostly tradesmen working in the neighborhood. I was first brought to one by one of the local who struck up a conversation with me on my walk. I didn't have lunch and wanted an early dinner. When I asked for suggestion on where locals eat, I was brought to a lokanta and got the below. I guess in Malaysia, this is like "chap fan" or economical rice. I got a mixture of different dishes. 

I went to another one in Çanakkale, I also got a mixture of dishes - TL80

These are small dumplings of dough filled with meat mix, served with yoghurt and paprika. This did get a bit too rich by the end of it. 

This was at Three Partner's Cafe Restaurant at the recommendation of the hotel owner. Order came with entree (bread with dips) and dessert of baklava, TL130. It is also important to note that they didn't auto add service charge to their bill. 

I wanted to have a fish dish, the recommended restaurant that I looked for doesn't seem to be open for service and looked way too expensive. So this was plan B. The dish was ok, but I can't remember the restaurant name and I wasn't pleased that they added service charge to the bill. When I asked, I was told that they didn't jack up their prices to include tipping so they added as a service charge. According to the hotel owner, he told me that service charges are not compulsory, and told me that was why he recommended Three Partner's Cafe Restaurant and they don't add service charges. 

It was marked under Ottoman Specialities in Ottoman's Kitchen Restaurant so I ordered this as I was feeling lamb. Maybe I have misunderstood but I thought it could be Turkish way of cooking it but thinking back, the Ottoman could be referring to the restaurant's name. Anyway it was good food and they gave full side free starter. Look at that bread. Also came with free dessert of baklavas and tea. 

I walked passed this restaurant after having the grilled fish dish on my second dinner in Istanbul. As I already had my dinner, naturally I wasn't interested. We had a short chat, I was ready to continue walking, but the restaurant host (is that the term for the person who stand in front of a restaurant to get people's interest?) asked if I could pop in for a tea, said most customers would feel more inclined to go in a restaurant if they see someone in there. I don't know what logic that is or what I was thinking, I ended up having a glass of tea. I had a look at the menu and thought the price looked reasonable so I thought I would return another day. I was told it is very common to be invited for tea as a big pot is brewed at all times. 

At the time of my visit, I found out that 3 of the staffs at this restaurant share the same name - Mustafa. 

Turkish's national yoghurt drink, it was a salty taste yoghurt. 

Got these deep fried dough balls, soaked in syrupr or honey as a snack before dinner on getting back to Bodrum from Kos day trip. 

This cheese halva was found in Çanakkale, served with vanilla ice-cream and definitely need the ice-cream to cut through the sweetness. Way too sweet for my liking, texture felt like a dense type of cake. 

These sesame crusted bread rings, sometimes with nutella or cheese fillings are sold as street food. They were my sustenance when I was queuing to get in to Aya Sofya because breakfast were not included as part of my hotel room in Istanbul. However, on the balance of days, the hotel owner gave me free breakfast. Turkish hospitality :)

Turkish baked rice pudding was warm and comforting on the rainy day in Kadikoy. There were some rice bits within the pudding for texture too. Not too sweet, TL50.

The drink at the back is Sahlep, TL40. The drink is made from salep flour which was produced from from the tubers of an orchid genus Orchis. The texture felt a bit starchy. Salep flour is also used to make dondurma. 

I had many rounds of Turkish coffee, usually complimentary drink is tea or instant coffee but the one below was courtesy of a restaurant near the hotel in Istanbul. 

If you noticed, it is missing photo of dondurma. Not because I didn't have any, but all the photos I had were so bad, it's hard work trying to juggle the camera and making sure the ice-cream doesn't start dripping. :)