Cafe Instanbul
Newport, Kentucky

We've been doing a ton of movie reviews lately, and the meals have sorta fallen along the wayside.
Truth be told, it's a little hard to find something different enough to spur comment around these parts.
But, thanks to a business trip to Cincinnati, I got to enjoy something out of the norm: Turkish food! What's that, you say? It's kind of the bridge between Mediterranean and African foods. Cafe Istanbul, located in Newport, Ky., right across the river from Cincy, dubs itself as Mediterranean. But kebabs are a prominant part of the menu, and the flavor combos definitely stray from the Greek or Italian you might think of when you hear that word. Really, I think they just don't want to scare people off.
Anyway, here's what I wrote from the road the night I went to this beautiful place:
My selections:
Meze Sampler appetizer
(stuffed grape leaves, house-made feta, ezme, hummus, pastrami)
Salmon with Beet and Potato Puree
Coban (a.k.a. Shepherd's Salad)
Turkish Coffee
My idea of comfort food is probably a little different than most Midwestern girls'.
Ask most from around my native prairie lands to name some of their favorite foods, and they'll rattle off chicken and dumplings, fluffy mashed potatoes, sugar cream pie, even that famous giant tenderloin sandwich.
And don't get me wrong -- I love all of those things.
But I can get those things any day of the week.
There are, on the other hand, foods that I yearn for, even covet. Foods that I dream about for days after my plate is clean.
There are smells and flavors that put an instant, ecstatic smile on my face.
And at Cafe Istanbul, dish after dish had me stifling the urge to marvel outloud. (For, unfortunately, my usual tablemate in such tasty adventures was nearly 200 miles away. And I had already elicited questions from my co-workers. ("How do you know so much about hummus?")
I started with a tiny cup of Turkish coffee. Straight. In all its thick, black, sweetly spicy glory.
I'm smiling just thinking about it. (Alas, there was no fortune teller to read my grounds.)
The Meze Sampler's highlight for me was definitely the house-made feta. The dense white triangles held a pungent, clean tanginess, a treat to be enjoyed in small doses. The ezme -- a salsa, of sorts -- and hummus were good scooped up with the pita-like bread, and the stuffed grape leaves were mild but intriguing.
The Coban, or Shepherd's Salad, was a spot-on mix of diced cucumber and tomato, slivers of red onion, rings of green onion and snipped parsley, dressed lightly with a lemon vinaigrette, easy on the lemon, and piled with a milder version of the feta, grated.
My salmon was meaty and mild, but a relish on top added a nice bit of complexity. The real star of the plate, for me, was the beet and potato puree. The color was sublime, a magenta that almost seemed translucent, despite the heft of the mixture. And the taste -- it was like unearthing a buried treasure. The earthy sweetness of the beets married beautifully with the more solid, familiar taste of the potatoes.
My fellow diners gave high makrs to the tilapia, the mushroom risotto, the beef tenderloin penne arrabiatta and the chicken kebab.
But if they had known how enthralled I was, I surely would have been outed as the strange bird I am.

Labels: restaurant