A Christmas vegetable??

So Bokie, who lived briefly in Istanbul, was in charge of finding a place to eat dinner Saturday night and we met him in Taksim Square, a crowded bustling pedestrian mall filled with shops and restaurants. We strolled for a while taking in the sights then Bokie steered us into this charming back alley filled with sidewalk cafes. We walked by them all and stopped at a shop on a dark street called "One Little Wing." Inside was an array of food on display with a bored young man standing over the trays and a clientele that, as Drew described it later, looked like all the old bands on break from the club next door. "Or," Bokie said, obviously catching Drew's mood, "we could try another place."

Bokie couldn't immediatly FIND the other place he had in mind. We walked up a street, turned around, went in another direction. The problem, Bokie explained, was that the restaurant was on a top floor of a regular apartment building and wasn't clearly marked.

"I think this is it," he said at a building that didn't look at all like a place to eat. In the lobby waiting for the elevator we read posters about music and tourism. We went to the 5th floor and the door opened to a crush of young people in a hallway. "Is there a restaurant here?" Bokie asked. A young girl reached in and pressed the button for the 6th floor.

And, surprise, one floor up we found a cute crowded bar filled with wooden tables, pipes duct taped to look like wood paneling and windows covered with vines. Drew instructed me not to talk aout the dozen fire code violations we were walking into.

The only trouble was that the menu was entirely in Turkish and the waiters spoke no English. Bokie, ever on duty as interpreter, figured he could find somebody in the room who could explain the menu to him and so as Drew and I laughed at the absurdity of it, he went from table to table asking, "Can you speak English to tell me what is on this menu?"

He found a couple who spoke a little English and he managed, he said, to figure out some items. For example, the couple told him there was "that Christmas vegetable with the big face" on the menu.

What?

Oh, Boki explained, they actually meant Halloween, not Christmas and the vegetable with the face was a pumpkin.

He still hasn't figured out exactly what they meant by the vegetable with the Italian name. Anthony?

But whatever, he ordered a delicious dinner of lamb and chicken kabobs, mixed salad, macaroni and cheese and eggplant and beer and tea.

On the way out we finally saw the sign for the restaurant on the outside of the building.

It's Tavanarasi if you are ever in Istanbul.