Although the trip to Istanbul was crazy cheap (and we were crazy happy about that) we can't say we cheaped out on our food. We ate pies, Turkish pizza (pide), doner, meatballs, sweets, vegetarian food, everything. And we drank a few things too.
When in Istanbul you ABSOLUTELY have to taste the tea.The traditional tea is black. They bring it in a glass cup that has an hourglass shape (minus the top) and you drink it with one sugar cube(at least that's how it worked for me). But then, there are many different flavors of tea. We discovered them in the spice bazaar. Apple Tea, lemon tea, jasmine tea with the little flowers that open up in the water, mixed tea with orange, apple and other fruit and many more.
I bought a great portion of apple tea and now I can drink it back home. I also bought jasmine tea but I haven't had a chance to taste it yet.
For me, the second thing you must absolutely do is taste whatever the street sellers offer. Corn, chestnuts, koulouri (that's the Greek name, it's actually some sort of soft bread), kebap, fresh juice (they have orange juice, but also mysterious juices like pomegranate juice) and Turkish ice cream, that's made in a different way than conventional ice cream.
Last but not least,the spices. Turkish cuisine has a lot of spices that you might want to bring home and experiment on your food. The best place to buy spice is (well guess) the spice bazaar where you'll find spice you've never heard of. You'll have a lot of fun and don't forget to bargain!
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