It seems as though whenever we are eating these days we are also reminiscing about our past meals. We compare them as we either wolf down or pick sadly at what is before us. That is usually the way it goes, foods are either AMAZING, good enough or blerggggg, why did we order that!?

We have eaten traditional items such as weisswurst und bier for a Munich breakfast, fish and chips in a cozy Bristol pub, high tea in a ritzy London hotel, an inordinate amount of pretzels all over Germany, tiny morsels of Spanish tapas bursting with flavor and basically all the pizza one could find in Italy, including our own personal pies in Naples!

We've also craved and searched out some American comforts. The silliest of all was eating at Breakfast in America in Paris. It was a diner right down the street from our hotel and I won't lie, it was exactly what we needed. I was won over by the bottomless coffee, something that I just have not seen while traveling. A close second was the Pizza Hut in Giza, where you could eat mediocre 'za while gazing at the pyramids.

But all these foods, although some tremendously delicious, fall away when we remember Istanbul. Truly the overall best food and drink we've had. A glorious combination of mainly vegetarian fare, it consistently delivered an awesome array of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, drinks and sweet treats all at really reasonable prices. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to remember a meal that was just so-so. But don't take my word for it, look at these sweet pics and start salivating.

Upon arriving in Istanbul, Harry and I quickly got ill, probably grabbed some germ while traveling from Paris, and we were basically down for the count for 2 full days. We were barely hungry, fevered and just lethargic. During that time Jon ventured out and discovered a quick food choice from a bakery close by. I affectionately referred to them as 'boats'. These were like little pizzas and we LOVED them. The crusts were buttery and the fillings superb. They became a great go-to meal or snack. Also, they were insanely cheap, something like a $.75 each maybe?

After we recovered, we chose a simple meal of falafel in a very unassuming restaurant. We walked by it once and it gave me just enough pause to question if we should even go in. But we turned ourselves around (Jon had nixed the idea of just getting more boats :) ) and we went in. You could choose between 5 different plates and Jon and I each got a different one. Harry was still boycotting eating and chose to munch on some small Turkish candy instead. We ate upstairs and just reveled in the simple tastes.

And then there was Arada cafe, which was 2 minutes away from us. It means 'in-between' and it provides an incredible mix of foods with Lebanese influences. We went there THREE times and honestly, I'm sorry we didn't go more. We (and everyone else we saw dining there) would order the breakfast platter, an immense spread of small plates piled with cheeses, olives, hummus, dips, honey, jam, veg, bread, halloumi, donuts(ish), and tea that would not stop being refilled.

And of course, I cannot forget to mention the sweets. The sweets! Everywhere. I would purposely stroll into a sweet shop simply because I knew there would be free samples. My go-to sweet is the baklava. This one pictured with the pistachio was so densly filled with honey it wanted to stick to the plate. Harry liked the sugar dusted jellies that you could munch on from a bag, getting sugar fingers all over you. Jon picked out a chocolate baklava that was amazing, tasted like a brownie almost. Long story short, we ate a ton of desserts.

This was also where we finally bought street snacks often. There are many little wheeled carts selling all sorts of snacks. We had roasted corn, roasted chestnuts and simit, a circular bread similar to a bagel but harder.

We remember Istanbul with love and happy stomachs.