The rejuvenating tastes of Istanbul

"Spring and early summer are when Chef Pınar Taşdemir’s cooking bursts to life, with plates and the room itself adorned in every shade of green and strewn with daisies, poppies, and wildflowers that make me want to savour the scene and every bite. Each dish is designed around colour—flamboyant, bright, yet light—reflecting the electricity of the bazaar and nature outside, while ingredients speak not only on the plate but later in the jar as condiments and preserves. Taşdemir pickles green almonds, plums, peas, and broccoli flowers; gathers lilacs each morning in season to turn into jams, gin, vinegar, and more; and even dresses the tables with poppies as she turns them into liquor. The menu celebrates veggies, fruits, mushrooms, mutton, fish, and duck, and the cocktails are spruced up with blackberries, watercress, plums, lilacs, sorrel, and green almonds. Artichoke hearts braised in olive oil come with fresh sorrel sauce, sorrel salad and herbs, tabbouleh infused with the artichoke’s cooking water, and pickled green almonds; strawberries, sorrel, araka pea paste, sultani peas, and rose vinegar are woven into a pink symphony of sour, sweet, fragrant, and crunchy with cherry blossoms on top. Purslane anchors salads that shift with the seasons—beans, tulum cheese, and almonds—dressed with her beloved bittersweet signature, bitter orange preserve; flavours joust between sweet and sour with surprises like fragrant lemon peel, flower comfiture, cherry and orange blossoms, robinia, and lilacs. Here, borage and pumpkin wed two seasons, with asparagus, pastrami, and cauliflower marching them down the aisle, stinging nettle and blue cheese bearing the rings, and eggs summoning the congregation—long beans stewed in citron juice, watercress bud humus, shrimp, and all—because there’s no such thing as a forgettable dish, or a forgettable spring and summer." - MICHELIN Guide