Happy Tuesday y’all! Hope everyone has a great day! It has been quit a week driving back and forth between home and Dallas. I can’t believe we are heading to Tyler this week for our scrapbook retreat and I’m super excited to hopefully get a lot finished but I guess we will see as I may end up catching up on sleep. Anyways, last Saturday we had lunch at one of my favorite resturants in the Dallas area as part of my Birthday month so I thought I would tell y’all about this place. Let’s get started with “Cafe Istanbul….”
So, if you have read my previous posts, you know my brother-in-law is from Istanbul, Turkey. Since I’ve only been there a few times I there are only a few meals I really love as well as my stomach will allow. ? Cafe Istanbul here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is located in Plano off Legacy not to far from the Stonebriar Centre Mall. I try to come here everytime we are in the area.
Favorites Appetizers:
Since I was born and raise in Louisiana I love spicy foods. This here is called Acili which is Spicy in English. It’s almost as spicy as you can get without having Tony’s added to it. Acili is a cold appetizer made with tomatoes, bell peppers, parsely, onions, mint leaves, garlic, and olive oil. This is a must if you don’t know what else to try Turkish wise.
Here is a more common appetizer, Hummus. This is another great choice for an appetizer and personally goes with the Acili to offset the spiciness when nothing else is helping.
Favorite Main Meal:
If you know me and/or follow me on Instagram, you know I love me some pizza! Next to Newks Spicy Shrimp Pizza, the Turksih Pizza is my absolute favorite! It’s known as Lahmacun in Turkey and is one of the few words I can say in Turkish. At Cafe Istanbul you can get Lahmacun as an appetizer. My mom and sister get this size as their main meal. You can also get the platter size, which is two appetizer portions and is what I get everytime eating every single bite.
Lahmacun is a thin crust pizza topped with ground beef and lamb mixture along with chopped vegetables. This is one of the only times I eat beef and especially lamb. I had never had lamb until I had Lahmacum the first time in Istanbul back in August 2014 when we visited for the first time for my brother-in-laws sister’s wedding.
Me, about to indulge on my continuation of breaking my clean eating streak during my birthday month.
Don’t judge! My mom loves to get the eating pictures. Luckily for me, she had more and not just the ones stuffing myself.?
MMMM Desert Time:
Totally weird and I do not know why but I love this desert so much! Funny thing is, all this is as far as American goes is Rice Pudding. In Turkish it’s called Firin Sutlac, which is basically oven baked rice pudding with ground cinnamon on top. It looks like it’s a hot desert but nope, fools me everytime with it being cold.
There you go! A few recommendations of what to get at “Cafe Istanbul” in Plano, Texas. Hope you enjoyed and will try something new. Next time you are in the DFW area check it out! I certainly cannot wait to get moved back over here. Of course, I will probably have to break down and do even more workouts if I eat here too much.
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Crafty JBird
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