Sinanation

I remember the times when I could make a peaceful phone call or listen to my music player in medium volume on the street. That luxury has been shuttered to pieces since I moved to the city that never sleeps. Despite the famous song, I know for a fact that New York jumps into bed exhausted and tired every night. It slides into the deepest possible sleep until its wake up call full of hardrock, badrock and hammeringrock pushes it instantly off the bed. As a current New Yorker, I have been quarreling with this unwanted service for years. Among the numerous beats that disturb my ears, I have a few favorite. They might be serving a noble purpose, but I still have the right to hate them as a resident who has fully functioning ears.

• The firefighters’ siren
• The sound the public buses make whenever they are lowered to load more passengers… It seems as if the huge block of steel on tires farts aggressively every time it makes a stop to load passengers.
• The sound the garbage disposal trucks make whenever they are on reverse
• The out-of-control honking of an insane cab driver who had it with the New York traffic

Not counting the music at the bars, lounges or the clubs the city is infamous with, I have been listening to these unbearable beats for more than three years.

Yet another delicious Simla Sefer dish, the Crunchy Chicken answers the prayers of every bachelor. It is easy to cook, tasty and fulfilling. What makes this dish so successful is that it takes away the stiff and boring taste of a chicken.

Ingredients (for 4):

• 4 Chicken breasts
• 473 ml heavy whipping cream
• A large bag of your favorite chips or corn flakes (I go for the Kettle Chips (sea salt with crushed peppercorns))
• Salt and ground pepper to taste

Select the bake option and warm up the oven to 400 degrees. Take the large bag of chips and crush them with your fist until they come down to tiny pieces. Put the crushed chips on to a large plate and pour the whipping cream into a bowl. Add salt and ground pepper to the cream. Take each chicken breast, soak it in cream and then roll it on top of the chips. When done place each breast on an oven tray covered with aluminum foil. Cook in the oven for approx. 35 minutes (until the top layer is crisp).

Name: Orhan Ihsanoglu

Nickname: Bonus Kafa

Notable Apperarance: Curly puffy black hair.

Can’t do without: Superga shoes, Converse, red and black checkered shirts, jeans, medium size travel bags, deep house music, knitted scarves and hats, weird necklaces, tuxedos, The Doors Group Istanbul

Notable Hobbies: Jumping up and down in front of DJ booths, playing billiard, lifting arms to look like an eagle while a deep house song is building up to climax, organizing events, traveling

Favorite Quote: Doktor naber?

Last seen: Anjelique Istanbul, Kitchentte Bebek, Istanbul, Sardinia

Kısır (Barren in English (don’t ask me why)) is a popular Turkish dish that resembles a cold orange lentil salad. It is usually served at cocktails on a lettuce leaf or with the main course as a side dish at dinner parties.

No matter what the occasion is Kısır is one of my favorite dishes, especially with cold white wine. Light and healthy, it gives you the best break from all the order-in junk food. And when it comes to making it, my dear friend Simla Sefer should be considered one of the best chefs.

Ingredients:

• 4 glasses of Fine Bulgur or Cracked Wheat
• 6 Oz of tomato paste
• Half a glass of olive oil
• Half a glass of sour pomegranate juice
• One lemon, squeezed
• 10 small cucumbers
• Half a unit of dill
• Half a unit of parsley
• 2 bunches of scallions
• One spoon of salt
• One teaspoon of pepper
• Cayenne pepper to taste

Mix the tomato paste with 3 glasses of boiled water to turn it into a tomato sauce. Mix the bulgur with the sauce and let it stand for 30 minutes. If the bulgur is still a little dry, add a little more boiled water on top (keep in mind that this mix had to have the consistency of steamed rice). Let it stand for 20 minutes. Chop the parsley and the dill. Take out the seeds of the cucumbers and cut them into really small pieces. Also cut the scallion into thin circles. Mix the parsley, dill, cucumber and the scallion together and add them onto the bulgur. Also add the olive oil, sour pomegranate juice, lemon juice, salt, pepper and the cayenne pepper. Mixing everything together with your bare hands is recommended. You can add more of the ingredients afterwards to your taste. Cool the Kısır in the refrigerator for at least an hour before you serve.

Sinanation now has a very cool new feature. On the right column below the “Author: Sinan Bastas” section, you will find the “Email Subscription” box where you can sign up to receive email updates whenever there is something new posted on Sinanation. Once you enter your email you will have the opportunity to choose the frequency of these notifications (daily, weekly, etc.). Hope you’ll like this feature.

Name: Ahmet Berkman

Nickname: Amo, Zerkman

Notable Appearance: Dark, built up and tall.

Can’t do without: Bright-colored comfy socks, checkered PJ pants, hoodies,  Kirmizi Pul Biber (red pepper flakes), wrist watches, vodka, 1 Oak NYC, working out, Kol Boregi, soccer games, Sony Playstation, clubbing, karaoke, Avrupa Yakasi, weird t-shirts, peas cooked with a stick of cinnamon

Notable Hobbies: Leaving his apartment door unlocked, slumbering, clubbing, singing Hip Hop, imitating famous TV series characters, planning to open a restaurant called “Benjamen” in Istanbul, Turkey, playing the guitar, mixing weird food together, having no order in the flow of courses, securing entrance to clubs, being fashionably late to any social engagement

Notable Weakness: Filthy food, St. Germain Liquor, Turkish Food

Favorite Quote: Abbbbbauww, Canim Kardesim

Last Seen: 1 Oak NYC, Cipriani Downtown NYC, Bagatelle NYC, Angelique Istanbul, Mykonos

Credits to one of my best friends, Ekin, for getting us addicted to burrata this weekend. We should have eaten so much of it that I think mozzarella will not taste as good as it did before. Coming from the same family, burrata’s exterior shell is made from mozzarella and contains a mix of cheese and cream inside, giving it a white water-filled nylon bag look. It is also made from the water buffalo milk and means “buttered” in Italian.

This tasty snow cone is better served with some salt, olive oil, basil and diced tomatoes. Unlike mozzarella, burrata is not easy to find. You can get it at a few Italian restaurants in town or at gourmet supermarkets.