Sinanation

The times when Istanbul was covered in chunks of snow for days is a common tale among the elderly. The harsh winters of the past (the Bosphorus icebergs of the late 60s, the meters of snow of the 80s) were all a legend until they gathered for a great homecoming a few days ago. The fresh Siberian clouds covered the city of seven hills and spewed out chubby snowflakes until the ground became a winter wonderland. Too bad the school kids are already on mid-semester vacation. It would have been an awesome unexpected official week off from classes.

Yea it disturbs the work life, yea it makes the traffic worse than it already is and yea it sucks to gear up, but it sure is a sight for sore eyes. Hope the wonderland hangs around for a few more days.

Ca’d'Oro is a new upscale restaurant by the successful entertainment group, Doors. These guys manage anything from a nightclub to restaurant chains and in my opinion have been expanding close to a viral Starbucks-scale around the hills of Istanbul. Despite the common belief that chains lack the flavor and attention one gets at an original location, the doors group continues to maintain an over-mediocre customer satisfaction in all its establishments. The only problem I have with this vision is that it leads to great losses in originality. I am happy to know that I can expect the same good food I got in Bebek over in Nişantaşı. Yet, I am completely turned off by seeing the same furnishing and decoration in a neighborhood I think is different from the last one I visited. That is I believe a complete violation to the unique characteristics of all the different areas we get to wander around Istanbul.

So, I was a bit biased with my expectations when my friends told me about Ca’d'Oro. This place was not created to be turned into a chain and that lead me to think that like all the other “one-of-a-kind” Doors establishments (for example: the London’s Famous Japanese, Zuma in Ortaköy – brought to Istanbul by Doors) Ca’d'Oro would be painfully expensive. I was right about the wine list (cheapest bottle starts at 100 TL.) but mistaken about the food (with an average of 20 TL. per plate).

This place is inside one of the coolest and gallantly renovated buildings found in Karaköy – once belonged to the historic Ottoman Bank and now owned by the non-profit innovation organization called SALT. The entrance hall will take your breath away and make you forget all the degraded streets you pass through to make it inside. The restaurant found in the back is a completely modern, icy, fully-windowed, rectangle structure expanding into the ancient city. It looks too-dark-to be-cool inside, but the individual lighting found at each table takes the worries away once seated for dinner.

Focus on the appetizers. Order the fried goat cheese, the crispy tomato risotto, the cheese pide, the artichoke and the pizza. Yes, you won’t have any room left for the main course and that’s good thing. The flavor and thus the satisfaction is hidden in the appetizers and the rest of it (until the dessert) is nothing but disappointment. Get the chestnut merengue toopped with ice-cream for desert.

Reservations are a must at Ca’d'Oro.

I had the opportunity to visit the historic Bahar Patisserie in Nişantaşı last afternoon to shop for some chestnut candy. I remember going into this place as a child and sticking my chubby face all around the displays hoping to get my hands on all the cakes and chocolate. Not much has changed over the years. Bahar is still a legend although it hasn’t successfully transformed into a super famous chain like its competitors. Seeing it in good condition made me wonder what the reasons behind such a lag could be. The taste is still there in my opinion but there is a serious problem in presentation. I got out with a small Bahar souvenir to show you how bad the problem is. I couldn’t resist. It was the last one on the shelf and I had to have it.

I think this is some kind of a completely unproportional gay basketball player who is actually going bold on the back of his head, but sports healthy long red hair in the front. His patch of curly hair is casually glued together at the top with the residual glue chunking out at the sides. He is stuffed with little stone-like chocolate inside his hips and has a hole on the back that could be used as a temporary piggy bank.

What kind of a sick creative person comes up with such a design? I totally get the “playful doll + delicious sweets + save your money while spending” idea for the kids, but I am utterly shocked by the final product. If you say “the doll is a disaster, but there is still good chocolate inside” think twice. Since the chocolate inside looks like little stones, the kid who eats them will probably grab a few actual rocks thinking they are also edible goodies: From the bakery to the emergency room with love.

As I cheerfully play with the hair of my monster I can’t help but think about its little customers. I feel sorry for the kid who goes in and reaches up for this transvestite toy just because he/she has playful curly hair. Parents beware. Bahar please please take action and come out with some “decent” inspiration for our future generations.

The Turkish Apachi has the means to an uncharted luxurious life. Probably born outside the metropolitan city to a working class family. Educated in mediocre schools around town and most probably never made it to college, the Turkish Apachi yearns for the “glamourous” life he has witnessed around the posh neighborhoods throughout his teen years. He finally gets his break. An old relative leaves him a field/land that once valued nothing but is now a fortune because it lies on the outskirts of the ever-expanding city. Or he is the son of a famous folk singer. Or he teams up with a clan of mobsters and becomes one of the big guys doing the dirty work. Or he becomes a famous soccer player or an actor in a popular TV show.

He drives around a flashing red or a dazzling neon color pimped up sports car. Even the Porsche is not enough to reflect his glamourous status. Only a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Chevrolet Camaro, a Chrysler Viper, a BMW M5 or a Corvette can match up to his needs. The car windows covered with deep black filters. The rims never come standard, are large in inches and abundantly unique in color.

Hair is gelled to the extreme. Sunglasses never small. He prefers the patent leather black shoes and recently bought Dolce&Gabbana jeans. White tight cotton shirts and big lettered thick brand belts complete his taste in fashion.

The Turkish Apachi is almost always accompanied by a friend or a lover. If the friend is male, he will probably be a photocopy of the main subject (possibly only much more fatter so that he will not be an immediate threat to his friend’s aura). And if the friend is female, she will escort thin high-heel boots (no matter what time of the day) with extremely skinny jeans tucked in, a fitted turtleneck sweater and a white faux-fur coat. The shoulder handbag will be tiny but will preferably be covered in a brand’s logo.

The outing will almost always include a meal and will be cherished at the most “exposed” cafe/restaurants around the city. The popular shopping malls will be the first choice with a constant pedestrian traffic and well-tipped valet service. After the stomachs are full, the Apachi will lead his friends to a coffee shop near the Bosphorus for a game of backgammon, dominos or a hookah session. 

The night, if there is any energy left, will continue only at Reina.

In recent years, with the unexplainable boom in real estate, The Turkish Apachi became an unavoidable part of the metropolitan life. He seems to be clueless about the future and yearns to make the most of today with an unhealthy flush of money. For me, he is one of the most exquisite examples to how our values and dynamics changed so dramatically in recent years. I cherish the opportunity for analysis, but greatly regret the unavoidable spread.

Turkish painter, Leyla Gediz’s solo exhibition “Coming Soon” opened at the Rampa Gallery in Akaretler yesterday. I kept getting good remarks about the work of this figurative artist, so I had to go see her new pieces with my own eyes. The exhibition to me seemed more like a collection of unfinished works that once finished could be the one stop to a great composition.

The exhibition was a collection of portraits and still life. I didn’t like at all the big chunks of white space left on the portraits. The detailing on the hair of each figure was completely left out forcing the viewer to focus on the face, especially the eyes. Although the strategy is there, I wasn’t happy with the fact that the artist was so dominant in her motives. I wanted a little more room to move around the canvas and be stuck at a spot I was not forced upon, but I was left empty handed. The still life pieces, I think were the better thought out part of the exhibition. Yet I did not find their composition (such as fireworks and a film roll) interesting. This does not mean that Gediz did not put a successful show on display. She definitely had a strong persistance and unity through all the pieces she created for this exhibition, but I for a fact was expecting a little more challange, a little more “why” out of Coming Soon.

Coming Soon will be on display until January 7, 2012.

A much bigger flood of art comes through Istanbul as the influence of October’s artbeat is fading out. The location is again Lütfi Kırdar Convention Center. Hundreds of galleries (domestic and international) are displaying and of course selling their hand-picked precious works of art under the roof of Contemporary Istanbul. Large pieces dominate the collection and prices are a bit on the heavy side especially on the 1st floor. The opening night was on Wednesday, but the fair will go on until Sunday November 27. If you are a serious window shopper you certainly need more than one visit to get enough of this massive (in Istanbul terms) art carnival.

The ever-so diverse crowd of art lovers fills up the halls once again. There are the camera-lover nouveau riche running around with their mink coats and tight dresses, there are the sophisticated over-60 couples digesting the art with their reading glasses, there are the newly weds who didn’t know what to do with their little children and had to take them with for some amateur canvas shopping and finally there is the hipster cool youngsters mingling with friends and sucking in the best of the flourishing art in Istanbul.

Some of my favorite pieces from the event include works by the Saudi artist, Abdulnasser Gharem, the Turkish artist, Sabire Susuz and an Armenian artist (I couldn’t get the name of).

When you decide to drive around a 4-wheel drive dash madcap car in the city you need to spice up your life to serve it justice. And that is exactly what Mini Turkey was doing last week at Otto Santral Istanbul: giving its drivers the perfect occasion to feel a little more funkier. Past 11pm the legendary automaker brought Miles Kane on stage inside a warehouse-turned-bar. Mr. Kane, a British 25 year-old singer, greatly influenced by the Beatles, rocked the hell out of the hip fans and gave the Mini drivers another reason to race their way around Istanbul.

Check out if Mini and Kane will be coming your way anytime soon and listen to this visionary guitarist before he starts getting stadiums for venues instead of local concert halls.

Finally made it to this popular Karaköy restaurant a few nights ago after a visit to one of the most exhausting art biennales I have ever been to. I am glad I took the dinner here as it was the most delicious end to a gloomy exhibition tour.

The interiors of Lokanta Maya reminds one of the Fig & Olive chain in New York with its sleek modern look, icy marbles and organic coloring. It is a small place with a sophisticated crowd (at least when we were there). I reccommend you start with the impressive house special Mücver, octopus, grilled hellim cheese salad and the amazingly delicious oven-baked crispy goat cheese. We had the ribs with couscous and the chicken with a beet risotto as main dish. Both were delicious. The deserts looked equally impressive but unfortunately there was no more room for them (you might want to keep a tiny gap for the sweets). Despite the perfect food, the service at Maya still needs a little bit of an upgrade. The waiters don’t seem to be as attentive to the guests as the cooks are the to food.

Reservations are recommended for lunch and/or dinner.

From New York to Paris, I thought I have seen the best fashion has to offer. The edgy designers, the over-dressed stores, the lavish socialites, the so serious models, the incredible sales: I thought it was all there. I was mistaken and I realized I was missing out much too much on a busy Istanbul street yesterday afternoon.

The revelation came packed in a random jeans’ store display with three ordinary mannequins. Placed in two separate restroom cabins, these three lifeless wigged wax models were up for a little more than what they bargained for. One was carefully seated on a toilet, underwear and jeans pulled down. She was prepped up to answer nature’s call while her two friends had something totally different in mind inside the neighboring cabin. Her girlfriend was finally alone with the guy she has been eyeing at the bar all night. Pushed into the corner, locked in-between his toned arms, she was shivering with horny hormones and couldn’t resist letting down her underwear. The next step was to unzip the jeans and lock the legs around his hips. The toilet on display has never been this busy. Splashed with the regular pee and poo odor  and sprayed with the excitement of a quick shack. All in bright daylight for everyone to see.

Now who would have thought all this action was to promote a few regular cotton jeans? Take that the so called edgy New York and Paris.

Wrapped in a bright yellow, artbeat Istanbul makes its first appearance to the public in the Lütfi Kırdar Complex.

Similar to all the openings I have been to so far, the event welcomes guests from all different backgrounds with a diverse set of reasons for attendance: The old wealthy couple looking to expand on their art collection and be pampered by the gallery owners; Their not so eager friends accompanying them and weighing the benefits of spending “that much” in art; The off-the-edge artists and the art professionals fishing for an interview with one of the TV crews; The confused newly weds hoping to find heartwarming pieces to decorate the blank walls of their new home and get some subtle perspective on the ever-so growing art scene; The clean cut, sexy yet bohemian young crowd prepped up to run into some friends, chit-chat and expand on their social networks. Each character has a major role in giving the art on the floor a purpose, a life. Being around such a bright united crowd in a city of major culture clashes makes one feel even more welcome and reminds what Istanbul has been long yearning for.

The event consists of two floors with the ground floor reserved to local and foreign art galleries and the lower floor reserved for massive private projects. Both are loaded with impressive pieces. No maps are provided at the information kiosk. Yet thankfully the booths on the ground floor are numbered, making it harder for the visitors to wander off (something I tend to do a lot and hope to avoid everytime). Most of the pieces on display are considerably large. Most of the tags are not informative enough: listing the materials used on the piece and giving a short bio of the artist is always helpful and appreciated. I get pulled to works of Mehmet Ali Uysal, Aslımay Altan Göney, Yağız Özgen and Özgür Korkmazgil. The well-hidden prices are tough to assimilate: the average is around 10,000 TL and goes well above EUR 400,000.

Being informed of all the hard work that went into making this very first of many-to-come-event possible, I can’t do anymore than emphasizing my appreciation for bringing so much vision to a city that lives by it. Like any other newborn project, artbeat has lots of room to grow but promises to be one of the leading art events in Istanbul because of its social network, strong sponsors and well-chosen location. I hope the people behind it will have the guts to take it up again next year.