Best stumble-upon brunch EVER. I say stumble-upon because we literally stumbled into a line of people waiting to get into this bustling restaurant whilst on a nice stroll through Karakoy. Busy restaurant? Check. No audible detection of English? Check. Always two very, very good signs of a killer meal to come.

You see that neon "Self Service" sign in the bottom photo? Yeeahhh... that was all the English there was in this place - written or spoken. It was just enough English to indicate that we would be choosing our own items, right then and there, to assemble what was to become my favorite meal in Istanbul. While I consider my Turkish almost up to par with my English (not), it seemed that pointing was an adequate method of communicating what we wanted on our giant breakfast plate. The humorous part about this is that when you reach such a language barrier, prices suddenly become irrelevant and you find yourself submitting to the will of the man who is delicately organizing the array of cheeses and cold cuts on your plate. This wouldn't be the first time this has happened to me, English or no English, but those stories are for another time.

To be honest with you, I'm not even really sure what we ended up ordering. All I know is:

A) I'm still devastated that we didn't order more... of everything in that establishment.

B) I needed to have more kaymak and honey.

C) This was the only restaurant that offered a carafe of tea on the table to refill that thimble the Turkish call a tea cup (To whoever came up with that idea - thank you, thank you, thank you).

AND

D) There was pastrami on that plate that rivaled the great Katz pastrami of New York's Lower East Side - And that kind of statement can get you killed in these parts.

Namli Gurme/Karakoy/Istanbul/Turkey/2.26.12

Note: I would have absolutely taken more photos of the interior, but one of the clerks spoke enough English to shake his hand and tell me, "No photo."