Mini adventure to Kadiköy, Istanbul

One free night in Istanbul I was fortunate to have a colleague who (a) had lived in Istanbul and was therefore familiar with navigating around the city and where to go, and (2) game to head out for a couple hours to show me how to get over to the Asian side, specifically Kadiköy.
It started with grabbing the ferry from the Karaköy terminal.

And stopping by Fatih before continuing on to our destination.

Once on the ground we wandered, taking it all in. A busy, interesting area full of cafés and restaurants with outdoor seating full of customers not deterred by temps in the low 50s.

We grabbed dinner at, Güneşin Sofrası Meyhane, a place she knew through Turkish friends. Solid food and hospitality. Not a ton of English spoken. But with her Turkish food basics we got some essentials, including Raki.

All in all a very cool experience I'm grateful to have had.

Coffee & a snack in Balat, Istanbul

Judy and I are pulled in by bakery windows wherever we go. She wasn't with me on this walk through Balat, but if she was I know she'd want to duck in here. I grabbed that round thing that looks like a bagel but was fluffy like a croissant. Solid use of the 20-30 TRY it cost me if I remember correctly. Francala has a flat 4.0 on Google, but my limited interaction was 5*.

Bread disc in hand, I met up with the rest of the group at El Rincón Café. They have outdoor seating if you want fresh air and people watching. But the inside area was cozy. It was pretty chill, being a mid-November Wednesday morning. But I can see this being a great hangout. Service was friendly and the coffee hit the spot.

Shots from a walking tour of Fener and Balat, Istanbul

No particular unifying theme to these shots. Just a cool area (Fener and Balat) where you're prompted to try and capture everything you see. Everywhere you turn is something calling to your camera. A building in elegant decline waiting to be renovated. A cat sitting peacefully in a streetside café. A colorful ceramic shop. Street art behind a scooter parked next to a selection of salty snacks. Etc., etc., etc. Fun place to spend a few hours. We were there late morning on a Wednesday in November. I imagine there are more fellow travelers in the streets during the warmer months.

Quick Review: Club Social Del Valle (Del Valle, CDMX)

I'm rusty with the blogging, so I failed to snap pics of the food. Kind of a big miss. In my defense, I was a bit distracted by debating with the waiter how part of our order was mixed up when the food arrived. He claimed we didn't order what we ordered. This was after he brought us the wrong salad to start. So service was not great. He was alone, as the guy who appeared to be the manager was not helping. But he only had like 3 tables so it's not like he was in the weeds.
The space is smart casual with some touches working better than others. The wallpaper meant to evoke Argentinian newspaper articles covering everything from the World Cup to the restaurant's arrival in Mexico City worked. Red and white checkered tablecloths work, especially with the black iron door and window trim. On the ceiling they have an assortment of playeras from various Argentinian fútbol clubs. Overall a nice, sharp casual feel.
Food was a mixed bag. We ordered a caprese salad, which is usually difficult to mess up. We were brought the version that susbstituted hearts of palm for mozzarella. Disappointing. We assumed we had missed something when ordering it off the menu, but later saw there were two versions of the caprese and for some reason he brought us that one. I thought the empanadas were pretty good. Judy was not impressed. They had a roquefort and apio (celery) version that I'd never seen on a menu before so we tried that. I would get it again, Judy not so much. Picanha was meh. Probably a combination of how we ordered it (al punto, which is usually the same as tres cuartos, which should be the equivalent of medium) and the cut itself. Hard to say. It came medium well and a little tough. The best dishes of the evening were the polenta a la boloñesa and the french fries (both the standard, which we didn't order, and the camote, which we did order and needed to fight for a bit; credit to the chef/owner who noticed the discussion with the waiter and got these out to us).
We, and me in particular, wanted to like Club Social Del Valle, but it didn't quite hit the marks. $1085 MXN pre-tip for the ensalada, 3 empanadas, two mains (polenta and picanha), one glass of malbec and an agua mineral.

Quick Review: Ihui (Del Valle, CDMX)

Ihui opened up a few months ago. Has an odd mix of reviews. The 5s feel a bit overly enthusiastic, the 1s and 2s feel a bit suspect. I think we'd give it a 3 based on today's experience. Friendly service. Tasty-ish pizza impropertly prepared. Chewy dough, but in a good way. (And that chewy dough approach is something that seems to be more common lately). But kinda undercooked. Except for where it was burned. Just a little weird overall. And it's not like we ordered pizza deep off the back of the menu. At least half of what they offer in the non-desayunos menu is pizza. We hoped to like it more than we did. $265 MXN for 1 pizza and 2 latas of Ciel.