A Saturday afternoon in Cihangar

After another lazy morning, we got motivated and went over to Cihangar to the Kardesler Restaurant for lunch. This place sits on a corner in this bustling, artistic area located between Istiklal and the Museum of Modern Art. Kardesler boasts a large seating area and it is needed because it serves tasty and inexpensive food. We all tried the Ayran, which is the local yogurt drink. Here it is served from a large cooler with the foam scooped out from the top of the vat and placed on top of your mug. It makes for a refreshing and healthy drink.
We also had lentil soup and a cucumber and yogurt mixture that had a soupy complexion. Then we had a Turkish flatbread that has a meat and vegetable spread on top. This is called a lamacun. It was very tasty and only 2.5 lira. We also had a few kebaps and Troy had a meat and cheese pide. As if this was not enough, we tipped it off with kunefe, a shredded filo dough and cheese pastry that is simply decadent. And, it goes quite well with cay (tea, pronounced chai). We were completely full.
Troy and Fariba decided to head back to the apartment to lounge a bit and Darius and I decided to go to the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en). This museum was a very pleasant surprise, containing an incredibly beautiful collection of very modern works (several video installations for example) that were quite amazing. We also got to see a ship dock right next to the museum.