Our tour started at 9:30 and lasted until 3ish. I just did a count and we stopped for food and/or drink at no fewer than 12 places, not counting mini-stops at shops and market stands. It was as if we packed in a week's worth of eating into six hours. Here is our itinerary, but make sure you look at the slide show below. (Warning: It may make you hop on the next flight to Istanbul.)

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9:30. We meet our guide, Angelis Nano, in front of the Spice Market. Angelis is a transplanted Greek who fell in love with Istanbul and started working as a guide to share his passion. His enthusiasm is immediately contagious. We bypass the Spice Market, which he says is a tourist trap, and head to the surrounding alleys filled with stands selling everything from sumac by the kilo to sheep's heads. We shop for our "breakfast": olives, cheese, simit (sesame-covered bread), and cheese.

9:40. We make our way into what looks like a coffee warehouse, and is in fact where the market vendors store their goods. Tucked among the sacks of coffee is one small desk, next to a closet-sized tea and coffee shop. We lay down newspapers, and spread out our goods, while hot coffee and tea is prepared. Vendors wander in and out, chatting with us, although we don't understand a word. We share our breakfast, and have a lesson in how to brew Turkish coffee.

10:00. We continue our exploration of the back streets of the old city, stopping at a lotus root merchant, coffee roaster, and spice wholesaler. We visit the one remaining kosher restaurant left in the city (unfortunately closed at this hour).

10:05. Sweet time. A stop at a pastry shop that makes sugar-syrup drenched "sultan's lips," which we devour.

10:15. Tucked between the Rustem Pasa Mosque and the Spice Market is Halis Kardesler. This tiny restaurant has five Formica-topped tables and caters to the market workers. It's actually a bit late in the morning, so the crowds are gone. Most market vendors stop here at the crack of down for lentil soup, which we slurp up before moving on. We also manage to devour a plate of buttery pilaf.

10:40. What street food trek would be complete without a pide stop? We go to Mave Halic, and get a lesson in how to make classic pide. Which really is like an oval pizza, as far as I can tell. The lamb sausage on top, however, was a purely Turkish touch.

11:00. More wandering in and out of shops. Picked up a nifty set of brass and steel kebab spears, plus an engraved steel tray.

11:10. You can't walk two feet in Istanbul without being offered some lokum, or Turkish delight. Even though it all looks the same, it of course varies in quality. We head straight for one of the oldest workshops that still crafts its own, Altan. My favorites were the traditional rose and pistachio flavors. We also bought a package of pistachio halva in case we got hungry.

Elizabeth Helman Minchilli

11:20. We got hungry. So we stop in another closet-sized tea shop located in an abandoned han. This 17th-century building, Ali Pasa Han, is where traveling merchants would lock up their goods at night, before bringing them to the bazaar in the morning. While we explored the empty, haunting rooms, Ismet Sahin prepared tea for us, which we sipped while nibbling on our halva. He's been brewing coffee and tea here for more than 30 years.