US
51 MIN READ TIME

WHERE FEAST MEETS WEST

BY OWEN MATTHEWS

@owenmatth

DO YOU PREFER your sheep’s head roasted and hot, or boiled and cold? No matter. One street in Beyoglu, Istanbul’s old European district, offers both sorts of sheep’s head (kelle), considered an ancient delicacy across the Middle East. From his cart, Muammer Özkaymak lovingly cuts slivers of cold sheep’s head (kelle sögüs), sprinkles it with thyme and red pepper and serves it with chopped onion on a fresh white roll. Özkaymak took over the family business in 1976 (his cart is decorated with a laminated photograph of himself as a cheerful teenager in flared trousers on the same street corner). But the ancestral tradition goes back to 1890, when

THE BEST KIND OF TOURIST TRAP: Pandeli has been serving customers since 1911; the turquoise tiles on the walls are 400 years old.
YADID LEVY/ALAMY
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Newsweek International
15th April 2016
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