I can’t remember the last time I had so many varied textures and tastes from a simple sampler plate of cold meze (17 lira, priced by weight). A nutty bulgur salad segued into pleasingly bitter stuffed grape leaves. A portion of mung beans was delicious, as was a fragrant wild oregano salad, a simple hummus, an eggplant salad and purslane drowned in tangy yogurt. Best of all was a simply prepared, impossibly crunchy salad of sea beans.

Seventeen lira for lunch isn’t expensive — but you don’t even have to pay that, if you don’t want to. Deeper into Kadikoy, in the Goztepe neighborhood, I found the restaurant Gaziantep Lahmacun, which specializes in its namesake: a crispy, pizza-like Turkish classic. For just 6 lira, I enjoyed a huge lahmacun covered in tomato, herbs and pleasingly funky lamb ground nearly to a fine paste. Washed down with a powerful bottle of fermented black carrot juice (4 lira), it was a perfect midday snack.

But what about dessert? I’ve said nothing of the sweets in Istanbul, about which numerous epics could be written. Baylan, founded by an Armenian immigrant in 1923, is the place to go for a sleek, classic atmosphere. Sitting on its outdoor patio, I enjoyed a kup griye (21 lira), a decadent, sundae-like chalice of vanilla and caramel ice cream, swimming in caramel and served with a cookie.

But if it’s just ice cream you’re looking for, you’ll want to head out to Pinar Dondurma, where a man named Alp Durak makes the wonderfully elastic and chewy ice cream that Turkey is famous for. The addition of mastic and salep, a flour derived from orchids, gives the ice cream a pleasingly stretchy quality. A two-scoop cone runs 5 lira; I went with bitter chocolate and walnut, both of which were excellent.