Find your way around foodie Istanbul with our interactive map

Flicking through my guidebook on the flight to Istanbul I could only find reference to one of the many restaurants on my 48-hour gluttony tour. What a great start.

When I met my guide for the "Eat Istanbul" tour the next morning he said he wasn’t a professional tour guide. This was getting better.

For those to whom umbrella-wielding tour guides and headphone commentary in ten different languages is anathema, this is an ideal city break – oh, and you’ll need the appetite of a sultan.

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Over two days in Istanbul I ate "mothers and daughters" (one big meat ball surrounded by lots of little ones), fish by the Bosphorus, stuffed intestines, kebabs at midnight and the circumcision feast of a sultan’s son.

I couldn’t agree less with Benjamin Franklin when he wrote in his almanac: “He that would travel much, should eat little”.

Food is one of the great pleasures of travelling. Whether we’ve visited them or not, we’re as familiar with the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower as we are our own front doors, but it’s only in the backstreet Delhi cafe or Parisian bistro that we can really get a taste for a place.

Istanbul has it all – whether you’re sitting in the armchair of an air conditioned restaurant waiting for a waiter in a bow tie to bring the fourth course, or perched on a wicker stool in a tiny street sipping fresh pomegranate juice.

There’s so much food to enjoy alongside the awe inspiring architecture, shopping and nightlife of this eclectic city that the best I can do is provide my own check list of the ten foodie experiences you shouldn’t miss out on in Istanbul.

1. Start with breakfast at one of the riverside the cafes that line the Bosphorus on the European side. You can breakfast on Turkish white cheese, which is a little like feta, with tomato and cucumber or try fresh stuffed pastries, which can be savoury, like spinach (ispanakli) or cheese (peynirli) or sweet (baklava). Or try the seven-course banquet at the House Cafe in Ortakoy which starts with a Turkish breakfast and proceeds through a European breakfast, meat, cheese and finally cakes – some even come kebab-style.

2. If you’re hungry through the day much on simit, a sesame-topped ring of baked dough, bought from street vendors for under £1, or boiled or grilled corn on the cob, another hearty street food snack, which is sprinkled with sea salt before you devour it.

3. A fried fish sandwich (Balik ekmek) by the Bosphorus is a must – join the Istanbullus on the quay at the mouth of the Golden Horn. It’s a surprisingly tasty snack – just fresh fish, caught that day, fried or grilled and stuffed into a wedge of fresh bread. If you want a seat while you’re munching the restaurants under the Galata Bridge also serve fish sandwiches. You could also try midye dolmasi, another street food fish dish of mussels stuffed with rice, pinenuts, raisins and spices.

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