First supper in Istanbul

     Our travel agent recommended that we have supper our first night in the  Matbah Restaurant in our hotel, the Ottoman Imperial Hotel. This suited us just fine, since all four of us were exhausted from long travel and little sleep.
     Mark ordered a bottle of dry Turkish wine for us to share. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had legalized alcohol consumption shortly after the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. He sought to make Turkey more modern and more European. As a result, Turkey has a wine-growing industry as well as a national distilled spirit, Raki.
     Abby ordered the quail with eggplant - bits of quail in a delicious sauce mixed with shredded eggplant and stuffed into the hollowed-out eggplant. Mark and I ordered the take kebab - lamb kebab, chicken kebab, and "lamb meatball," ground lamb wrapped around a flat skewer and grilled. It came with a side of grilled zucchini, eggplant and tomato and saffron rice. All served on a piece of flat bread with rosemary sprigs on top. Sarah's vegetarian entree was not photogenic. It was all delicious!