Where old meets new

Stop and smell your dinner

Let's do le lunch

Gourmet to grow

Everyone's a critic

More is more

How does your garden grow?

Women who wear toques

Istanbul—Like so many international cities these days, Istanbul has one foot in the past and the other in the future. No two restaurants illustrate this dichotomy better than the new ultrahip 360 Istanbul and the 10 year old Ciya, an undertaking devoted to granny cuisine, what the French would call cuisine grand-mère. 360 is located in the gentrifying Beyoglu section on the roof of a grand prewar apartment building endowed with spectacular 360 degree skyline views of three mosques and the St. Antoine Church belfry as well as the boat-churned Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. Modular plastic booths, high communal tables, long gauzy white curtains, and international music spun by an attractive Parisienne dj signal that 360 is a happening spot. You guessed it: internationally ubiquitous Mojitos are the best-selling drink. The food format is mostly small plates, a perfect fit with the Turkish affection for native meze, which here amicably co-exist with global Asian dumplings, sates, tapas, pizza, and pasta. Spring rolls are listed next to grilled sardines in vine leaves, Caesar salad and Margarita salmon alongside falafel and tabbouleh. Chef/partner Mike Norman, who perfected his craft in New York City at Aureole, Gotham Bar and Grill, and Lespinasse, says, "We're not reinventing the wheel, but we're going for more flavors." Partner Sasha Anton Kahn, who also produces television commercials and programs the music, says, "I like the idea of food to share. Turks like that."

Meanwhile, across the Bosphorous on the Asian side of the city, chef/owner Musa Dagdeviren is drawing international attention at Ciya by digging deep into the roots of Turkish cuisine. While he now has three spots within a square block area, it's Ciya Sofrasi, which features unusual regional food, that has attracted global taste trekkers like cookbook author Paula Wolfert and won him the invitation to cook at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone's World of Flavors conference, where he demonstrated bulgur kibbe with various meat stuffings and charmed participants with a fabulous lamb dish sealed within a gleaming lidded metal pot over a wood fire—a dish that someone whose prayer or wish was answered would have cooked to share the good fortune with friends and neighbors or the entire village. Thirty years ago it wouldn't have been cool to eat kebabs and lahmacun (pizza bread). Now it's the hot new thing. "It's local and regional food from my grandma's secret recipe book. That's why everybody is coming here," he says through a translator, explaining that he makes some of the dishes lighter but he doesn't mix with the sauces of Europe. Musa recently launched a quarterly food and culture magazine called Yemekve Kültür, which he believes has the potential to be a big hit. He's also looking into buying a farm to produce everything organically for his restaurants.

Musa says he's a product of "the tradition, not the academy." He comes from a family of bakers, and he still calls himself one. But the avid attention he lavishes on his cookbook collection is nothing short of scholarly. Dishes such as sour cherry pilaf, smoked veal with baked squash, firik (smoked green wheat) pilaf with roasted chicken, and pumpkin cooked in pickling lime with tahini and walnuts are intriguing food adventurers obsessed with sniffing out the authentic. It's all part of a burgeoning culinary scene in Istanbul. "In the past four or five years, the chef period started," says Musa. "We now have star chefs and an abundance of cookbooks. We have started a culinary program, and wine is making a resurgence."

Dagdeviren gives cooking classes and tours of his restaurants for guests of Blue Odyssey tours. For info: (800) 757-1025; www.blueodyssey.com.