Stuffed mussels, midye dolma, are a popular street food in İstanbul and all along the Aegean coast of Turkey. I have enjoyed lots of them in Bodrum and İzmir too, but my first midye dolma I had in Kadıköy (one of the parts of Istanbul on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, best known as the home of the Fenerbahçe football team, one of whose slogans is Burası Kadıköy buradan çıkış yok – This is Kadıköy, there is no way out of here). For me this is most truly true, not only because I am a a Fenerbahçe fan, but because Kadıköy has lots of the not so touristic, flashy charms.

Back to our topic… For midye dolma, mussels are stuffed with aromatic rice and sold per piece by street vendors. They are prepared in advance and sold at temperature of the surroundings, so tepid. When I started to travel to Turkey, at first I was reluctant to buy such a food that is given hand-to-hand. But then, one day in February 2016, while walking around the Kadıköy market, I mustered my courage and bought one, first of so many to follow.

You stop by a vendor, ask for a mussel, the vendor opens it, squeezes some lemon juice over it and you slurp your mussel down. In most cases you will not stop at one, so he collects your leftover shells, as while you are standing next to him other customers are arriving to have a short break in their day, to chat a bit and enjoy a few mussels. When you are done he just counts the shells to tell you the total price.

The mussel vendors come in different varieties. The mussels are sometimes sold, like my first one, in one of the market stalls. More often, you see a Turk carrying a foldable desk and a huge tray of mussels (possibly on his head), which is then spontaneously ‘parked’ at some spot and easily moved if that spot does not turn out to be profitable.

If you are lucky, the spot a vendor with good mussels has chosen is not only busy, but has a lovely view too. My personal favourite location is the Kadıköy iskelesi, the Kadıköy pier, at sundown. Then you have a mussel with a view, while listening to the hustle and bustle and street musicians.

Sometimes you see a vendor carrying just a tray and offering his mussels to customers in bars and pubs. If you hail him in, you will get them on a disposable plate and have a lovely snack to go with your Efes beer, your Yeni Rakı, or whatever you are drinking at the moment.

The third option, quite common e. g. in Bodrum, are midye dolma vendors with mobile stalls. If they are parked near a bar, you may even enjoy a rakı with your mussels…

Still, my favourite place to enjoy this little gem of Turkish cuisine is my first one – Kadıköy. I hope to return there soon for some mussels and a Fenerbahçe match 🙂😋⚽