Istanbul for The Food Pilgrims: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Mounds of sumac, dried figs and saffron under the 1664 vaults; buy a few grams, not a kilo, and taste the pastırma at the stalls before you pay.

The coffee roaster that has sold ground beans from the same shop since 1871; stand at the counter and drink a small, strong cup before you buy a bag.

Order the pistachio kebab, the eggplant salad and the tahini dessert at a table with the Golden Horn in the window; it is a long dinner, a good opening.

A small-group class with a market stop, then four dishes cooked and eaten at the long table; the stuffed vine leaves come out well, and the baklava does not.

Walk to Sirkeci and order the pistachio baklava with kaymak, in the 1864 shop; the afternoon crowd is smaller than at lunch.

A tasting menu of Anatolian ingredients cooked with real technique, in a former Ottoman Bank with a view of the Golden Horn; book weeks ahead and say what you do not eat.

Take the Eminönü ferry across for a morning among fishmongers, pickle sellers and cheese stalls; try the pickled-vegetable juice and ask for olives to taste first.

The city's best regional kitchen: a dozen dishes from Gaziantep, Hatay and Mardin laid out each day; point at three and add the lamb with quince.

A pastry house open since 1923: order the kazandibi, the caramelised milk pudding, with a tea, and sit by the window to watch the street.

The Kurdish breakfast from Van: more than a dozen dishes on the table, with clotted cream, honey, herbed cheese and a pot of tea; arrive hungry and take a long time.

The old fish market and its side-street Nevizade tables, the best Monday-morning browse for cheese, pickles and fresh fish before the crowds come.

Take a box of mixed baklava for the flight, and eat one piece in the shop with a glass of tea; the pistachio is the one to buy.