Buryan Kebab: World's best lamb?

Usually the first thing I do when coming to istanbul is to go to the Siirt Market in Fatih district for Buryani Kebab. The Siirt Market is comprised of shops from Siirt in the southeast part of Turkey, where there are a lot of Arabic speakers, and you hear Arabic almost as much as Turkish around the market.

But we came for Büryani kebab - lamb ribs roasted in a sealed clay oven for two hours - and since we had a big work schedule for the day we just got down to business at our favorite kebab shop... House of Osman the Büryan Provider.. . plenty of free parking in the back.

Osman himself mans the lamb post.

This is seriously good young lamb, juicy, with a crispy skin. The lamb is weighed into portions, and laid on pide bread, cut on the bread, and sent to the oven to warm up and toast the bread. Days like this make me very glad I only spent a few weeks as a vegetarian back in the '70s.

One very happy büryani kebab customer.

Another satisfied customer of Osman the Büryan Provider... notice the trance induced by the lamb. I should mention that lunch cost us 14 turkish lira for two of us: double salad, ayran (yoghurt drink) and tea to finish. That is 7 Euros (maybe nine bucks US?) For two of us.