Begin at Taskin Bakery, which supplies bread both to local restaurants and many of New York’s Middle Eastern markets. Turkish cuisine has a bread culture just as rich as the French, and Taskin’s wide selection does it proud. On the shelves you’ll find flaky croissant-like pastries, syrupy phyllo sweets, briny olive breads, and best of all, simit, crackly-chewy doughnut-shaped breads blitzed with sesame seeds. Fresh from the oven, Taskin’s simit are just as good as what you’ll find in Istanbul, where they’re relished for breakfast much like bagels are in New York. The best time to hit Toros is at lunch, when they offer a three-course lunch special of a soup or salad, your choice of mezze, and a grilled main. Coordinate with your table and you can hack together a shareable feast, all for just $12 a person. Toros does a mean lentil soup, excellent eggplant dishes, and well-seasoned lamb kebabs.
