Racks of Lamb Çiragan Palace

The Çirağan Palace (pronounced Chee-raan) is one of the world’s most celebrated hotels, an eleven-acre pleasure palace (former summer home of Sultan Abdül Aziz) located on the banks of the Bosporus on the outskirts of Istanbul. There you can get an exquisite Ottoman meal at the hotel’s Turkish restaurant, Tugğa.

I’d spent the week sampling grilled lamb at kebab parlors and street stalls. What a refreshing change of pace to enjoy it in a formal dining room surrounded by chandeliers a