As a busy port, increasingly industrialized Karaoke also became a hub for prostitution. And in 1884, when a new regulation legalized Istanbul's first brothels, this red-light district – originally intended for foreign visitors – continued to thrive for the next 137 years.
"Back when this was the old port, Anatolian tradesmen from rural areas and smaller cities would come to Karaoke for business and often visit the brothels," explained Istanbul tour guide Leyla Capacity. "Being cheap, delicious and high in sugar, the ring desert became popular here because it's said that it gave men the energy they needed before – and after – visiting the working women."
Today, however, Karaoke looks very different. As I made my way from the viewing platform of Galatia Tower, down through the cobbled backstreets, evidence of gentrification was all around. The last decade has seen warehouses converted into modern art galleries, while workshops have made way for hipster cafes, barbers and boutiques. But it's the recent closing of the remaining brothels on Zurafa Street that's the biggest indication of change – their demolition currently making way for an arts and cultural centre as part of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Beyoglu Culture Road Project.
"Even though the brothels have closed, you still see a lot of halka tatlisi vendors hanging around this area," Capacity said.
I soon experienced this first hand. With seagulls swirling overhead, as I strolled over the Galata Bridge and passed fishermen casting their lines out over the glittering surface of the Bosphorus, it wasn't long before I met two men making and selling the city's darling of doughnut-like desserts. As I watched them squeeze batter – traditionally made with semolina and plain flour – into hot oil through the star-shaped nozzle of a pastry syringe, I saw a familiar pattern emerging in the pan. Is the "ring desert" simply a churro, I wondered?
"With its ridged edges, halka tatlisi is very similar looking to the churro, which is thought to have arrived with the expulsion of Spanish Jews as the result of the Alhambra Decree," Capaci told me. "The difference is that our version – often called the 'Turkish churro' – has a circular shape and is derived from tulumba tatlisi."
Tulumba tatlisi ("pump desert" in English) is a Turkish sweet that takes its name from the pump-like apparatus or syringe used to distribute batter. Cut into small tubes before being fried and drenched in syrup, these "Ottoman doughnuts" are especially popular at celebrations such as weddings and during the month of Ramadan, giving a sugar hit to people who have fasted all day.
Although there seems to be a few theories as to halka tatlisi's exact path to Istanbul, I learned that halka tatlisi, tulumba tatlisi and churros all share a heritage in medieval Arabic cuisine, with the earliest known record of desserts of their kind stemming from a fritter called zalabiya mushabbak that appears in Kitab al-Tabikh (Book of Dishes) by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq. Considered the most comprehensive work of its kind, this 10th-Century Baghdadi cookbook offers a rare glimpse into medieval Islam's culinary culture and the role food played during the politics of its "Golden Era", when Baghdad was a center for scientific and cultural learning, and religious and civil leaders gathered at opulent banquets.
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