First I would like to say thank you to our guide Sevilay Tokmak. My husband and I had a tour on the 1st of January on Sunday and we were the only tourists.
The culture and food tour is absolutely worth visiting! It shows the hidden face of Istanbul. The tour takes place in Taxim area, you will find a lot of small local cafes, old churches, tiny shops. Sevilay shows the other side of Istanbul, not such majestic, but very local and nice. We've visited many old churches of different confessions, in one of them Sevilay asked a guy to open the church for us. We ate some local food and tried the ayran drink in small cafe. We ate deserts in a place so loved by people that they protested against closing it. We walked in small narrow streets looking at old houses, every with it's own history. We went through small stores with scarfs, soap and different other stuff. Visited a cafe which served only Turkish coffee, and Sevilay told my fortune by coffee grounds. It was not like a tour, but like you are walking with a friend. In the end she advised us several places to eat and drink, and all her advices were 100 helpful.
Again, thank you guys!