Everything from Turkish delights
to home-cooked meals,
we'll cover that and more here in Istanbul, Turkey.
One of my favorite parts of the day in Istanbul was breakfast.
I really enjoyed sitting down with my friends
over this tapas-style meal
featuring warm tea, olives,
freshly and lightly seasoned veggies,
as well as freshly baked bread with a side
of olive oil for dipping.
Now traditionally Turkish breakfasts are
also served with butter, cheese, and
sometimes eggs. Obviously those things
can be easily veganized as well.
Another thing that I really came to love in Istanbul
was Çiğ köfte. It's made out of
a pulsed mix of walnut, bulgar and spices.
They have these specialty shops all over
the city where you order just the Çiğ köfte.
It was originally made out of raw meat,
but because of the health concerns
and people getting sick, there was actually a
movement to make it a vegetable-based protein.
Okay now let's meet my friend Sinan,
he's going to tell us about
another Turkish food that just happens to be vegan.
This is actually walnuts wrapped
in a paste made of only grapes, so no
gelatin whatsoever, is just walnut and grapes.
It's called "sujuk", but that is really
confusing because "sujuk" also means
"sausage", so you have to be really
explicit in what you want.
The cool thing about Istanbul is that the largely
Mediterranean influence on the food
means that many of the dishes are
automatically or unintentionally vegan.
For example, here I am having dinner with
my friends Melis and Sinan at Kiva Han
which is the name of the restaurant in
the neighborhood of Galata.
One again, we're enjoying a tapas-style meal.
We ordered a bunch of things off the menu
that just happened to be vegan, including
eggplant, olive oil, and garlic dishes,
minced olive salad, stuffed artichoke,
zucchini, lentils, onion-tomato, and
a tabbouleh-like dish.
I'm happy to report that most Turkish delights
are vegan, too. Just be sure to double check the ingredients.
One afternoon my friends and I were walking
around Kadıköy. Unfortunately the
restaurant we wanted to visit was closed for renovations.
However, the woman who was
sitting outside of the neighboring
restaurant ushered us in.
She was the owner and she explained how much she
enjoyed cooking for vegans.
When I told her that you're vegan, she told me the following:
So she said, "Here's what I think, vegans are people
who think a very, um, nice,
beautiful way that the world is having
difficulty accepting.
(speaking Turkish)
She wants to make the world a more livable place
in equality, like, with species, like, in a more unified way.
Yeah! I want to feed you!
It was delicious!
Thank you very much!
Yes, thank you!
The food tour does not stop there thanks to the
kindness of a local vegan named Maria,
who spent an entire day later that week
exploring all of the completely vegan
establishments around Istanbul.
We're going to the area called Beşiktaş
it's a bit of a student area
and you have, uh, two vegetarian/vegan places.
My favorite place in Istanbul for vegan food was Bi Nevi.
I enjoyed their sun-dried tomato cashew vegan cheese
as well as the bowl of the day and got to
sample the white bean and quinoa burger
as well as some their amazing desserts.
They change their menu every single day
to accommodate local fresh foods and
it's a completely vegan establishment.
There's even one completely vegan store
in Istanbul called Vegan Dükkan.
They've got books, cleaning supplies, self care products,
makeup, and hard to find foods
like milks, cheeses and snacks.
It's a really tiny place and the owner is super nice.
Thanks for chatting with us and
letting us look around, Targan!
The last stop on my food tour with Maria was to Zencefil.
We enjoyed, yet again, a Mediterranean-style fare
featuring eggplant, zucchini, lentils and bread.
This restaurant is great because it is
completely vegetarian with some great
vegan options.
We're in Kadıköy right now,
it's on the Asian side of Istanbul,
and we will be taking these ferries that take us
across the Bosphorus to the European side.
We're traveling on the Bosphorus right now,
which is what separates, it's a water channel separating
the two continents.
We're on the European side now,
so we're in another continent.
This place is called Karaköy.
This is actually a very old medieval Italian colony.
Cheers!
If you are coming here for the first time
you should definitely come over to the historic Peninsula.
It involves Topkapi Palace, Bue Mosque, Hagia Sophia,
the Cisterns, Basilica Cisterns specifically,
Spice Bazaar, Grand Bazaar.
The best thing to do in Grand Bazaar is to get in there and get lost
because you actually can get lost
and that's just, like, an amazing experience.
We are in the Grand Bazaar.
This is a place where people have been trading
and exchanging commodities for, I think
about 500 years or 600 years at the very least.
It's a labyrinthine, organic structure
of, uh, various markets.
[The] middlemost section of it has been
covered over time so the streets have
turned into this huge mall. Even into the
20th century, even into the '50s, it was a
place where the locals could come and get
exported goods and other stuff, and more
recently it has turned into a
completely touristic attraction with just
a very few--
Except for gold and jewelry.
Except for gold and jewelry, people do
come here for gold and jewelry.
We are at the Spice Bazaar, and we just
picked up some dried apricots,
dates with walnuts inside, and figs.
It's just a regular date with a walnut.
One of the first things you'll probably notice when you
visit Istanbul is the amount of stray
cats and dogs all over the city.
Even though there is an overpopulation issue
the government does have facilities in
place to help take care of the animals,
spay and neuter them, and feed them.
Then again sometimes the locals get
adopted by the animals too.
No matter the time of day or the meal or in between meals,
tea is always available and something
that locals enjoy throughout the day.
While you're there be sure to indulge in
a cup of Turkish coffee. Served in small
cups, it's known to be rich, strong and delicious.
Be sure to have a local nearby
who can read your fortune after you
finished your coffee.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of Istanbul, Turkey.
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