If you're watching this on an empty stomach, I have a feeling you're going to need a snack
because this video is all about incredible Turkish street foods and treats that blew our minds.
When we arrived in Turkey and discovered the unbelievable cuisine,
we knew we were in a food lover’s paradise.
In this video, we’re filling our bellies with all of the Turkish street food we can find
as well as a few other treats thrown in for good measure.
We had sensory overload our first night wandering around Istiklal Street
in the Galata neighbourhood of Istanbul
with people and excitement buzzing everywhere.
We came across a stand serving up durum,
which we loved so much that we ended up going back to again the next night.
The best way I can describe durum is that it's like a Turkish wrap
filled with the same ingredients you’d find in a döner kebab.
Went back to our favourite little shop here.
Our favourite durum.
It’s with chicken and cheddar cheese,
and of course they put like vegetables and some sauce.
Yeah.
It has weight.
Yeah.
A bit like a Turkish burrito.
Mmm…it’s so good.
Yeah, so good!
I love you!
Alright…he’s kissing the durum, guys. -Kissing the durum.
It’s come to this!
The morning we visited Hagia Sophia was chilly and damp
so we were delighted to find a father and son
serving up tea and gözleme directly in front of the jaw-dropping UNESCO world heritage site.
Watching it being made reminded me of some of the delicious crepes we’ve had in France
or banana pancakes in Thailand.
The dough is rolled thin and filled with toppings,
brushed with butter and placed on a griddle.
The ones we had were filled with cheese
but they’re often filled with a variety of meats, veggies and cheeses.
I was impressed with the attention to making sure every edge of the pastry is perfectly crispy
before slicing it up into smaller bite-sized pieces.
It’s customary to have tea with breakfast so we ordered two of those
and sat down to eat and escape the rain.
Thank you.
We’re trying for the first time a Turkish pancake also called a gözleme
and you can get it with three different fillings.
Well, at least three anyway.
Meat, cheese and potato so we both went for the cheese
and it was so cool to watch him make it because it’s this curved surface
and at one time, the pancake almost slid to the bottom
and they just very slowly turn it back and forth
and even he made sure to get both of the edges, which I thought was pretty cool.
It just…it smells so, so good.
It really reminds me of a crepe… Turkish kind of crepe.
Crepes and pancakes…never a bad thing.
The piece I just tried didn’t actually have that much cheese in it so…
Better get another one.
I’m going to get a piece that’s really cheesy.
Ooh, I can see the cheese in there.
Mmm.
I think there’s also maybe spinach in there.
Yeah something green.
Totally different than a crepe.
Yeah.
Like the wheat that they use or something is different.
I really like it though.
It’s delicious.
Salty kind of cheese…really nice and soft.
I love salty cheese.
Me too.
Fun to watch it being made, more fun to eat it.
It doesn't take long in Istanbul to understand that tea is very important,
as is the culture and ritual surrounding it.
Drinking tea here is an absolute must.
Istanbul has a lot of recognizable landmarks.
Of course, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia and the Galata Tower,
but if you ask me, the thing that most represents this city...
...is this right here.
This tulip-shaped tea glass with this little cup underneath.
It’s almost always the same cup with the red and gold design.
And this is black tea.
It’s called chai here, and it’s very, very strong.
It’s fairly common to add sugar.
And you will see people drinking this tea everywhere.
Everywhere.
And it’s really hot, which is why they have this little cup underneath
and it’s just so comforting to both drink and to me to just walk around
and see everyone enjoying a…a little cup out of this beautifully shaped glass.
It’s so Istanbul.
I love that forever, this glass shape and this sound by the way,
as you walk down the street and hear people stirring their tea,
will forever make me think of Istanbul.
Mmm!
So strong.
So cozy, so comforting.
Hi!
I wasn’t expecting to see you here!
I just looked down at my purse and this cat was staring at me.
Look how cute he is!
Oh my god!
Cat!
Go buddy.
Ow!
You’re very cute, okay?
Are you so cute?
Yes.
Very cute.
On a visit to the Grand Bazaar, which you can see more of in another video,
we found a restaurant selling pide,
which are like mini Turkish-style pizzas in a canoe-shaped body
with all the toppings you can dream of.
Now that I'm saying that out loud, I realize it's very Canadian to describe the shape like a canoe.
So there we go.
Anyway we went with our favourite combination of flavours: spinach and cheese.
We stopped at a place for pide with cheese and spinach
and we each got a juice.
It’s a mix of fresh pomegranate and fresh orange juice
with, of course, the traditional Turkish crazy straw.
This stuff, I mean, it doesn’t get any fresher than that.
They squeeze it when you order it.
And this stuff smells so good.
Right on the street…it doesn’t get better than this.
No.
Especially at the Grand Bazaar.
It’s pretty sweet.
People watching…pide eating…
...crazy straw drinking…life is good.
Drinking freshly squeezed pomegranate juice felt thrilling
because, back at home in Canada,
it’s not very common to get anything pomegranate-flavoured
so we made sure to order a double-sized cup.
I loved watching them squeeze the juice and - not gonna lie - I had a bit of a pinch me moment
just sitting there in Istanbul watching the world go by.
I would just like to say that Marc and I have just left the Grand Bazaar
and now we’re sitting outside on tiny little stools eating cheese and spinach pide
with freshly-squeeze orange and pomegranate mixed juice.
I feel like Vanna White.
I’m with Marc, I’m in Istanbul… I’m feeling very happy.
Yes…I am too.
I just wanted to tell you.
The Galata Bridge is a cool two-storey bridge you should check out to see local fishermen
and even some jellyfish if you're lucky.
At one end of the bridge, opposite Galata,
there are lots of different food vendors selling all kinds of different street foods.
We indulged in some sweet deep-fried mini donuts
and a cozy drink called sahlep.
These little heavenly discs with the hole in the middle are called lokma.
They’re like little mini donuts deep-fried to pure perfection.
And it cost 5 lira for this entire thing.
I don’t want it to fall.
Oh my god.
You think it’s going to be really doughy but it’s not.
If you’ve ever had like a really fresh Krispy Kreme donut,
that’s the closest thing that I can compare it to.
It has this lovely crunch on the outside
but then, I don’t know, the most perfect, airy, melt-in-your-mouth feeling when you crunch down on it.
And don’t drop it.
This is one of my absolute favourite discoveries in Turkey.
This is a drink called sahlep
and anytime I see one of those gold canisters around, I’m on it
because I want to have as much as I can of this stuff.
It usually costs about 5 lira for a cup like this.
They shake cinnamon on top
and it tastes…it has the same nourishing taste as a porridge does.
You just feel good drinking it.
You feel like it’s doing something good to your insides.
And it tastes very cozy.
It’s the best way I can describe it.
Oh!
And apparently it congeals on the top with the cinnamon layer.
It’s super thick though and it just tastes absolutely delicious.
I’m already feeling anxiety about not being able to find sahlep so easily.
Another Turkish treat we fell completely in love with is kumpir -
also known as stuffed potatoes.
As in, the most stuffed potatoes I've ever seen in my life.
Wow!
It’s very big!
These immense potatoes are extremely popular
and, at one place we visited,
we found ourselves practically having to crowd surf our way over to the cash to pick up our order.
At this restaurant on Istiklal Street, however,
it was late at night and much less busy.
When you pay for your food, they give you little tickets
which you then hand over when your order is filled.
We waited through still a fairly lengthy line,
which gave us plenty of time to think about all the toppings we would load our potatoes with.
There are tons of options to choose from,
including butter, cheese, corn, olives, peas, mushrooms,
and different salads blends of beet, macaroni, potato, and egg.
To top it all off, there are sauces like ketchup and mayo
and you can also add spice if you like the heat.
I couldn’t believe how massive the potato looked when he was all finished making it.
It was bursting and the potato underneath was practically unrecognizable under all the toppings.
By far one of the most fun and tastiest dishes that we have tried in Turkey is called kumpir.
And it’s a baked potato fully, fully loaded.
At home, I feel like we say fully loaded…no.
This is fully, fully loaded.
It’s absolutely exploding with all sorts of different toppings.
There’s tons laid out and you can pick whatever you want with different sauces.
They’ve got a huge mound of butter at one end, which is a beautiful thing.
So we each got one
and to drink, we’re having banana with milk, banana milkshake.
It’s perfect.
What…are you not supposed to eat the outer shell?
The man loves potatoes.
The bigger the better.
Exactly.
Love all of it.
Okay…here’s the aftermath.
I feel like I did a pretty good job until you look at Marc’s potato.
It’s completely demolished.
What can I say…I like potatoes.
And the funny thing is when you look at everyone else’s tables that are left,
they all look like mine.
They didn’t even eat theirs.
What a waste!
Shake my head.
We couldn’t leave Istiklal Street without dipping in to one of the many stores
selling Turkish delight and baklava to pick up a midnight snack.
We’re trying some delicious late-night baklava.
This is dry baklava, which is less sweet than the regular ones, which are here.
And then Marc wanted to try one with chocolate.
And I…I think this is also baklava but I’m not really clear
but it looks like these beautiful bird’s nests with pistachios inside.
And then these are a form of Turkish delight.
This is nougat and with rose
and they actually have the crushed…crushed rose petals on the outside, which looks so beautiful.
And the pistachio nut’s here.
It’s just pure happiness in a box.
You’ll also note that we have two of everything so that we don’t have to share.
Except the chocolate one.
That was our compromise.
You’ll also note that there's two that are missing right here
because we just ate them.
I forgot.
There were two pomegranate Turkish delights here.
So you can use your imagination.
Sorry!
Over in Çengelkoy on the Asian side of Istanbul,
we tried our very first börek on Turkish soil,
which is one of the Turkish foods we already knew and loved before arriving in Istanbul.
These ones were ooey gooey and the perfect blend of cheese and flaky pastry.
They had this tray that had just come out of the oven
and we pointed at a few different things and said “sweet,” “meat” and “cheese”
and the one that had just come out of the oven that was piping hot and smelled so amazing was cheese.
So that’s what we asked for.
It looks amazing.
But I can’t wait anymore so I’m going to dig in.
Oh!
That smell.
Warm, flaky, cheesy carbs.
I know.
You can’t go wrong.
Flaky pastry with cheese that’s just come out of the oven.
It’s so good!
Further south in Kadıköy on our way to the Moda neighbourhood -
still on the Asian side of the city -
we spotted a cafeteria-style restaurant
that reminded us of the milk bars we love in countries like Poland and Russia
so we couldn’t resist stopping in for a bite.
We passed by this cafeteria-looking place and it was full of people.
Always a good sign and we were hungry, so we decided to stop.
I have a vague idea of what most of this food is but that’s about it to be honest.
But it’s always just so much fun to pop into a place…
especially when it’s all laid out buffet-style like that
and you can just kind of point at whatever looks good or look at what other people are trying.
It’s a really fun way to, I don’t know, be curious and also try new things that you never would before
because you wouldn’t even know to ask for them.
After finishing up the main course,
I finally got to try something I was really excited about after seeing it everywhere.
I’m going to try drinking ayran.
You see this everywhere.
So many people drinking this
and I’ve heard that it’s considered the national drink of Turkey.
And it’s very simple – it’s made with water, yogurt and salt.
So I’m going to try it for the first time.
I’ve seen different brands with different packaging but
I guess you’re just supposed to open it and put a straw in.
It came with a straw.
Oh wow, you can see it’s…
I want to stir it because I can feel there’s some thickness at the bottom.
Very watery consistency though.
It just smells like plain yogurt.
Which is what it is.
With water and salt.
Oh.
There’s definitely no sugar in there.
I can taste that it’s saltier than normal yogurt.
But other than that, it tastes a lot like plain yogurt.
It’s nice.
This one at least has kind of the perfect consistency.
Not too watery, not too thick.
It’s refreshing.
As you can see, Turkey is a dream for food lovers
and I feel like everyone can find something to love.
Check out the rest of our Turkey series for more videos around Istanbul
like what to expect at a Turkish bath,
the Asian vs European sides of the city,
trying Turkish breakfast,
and the incredible sights you need to experience.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
Make sure to give it a thumbs up if you did
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Thanks for watching!