What They REALLY Eat In Türkiye (So Much More Than Just Kebab!)

İstanbul might be known for grilled meats and buttery desserts, but there's a different side to Turkish cuisine that many visitors miss. This is what locals really eat!

VEGAN CULTURES EP. 6 | İSTANBUL, TÜRKIYE - I'm back in the city for a second spin, exploring traditional experiences like visiting a Meyhane for a meze-fuelled lunch, tasting an 8,000-year-old drink and learning how foreign influences are shaping the local food culture. This episode is packed with the kind of food that just happens to be vegan.

İstanbul Part 1:    • Istanbul's Traditional Dishes Are VEGAN?! ...  

📚 My book Naturally Vegan (with recipes and stories from my travels): https://geni.us/NaturallyVegan

Boza: https://bakinghermann.com/authentic-b...

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:42 Boza
02:26 Meyhane
07:33 Türk Kahvesi
09:04 Turşu
11:20 Hummus & Syrian Influences
16:40 End

ISTANBUL FOOD TOUR

Our tour starts at Vefa Bozacisi (  / vefabozacisi1876  , where I try Boza for the first time. It's a fermented and sweetened millet drink that is more than 8,000 years old! Traditionally, it's served with roasted chickpeas and a generous dash of cinnamon, whilst the drink tastes deliciously fruity, with notes of apple.

Next up, is an iconic İstanbul experience: Visiting a traditional Meyhane. These taverns are known for their vast meze spreads. At the beginning of the meal, a waiter brings a huge tray filled with different meze to your table and lets you choose which ones you'd like to order. They then return soon after with your selection, freshly made from the kitchen. I visited the awarded Gırıtlı (  / giritlirestoran  , where chef Ayşe Şensilay showed me how she makes a traditional black cabbage dish. At her restaurant, Ayşe cooks Turkish food with a Greek mind and you'll find fava purées, black-eyed pea salads, potato salads and green beans in a fresh tomato sauce as part of her meze — together they make for a wonderful plant-based feast. Don't forget to pair them with Rakı, the iconic Turkish liquor that turns white the moment you add water to the glass.

Of course, you cannot visit İstanbul without having Türk Kahvesi, or Turkish coffee. That's why I checked out the community hotspot Mandabatmaz (  / mandabatmazkahvesi  ) for a properly brewed cup. The coffee grounds are poured into the cup along with all of the brewed coffee, so you need to let it set for a moment and then only drink the top layer, allowing the coffee grounds to remain on the bottom. Though it looks incredibly strong, the brew is actually quite mild and very enjoyable to drink.

One of the biggest revelations during my Türkiye visit was the vast pickling culture. You'll find pickling shops at almost every street corner, selling lacto-fermented pickles of all kinds of veg. Green tomatoes, beans, garlic, cauliflower, cabbage... you name, they've pickled it. I got a mixed cup of pickles at Asri Turşucu (  / asritursucu  ) with half spciy and half mild pickling liquid. It may not be for the faint-hearted, but it's an incredible way to kickstart your day with a gut-friendly boost, or, according to locals, to cure a hangover.

The last stop of this food tour is somewhat different. With many Syrian immigrants having arrived in İstanbul over the last decade, I wanted to find out how they are shaping the local food culture. That's why I visited Buuzecedi (  / buuze_cedi  , a Syrian restaurant in the heart of the city. Here I tasted hummus, foul, musabaha and falafel — all of which were absolutely delicious. Thanks for watching!

VEGAN CULTURES - THE MISSION

Vegan food is not a modern invention. It’s a modern label. We've been eating plant-based dishes for thousands of years, be it for religious reasons, out of poverty or simply because of what was available naturally. This show is about discovering these kinds of dishes - dishes from around the world that just happen to be vegan - so that we can embrace them for a more sustainable plant-based diet.

📣 Let me know in the comments which country I should visit next and what dishes I might find!

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Edit by Trang Nguyen