Notes On Contrasts Between Da Nang, Vietnam; Istanbul, Turkey And Philadelphia, USA Part 1: FOOD

Turkish Kahvalti

We recognize it’s unlikely that you’ll travel from the US to Vietnam to Turkey any time soon. However, even if you’re never able to visit the destinations we describe here on Wandering Griffins, we love that you want to learn about them from afar! Many of you have told us that you’re curious about the contrasts we’ve witnessed since moving from Philadelphia, USA to Da Nang, Vietnam and now to Istanbul, Turkey. This list is for you!

• In Turkey, we learned the lovely expression “It’s not about what you eat, but who you eat with.” And Turkish breakfasts, known as kahvaltı, are all about bringing people together. They feature a variety of delicious little bites of this-and-that including cheeses, honey and cream, rose jam, roasted nuts, candied figs, salty yogurt, olives, fresh fruit and vegetables, za’atar spice, bread, eggs, and more. It’s delightful to choose from an assortment of little dishes to curate your own perfect breakfast. Our favorite place for kahvaltı in Istanbul is at Hadika Kahvaltı Evi where the owners, Umit and Sevgi, are as lovely as their restaurant’s food and atmosphere. Americans, when they make time for breakfast, traditionally dine on foods like sugary and wheat-based cereal with cow’s milk, eggs and cured meat, bread, fruit and yogurt, protein smoothies, oatmeal, etc. In Vietnam, for many people, breakfast is the biggest meal of the day, and is often a broth-based savory noodle dish or rice-based meal with meat or seafood. Our favorites are mì quảng, bánh cuốn, bún chả cá, cháo and phở, most of which you can read about here, in our blog post on foods to try in Da Nang.
• Like Vietnamese coffee, Turkish coffee (Türk kahvesi) is brewed from finely ground beans and served in small portions which are VERY strong. However it is never served with any kind of milk, whereas Vietnamese coffee (cà phê sữa) is frequently enjoyed with sweetened condensed milk (or whipped egg foam, or coconut sorbet, both which are delicious and available at 6/6 in Da Nang). Turkish and Vietnamese coffee styles are both in high contrast to American coffee, which is usually served in much larger portion sizes, but also much weaker strengths, then (some would say adulterated, but we won’t) with plain or flavored creamers.
• Unlike in Vietnam, where coffee is the caffeinated drink of choice throughout the day, in Turkey, black tea (either with or without sugar, but never dairy) is drank throughout the day. Turkish coffee is typically only enjoyed at the end of dinner.
• It’s more difficult for us to find a casual vegetarian or vegan meal in Istanbul, Turkey than in Vietnam or the Philadelphia area. Stemming from Vietnam’s buddhist culture, there are many vegetarian and vegan restaurants throughout the country. However in Turkey, while a plethora of vegetarian side dishes can easily be found, the main meal is typically made of beef or chicken (but not pork, thanks to the country’s predominantly Muslim culture’s prohibition on eating pig products).
• If you enjoy eating meat, you will love Istanbul! Kebab (chunks of meat grilled on a skewer) and döner (meat cooked on a rotating vertical spit and then cut into thin shavings) proliferate every neighborhood. Ever wondered how they make doner? Here’s a video.
• Three commonly used spices/flavors in Turkey that we’d not previously tried include za’atar seasoning, sumac spice and nar sos.
• Za’atar comes in countless variations but is typically made from dried thyme, oregano, marjoram, salt and toasted sesame seeds. Food lovers in Istanbul use it as a dry rub on meat, as a topping for hummus, or as pairing with an olive oil dip for bread.
• Sumac spice is made from the sumac bush (different than Poison Sumac in the US!) whose dark red berries are dried and then ground into a powder which brings a tangy flavor and colorful addition to salads, seafood, chicken and grain dishes.
• Nar sos, which translates to pomegranate sauce, has the consistency of balsamic vinegar and can be used in the same ways: as a salad dressing, sauce for fish or chicken, as a baste for beef, or even as a cocktail or spritzer beverage mixer.
• Rice is the dietary staple of Vietnam, and while also eaten in the USA and Turkey, here in Istanbul, it’s not nearly as popular as bulgur wheat. When living in Vietnam, we ate a rice-based meal at least once a day. Now that we’re in Turkey, a bulgur-based meal has taken its place. We make it at home and eat it mixed with roasted vegetables and spices, drizzled in nar sos, or, in yummy çiğ köfte wraps (also with nar sos) from the shop down the street from our apartment.
• The sections of stores selling cooking equipment look starkly different between Istanbul, Turkey and Da Nang, Vietnam. We searched and searched here in Istanbul but couldn’t find a single rice cooker. But panini (toast) presses are ubiquitous. Items we miss from America that we’ve not seen since leaving include popcorn poppers and water carbonators.
• Tofu is very difficult for us to find here in Istanbul. Several months after our arrival, we finally discovered a small Chinese grocery store who sells homemade tofu. But we rarely see it even on vegetarian restaurant menus. Tofu, despite being abundantly available in the US, is in our opinion, not very good in America. We suppose it’s due both to the type of soy beans being used and the recipe methods, but for those of you in America who claim you don’t like tofu, you must give it a shot if you travel to Asia. You’re really missing out. Also, dehydrated faux meat for use in soups and stews, which is super-common in Vietnam, doesn’t seem to exist in Turkey or the Philadelphia-area (even in Vietnamese stores in Philly!).
• As fruit zealots, we loved living in Vietnam, and thought we would be giving up abundant access to fresh delicious fruits when we moved to Turkey. While we did need to say farewell to the likes of mangosteen, rambutan and dragonfruit, we’ve been delighted by Turkey’s summertime abundance of affordable peaches, plums, cherries and the most enormous and delicious figs we ever did see. Also, we can buy lemons in Turkey!!! Lemons were always mysteriously absent from Vietnam (though limes and kumquats were a stellar substitute). The only fruit we expected to have easy access to which we don’t here in Istanbul are bananas. They’re widely available in supermarkets, but silly-expensive compared to the US and Vietnam.
• Ayran (pronounced “eye-rahn”) is a beverage we’d not previously tried anywhere in the world, which is served cold and made from yogurt, water and salt. Robin’s favorite is when it’s also blended with fresh basil leaves.
• In the US, the number of alcoholic spirits, beers, and wines made domestically, let alone the total available on the market are nearly uncountable. In Vietnam, low-alcohol/low-price beers and vodka were the domestically-produced drinks of-note. In Turkey, whose predominant Muslim religion shuns the consumption of alcohol, not surprisingly has a smaller number of locally-produced alcoholic beverages. But there are wines from Turkey’s surprisingly large number of (but not particularly well known) vineyards, a small handful of craft beer breweries (including Bomonti beer, which originated just a few blocks from our apartment in Istanbul), and raki: a distilled spirit very similar to Greek ouzo in its anise/licorice flavor. Raki starts off clear, but when diluted by water (as is the recommended way for drinking), makes an enigmatic transformation into a cloudy beverage.
• Bakeries in Istanbul, Turkey are often called either patisseries (from the French language) or pastanesi. The latter are sometimes abbreviated to “Pasta Cafe” which at first quite confused us as Westerners whose first association with the word pasta, is well…pasta, the dried, wheat-based extruded food that you hydrate with boiling water and eat with savory sauces. We were quite surprised to learn that in Istanbul, a pasta cafe is where you go for cookies, not tortellini.
• Turkey has one helluva dessert scene. The number of dessert shops nearly outweigh the döner and kebab eateries. Sweets from Da Nang Vietnam’s Jeremy’s Kitchen and anything baked by Lien at 6/6 will always make our hearts beat faster, but the variety of sensationally good (as well as strange) desserts here in Turkey are worth celebrating. These include:
• Tavuk göğsü: A firm, milk-based pudding baked with shredded chicken breast
• Su muhallebisi: Milk-based pudding soaked in rose water and coated in powdered sugar
• Lokum (Turkish delight)
• Profiterole: Although originated in France and popular throughout Europe, we think the world’s best is at Nazar Pastanesi in Istanbul. They make it with a bitter chocolate pudding topping that’s out of this world.
• Aşure: A vegan wheat pudding that contains dried fruits, nuts, chickpeas and other ingredients