Being a vegetarian in Istanbul is quite the challenge, but it can be done. This however, is not the topic of today’s post. I want to talk about bar/café culture here.
In Holland, or most North-Western European countries, if I go to a place to eat a sandwich where I’ve never been before, the next time I come back they won’t even remember I was there before. Small towns or villages are (generally) an exception to this rule, but in this 15 million population metropolis called Istanbul, you are remembered and valued.
The first time I went around the corner here to get a sandwich, I tried to get a vegetarian one. I got a sandwich with some cheese. I liked their attitude though (it was very hospitable and accommodating) and told my friend about it and took him there. When I came back I could see in their eyes that they were happy I not only came back a second time, but also brought another new customer to the place. My vegetarian sandwich now contained cheese and tomato.
Today I went there again and I heard the one guy say in Turkish to the other something along the lines of “look, he’s back again”. It’s nice to be noticed and it’s great to see how much Turkish business owners value returning customers. This time I got the same sandwich but with cucumber and salad. Next time maybe some fries? Another example.
In Istanbul there are many places to have some tea with friends, smoke some nargile (hookah/seisha), and play some games (mostly backgammon). Last week I already spoke about going to a nargile traditional waterpipe place in Taksim with some friends. We decided to go there again and I think we’ll be having weekly meet-ups at this place once we’re all spread out over town at different universities. Well, so far we already have weekly meet-ups 😉
Anyway, we sat down, drank some tea, ordered a banana flavour nargile which had milk instead of water in it and started playing backgammon. After one game, we put back the board and brought out Balance, probably known as Jenga to most Westerners. We played a few games, but the concentration and energy that goes into this game is magnetic and we soon had the attention of the staff. We invited them to come play and had a lot of fun with them. Great!
It’s important here to form a bond with people. Not just for the free tea, nargile, or having many friends, but for the simple fact that the customer / staff relationship is rather different from in Holland. In one way you are treated with more respect and more formality, in the other way more personal. Maybe because of the more personal touch there is more respect between staff and customer. People don’t just see each other as their roles (there are exceptions of course) or as numbers, but as actual people and treat you as such.
Except for in Turkey’s mobile phone network provider Türkcell’s shops where they treat you like someone who doesn’t mind having to “come back tomorrow” for seven days per week to avoid getting cut off from the network. Big thumbs down to Türkcell and how their staff treats foreigners. (Just wanted to vent)
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Comments
13 responses to “The Vegetarian Sandwich”
Getting a cell in Taiwan was rather tricky as well. We needed two forms of ID, Passport + ______ and we had to fill out numerous forms & give not just our address but the address of someone else we knew here.
I compare that to how you just go to the store in the US and buy a prepaid cellphone with no hassle at all. I think it’s the same way across europe with Vodaphone & O2. But Alas, got a cellphone!
I have been a vegetarian for 13 years and have found various countries all over Asia very difficult as well. Kind of surprising, since I thought tofu was invented somewhere around here? Hmm…
We have “Jenga” too! I love bringing out the games that don’t require much language.
We are in Laos. Woohoo!
CanCan (Mom Most Traveled)s last blog post: “Well-Heeled Kids Wear Livie & Luca“
@ Chris: thanks for your comment. That makes it look like child’s play over here 😉
@ CanCan: I think tofu came from China, but that doesn’t mean they won’t eat meat also 😉 The only Asian country where it’s really easy to be a vegetarian is India. The Middle East must be so difficult.
Yeah, games that don’t require language are great tools for bonding with people who don’t speak any of the languages you speak 🙂 Thanks for the comment.
I love it that they keep adding new stuff to your order. So the fries and the tomatoes and cheese they are done, I wonder what they will think of next to please your vegetarian palate. This was a good post. New to your blog and enjoying it.
I have an update to it actually.
Last time I went there I got a sandwich to go, since I was going from the European to the Asian side and wanted to have it on the boat. I had already paid for my sandwich when it started to rain heavily, so the guy offered me some tea. Free of charge of course 🙂
So we had our cup of tea and after I had finished my tea the rain had stopped and I could walk on to the ferry on which I finished my delicious sandwich 😉
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Certainly true, in Turkey the hospitality is personal. Tom of TurkeyTravelPlanner.com explained the of bargaining there well at a talk once
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in the West when you go into a store, you are the product and if you try to haggle, the transaction becomes a competition.
In Turkey, bargaining, in fact most business dealings, are the beginnings of personal relationships. The better the relationship the more business you’ll give them, and both sides benefit.
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I just wanted to recommend, if you get the chance, the veggie dorum at Komegene (not quite sure if that is spelled correctly – I should be able to spell it since the Turkish alphabet is phonetic). They do etsiz cig kofte (meatless raw meat kofte). Yummy! By far the best veggie sandwich I’ve gotten in Istanbul in 3 years. Its a chain so available all over including Sultanahmet, Kadikoy, Pendik and I believe Ortakoy.
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