What Can $10 Get in Turkey? (Not What You Think)

I'm Drew Binsky and I'm going to show you what $10 or 75 liras can get you in Adana, Turkey. Beautiful. Thank you so much. What's up everyone. I'm super excited to be back in one of my favorite countries in the world for a seventh visit, but this time I'm kicking off a four-week road trip around the perimeter of the country with my Turkish friend Anna. Man I'm extremely excited about Adana. We are gonna do the maximum. I hope you are ready. Until now I've only been to Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Antalya so I'm so excited to see life away from all the tourist traps. Adana is a city that you may have never heard of before but it's the fourth largest city in Turkey located in the south central part just 124 miles from the Syrian border. Last year at this time I spent 16 incredible days across that border. I am the highest person right now overlooking Damascus and I loved it so I'm bound to find some hidden specialties out here. Adana is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world with a name that's been unchanged for over 4,000 years. Overall I'm finding the prices around town to be very affordable, much more than Istanbul, so I can't wait to explore. $10 is about 75 liras. It's time to hit the streets and see what we can get. So the main reason I wanted to come to Adana is because it is the home of the famous kebab. Adana kebab. Adana kebab. So Turkey in general is known for its kebab but here in this city is where it comes from. Adana kebab is originated in this city and this is the most famous kebab among like 200 different types of kebab. And why is it so famous? I think it's the tastiest. I love it most. We asked a few locals to point us in the direction of the best kebab place in town and we finally made it to this one before rush hour. It's looking and smelling really tasty behind me. They got the open grill here that they're cooking in front of everyone. Sometimes you just know it's going to be that good of a meal and I know it's gonna be that good of a meal. Fresh onions were chopped and then mixed into this amazing salad. He made that in like 10 seconds. And then finally the food was served. This is Adana kebab. I'm gonna say this is one of the most beautiful plates I've ever seen in my life. Are you excited right now? Oh I'm gonna cry. This is the real deal. They serve these spears which are like two feet long. I'm kind of freaking out right now. This is a lot of food man. I mean we are two people and there's like nine plates and each plate is really full with stuff. Wow he's not wasting any time go for it. Whoever comes here they will serve the same setup. Juicy, tasty, warm. My vocabulary is not enough to explain this taste. Now I can understand why everybody loves Adana kebab. You can taste every flavor so fresh. All the ingredients, all the vegetables, the meat cooked perfectly, the pita bread, the spices. It is so freaking hot in the city. Like the hottest city in Turkey. We're running around everywhere just dying seriously. What did you think? I'm so happy because you know how to tip in Turkey. Oh in my country you have to tip. It's really important. Now we are going to get my favorite Turkish sweet which is called baklava. Baklava is a lot of layers and walnuts in between. It's the most famous Turkish dessert. I'm so excited. Right in front of us is a baklava place. Baklava is a sweet dessert pastry made from layers of thin unleavened dough filled with chopped nuts and held together with syrup or honey. No two recipes are the same so it's best to try from as many shops as you can and believe me they're everywhere in Turkey. Just the smell of it. Oh my god. My friend so tell me about your shop. Is it the first one? He is running this shop for 45 years. And you are cooking everything yourself? He is doing it with his sons and three more employees. Do you think you have the best baklava in Adana? They're so nice. They never say I'm the best but he's saying that okay there are some really good ones but I'm also good. All right so we are now eating the famous baklava of Adana. He just gave us free water. Here just look at this for a second. Like it just looks so good. So many different textures, different layers. Crunchy, soft, sweet, pistachios. I could die right now a happy man that I just had this baklava. So you've been eating here for all 45 years? He says this Mehmet uncle was selling only one tray of baklava a day. He was buying baklava from him so they know each other for 45 years. One thing you'll notice about Adana is it's hot. I think it's the hottest city in Turkey as he tells me. Exactly. So they have this refreshing drink banana milk which we are going to try right in front of us. Let's go. Super famous place. Now you might be thinking what's so special about banana milk but this place has been doing it their way for decades. I always try my best to find these hidden gems or hole in the walls and I think we have just hit the jackpot. This looks amazing. It's like banana ice cream. It's cold. There's chunks of ice in it. So refreshing. Exactly at four o'clock p.m the prayers come on. Illuminate the city. It's just a beautiful time even if you're not Muslim, even if you don't understand what they're saying. It's just beautiful the way everybody kind of stops what they're doing at this time. Bellies full we proceeded to stroll around Adana through the buzzing markets and inside the lovely ancient mosques. Something that caught my eye outside the main mosque was hundreds of pigeons and an old man selling bird food next to them. My curiosity led the way. Drew now we are gonna buy some food for the pigeons because pigeons are holy animals in Islam. They believe that pigeons are protected by our prophet Muhammad so this old uncle is selling pigeon food and we believe if you feed pigeon you will earn some sevab. One lira. One Turkish lira. He's asking to his father to buy one. Go ahead throw it in the pigeons. The scene quickly turned into a very special one after this kid became so happy feeding the birds. It was amazing to witness. I can't make a $10 video in Turkey without having a cup of hot Turkish tea. Of course so many countries in the region are tea drinkers but not on the same level as the Turkish. It's extremely common to see men and women all throughout the day drinking this special type of black tea that is known for its rich red color. It's always served in these same little curvy cups. Where's I followed this tea delivery guy around who makes over 20 trips a day to men in the nearby shops. I don't know where we're going but I'm following him to deliver the tea. We made it up to a random shoemaking shop on the second floor. Up again? Man this is like some serious work. It's not for me. It's for you. This kind man is offering me a cup of tea on his own dime. He is here all day working minimum wage in really hot conditions yet his sense of generosity can be seen from miles away. He looks like Putin. Thank you so much. You have placed on my head and in my heart. Thank you so much. Oh I love Turkish tea. It always tastes so good. This is such an amazing scene. We made it upstairs somewhere in Adana with all these men making shoes. We're like in a shoe factory and then they invited me to have tea with them. So we're having tea. Why are you laughing so much? They're so nice. They're saying so nice things to you. What are they saying? Translate. Welcome. Welcome. You have a place in our head. Welcome. Do you need anything? You want tea? You want please drink tea? Drink tea. Keep repeating. Okay back to real life. That was absolutely insane and so unexpected and so spontaneous and amazing. They're so nice. Turkish people are just so fantastic. They're wonderful. They're just happy to have me here and the tea culture is so cool. They all just they're working all day but they keep getting refills. How many times a day do you think they drink tea? Maybe 20 cups. 20 cups of tea in one day. You gotta love it. All right on to the next. We're walking on one of the busy roads now and in front of me there's a guy selling a Turkish flag. I have a collection. I haven't missed a country yet. I have flags all over the world and we're gonna go buy one. Yeah I'm gonna ask how much is it. Okay let's go. How much is it? He says 20 Turkish Liras but it's expensive. Too much. 15? Next stop the bazaar because almost every city in Turkey has one. It's a marketplace where goods and services have been exchanged or sold for thousands of years. Everything from food to electronics to handmade goods can be found and I immediately saw something I liked. All these boxes here. This is the box store. What is it? I asked the price of this box because this is really famous in this area. It's made out of the walnut tree. And I asked the price and he says give 15 Turkish Lira and take it. Really? No money? I will happily give him 15 for that. That's a good price. If I buy this what should I put inside? Gold, silver, money. This is the gems box so whatever you want. Thank you very much. Oh thank you very much. Can you say anything in English? Thank you very much. As we were walking to our final stop of the day something caught Ano's eye that he wanted me to try. Drew this is so Adana. This is turnip juice. It's all red and super tasty. Really strong. You want to taste? Yeah let's do it. I really don't know what this is but it looks good and if it's super Adana I'm into it. You want spicy or not? Yeah spicy of course. It's gonna be hell spicy. I want hell spicy. I had no idea what to expect but I was really intrigued by this guy's shop on wheels. That's the spicy. Wow it smells like strong Tabasco sauce is what it smells like. Whoa what it looks like a liquor bottle. It turns out that turnip juice originated right here in Adana. Do you drink it every day? Rakı is the special Turkish drink, alcoholic drink and they drink it with rakı. It's made of purple carrot pickles, heavily salted and spiced with aromatic turnips before being fermented in giant barrels. Teşekkürler. Okay now for the taste test. Spicy. That's like fire coming through my mouth. All I taste is like vinegar and Tabasco sauce. So it's supposed to be that spicy? No it's supposed to be more spicy. Doesn't even make sense. Is it good? Oh. Is it good? Spicy but this is the good version. I don't know how you find it refreshing. It's literally spicy. It's just spicy. Good? Yes. How much is it? One lira. Only one? One Turkish lira. I'm gonna give him 10. Can I do that or it's weird? Okay I'll give him five. Keep it. No, no, no. Keep it. Keep it. He's refusing. No, no, no. I want him to keep it. He's refusing. Why? He's definitely gonna. No, no, no. Please. Because I'm filming you and I'm using your time. I want you to have it. He's so surprised. So right now we are traveling in COVID-19 and we need to be washing our hands quite often. And one thing I love about Turkey is that they have this lemon like hand sanitizer. What's it called? It's called kolonya and we are using that kolonya for many years like hundreds of years. It's really traditional and when I was in Iran they have the same kind of thing with rose water. So we're walking through a market now and we found a place behind us to go grab it. Let's do it. This is it? Yeah. This is the kolonya. And this is 80% alcohol. All right now we are gonna put it to the test. I'm gonna be using this thing religiously over the next four weeks. Oh it smells so good. I want to eat it. It's like, it smells like candy. In total I got an Adana kebab, a baklava, a banana milk, bird food, Turkish tea, a turkey flag, a box made from walnuts, spicy turnip juice, and lemon kolonya for nine dollars and 88 cents. And that's what ten dollars can get you in Adana, Turkey. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. If you want to see more amazing content all around Turkey over the next four weeks then follow me on Instagram at Drew Binsky. I'm posting live Instagram stories every day and stay tuned for these videos guys. They're gonna be amazing. I'm literally driving around the perimeter going to so many small towns and villages and places that you've probably never heard of before and I'm so excited to experience the true Turkish life. Çok teşekkürler and we can't wait to show you more of this amazing country. Many great stories are on the way. It's true. Drew. Nice to meet you. Where are you from? Nice to meet you. I'm from Albania. Really? Yeah. Cool. Tirana? No from Durres. Cool. How did you make it there? Where are you from? I'm from the US. Which part? Virginia. Awesome. Where are you from? I'm from Turkey. How do you know? No, I'm shooting the drink. I'm shooting the tea. The chai. I was shooting the chai. Not your a**. Not your a**. He says but sit next to us. I need to get shot. I want them to be like natural at playing. I'm Drew Binsky and if you like my travel videos please click subscribe and ring that little bell so you can get notified on all my upcoming videos as I take you to every single country in the world.