5 Turkish Meals for Less Than $2 (Insanely Cheap)

What's up guys, Drew Binsky here in Istanbul with my friend. Hello, Anil. Two years ago, we did a six week road trip around Turkey and it was incredible. And I'm back here, and in this video, we're gonna try five Turkish dishes for under $2 each. Are you excited? Yes, I am. I'm so hungry and so excited. Let's do it, man. Let's start. Istanbul is the central city of our world. Formerly known as Constantinople, the city is home to the second oldest underground metro, the world's largest covered bazaar, and well over 3,000 mosques. My favorite two are the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, which cannot be missed. At over 15 million people, Istanbul is the 15th largest city on earth. And that means that there is no shortage of amazing food to try. When I was here, six lira was $1. Yeah. That was just two years ago. Now? Now it's much terrible, and it's 17 lira is equal to one US dollar. So the inflation is around 160%. So people are struggling to buy milk, to buy groceries. Everything, abi, everything. Life is getting harder and harder in Turkey, but we are trying to survive. This is called Istiklal Street. This is the most touristic and most popular part in Europe side. Istanbul is the only city in the world that is split between two continents. So you have Asia side and the European side. The European side is way more touristy. Yes, yes, abi. But the Asian side is more charming. Yeah, Asian side has some cozy cafes and bars. You can chill out. Like neighborhoods are really nice. But this side is more touristy with all the sightseeing and everything. I recommend you to spend time in both sides. Both. That's the answer, both. So to experience. This is called Durumzade, and they make amazing Adana kebabs. Maybe the best you can find in Istanbul, of course. And I see a big picture of Anthony Bourdain on the wall. So if he approves, then I'm going to approve. Thank you. Merhaba. The thing I love about Turkish kebabs is that they kind of make it in the window here, and they have all the ingredients down below so you can see before they cook it. And it's also a very outside culture. Like you sit on these little chairs right here and drink some tea and enjoy your food. I hope you didn't eat breakfast. No, abi. I was waiting for you. I knew that we were going to eat like crazy. Yes. All right. Sitting down with Kulaksa, my role model. Everything I do is because of this man. I used to watch him in high school with my dad. His brother served him food. And after the food, Anthony Bourdain generally makes few sentences of a comment. But he made only one word comment for this place. This is amazing. And as far as I know, after the official record, he came here three more times by himself. Whoever comes here should eat two Adana kebab in one wrap. So this is double Adana wrap. That is the key. And they grill even the bread. And it's so hot. So fresh. Amazing. Hot. It's juicy. Onion, tomato. Like you can feel all the taste one by one. I love how he's behind you just like, yep, yep. He's like, I know it's good. It's hot, bro. It tastes just like the one we had in Adana. Very good, man. You have cilantro, onions, tomato, spicy sauce, and the best meat you've ever tasted in your life all wrapped up in one sandwich. I have no words. Ayran. This is very, very Turkish. How can you explain what it is? This is yogurt, water, and salt. That's all. Only three ingredients. It is refreshing. I actually like it a lot. As you're eating at the table, you have cats that just come sit next to you. They just watch you eat. See you again. Inshallah. I can eat a few more, but I saved some space. We saved a little bit of space for the next dish coming up. You know what it's gonna be? You know, when I was in Iran three months ago, they told me that baklava is from Iran. No comment, but like everyone should come to Turkey and try our baklava inside by themselves. Absolutely. I always recognize that guy. The little logo right here. This is the baklava heaven, and we are gonna try some different types of baklava. Oh my God. Oh my God, Abi. Thank you. Mashallah, mashallah, mashallah. This store is just beautiful. Beautifully decorated, colorful. Maybe milk cream. What's so good about baklava, you have layers and layers and layers. It's like a pastry, a very sweet pastry with honey on top and pistachios mixed in the middle. So detailed. The taste is just so good. Baklava in Turkey. I don't know if it's better in Iran or in Turkey, but both. It's amazing. It's good in Turkey, good in Iran. Eat baklava. We just turned into one of the side streets here. It's very narrow, and you're literally covered in restaurants, cafes. What I love about Istanbul, it's a melting pot of Muslim countries. So you have a lot of Afghans, you have a lot of Iranians, Syrians, Turks. It's cool, because they all kind of meet here. This is chestnuts, and this is such a winter thing for us to eat. Keep it in your hand and eat in the cold winter days. We'll get one bag of these chestnuts. 25. That definitely fits the budget, 25. Well-grilled chestnut. It's kind of sweet, and it doesn't taste like any other nut that you've probably tried. It's very different. It's kind of like a walnut, kind of, but- Sweeter. Sweeter and softer when you chew it. They grill it with their own shell. So they burn the shell and grill the next one. It's like a coconut. Exactly. I gotta admit, it's pretty tasty, and kind of a great way to break up the heavy meals and the sweets. Should have some nuts. Why not? Thank you. Teşekkürler. Çok teşekkürler. Anıl, what's next on the menu? Lahmacun. It's super thin bread with some grinded meats and spices on top. It's so thin, so crispy, so filling, so tasty. That's all I need to hear. I want some. Let's go. Going down some kind of side street here with a bunch of shisha places. What I love about this place is the smells. Every corner you turn, it's a different smell. Bahram. Lahmacun. Welcome. Teşekkürler. All right, so this is more or less a Turkish pizza. In Judaism, we have this stuff called matzah. Have you heard of it? It's a kind of food that we eat. It's like a cracker bread. So, it's also so crispy. It's extremely crispy. What's on top of it? Minced meat? Yeah. It has some tomatoes, some onion, parsley, and mint. You fold it. The Turkish way is to fold it? Yeah, I like it like that. He will fold it. I will not fold it. Oh, man. Very delicious. It's amazing, man. It's very, it's light. It's very thin, and it's like a cracker. And you just have some meat, some vegetables on top. It's a starter, but it's something so tasty, so we started eating as a main dish. Like, I want four, I want five, I want three. In Lebanon and Syria, they eat manoushe, which is very similar. Almost the same. This is like a Turkish manoushe. You've never heard of that before? No. All right, I'll be. I think I have room for one more cheap Turkish dish. Yeah. Ice cream! This is called kolonya, a traditional hand sanitizer in Turkey. We use it for, like, centuries. Smells like lemon. It is hand sanitizer, so it cleans you. Yeah, yeah. And in COVID, you guys use this, like. It has 80% alcohol, and for years, for hundreds of years, we were using it when someone comes in our house as, like, welcome, and when they're leaving. So this is a COVID precaution, which we use for centuries. And it smells so good. Lemon. Fresh. We are now heading to the final dish. Abi, we're gonna get some ice cream. Yes. Famous Turkish ice cream. This ice cream is from Kahramanmaraş. Which we went. Exactly, two years ago. And they say, I don't know, they say ice cream is invented in Kahramanmaraş. So we are gonna try, and we'll encourage you to try, and you will tell if it is invented in Turkey. Absolutely. The ice cream place, you will see hundreds of them all around Turkey. They are all similar, and they all f*** with you. Hi, how are you? See? Make it easy on me. If you come to Turkey, you have to try this ice cream experience. Thank you, bye-bye. Thank you, bye. Oh, yeah. Oh, the whole ice cream. You can't win. Abi, it's impossible. Even for a Turkish person, it's impossible. Thank you, thank you. It's like creamy, it's like hard and creamy. That sounded gross, but it's really good, man. It's melting already, dude. It's so hot. What's different about Turkish ice cream is that it's like really hard. You know, it's, and really flavorful. It's not like gelato. Yeah. It's not that bubbly and soft. Yes. It has a hard texture. Almost like taffy, yeah. And it's refreshing. Look at my hand. It drops on the street. I have to. That was an amazing food tour of Istanbul. I'm so full and this ice cream is dripping off my hand, but I really enjoyed, man. Thank you for taking me around. Thank you, Abi. Thank you for coming back to Turkey and we are gonna do a lot more tasty and interesting trips. Thank you guys for watching. Love you all and I'll see you in the next video. Peace. I'm Drew Binsky and thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe to this channel in the bottom left if you wanna see more adventures from every country and in the bottom right, you will find my second channel which are bonus travel stories that have never been seen. Lastly, on that middle link, I'm giving away for free my best flight hack. Until next time, stay safe, be spontaneous and just go.