A Week in the Life of a Watson Fellow: Updates and Stories from Istanbul

Selfie at Taksim Square

My time in Istanbul started with a couple of days of resting and settling in, until an episode of acute urticaria on the 3rd and 4th nights. Luckily the culprit that caused my allergic reaction was quickly identified, and the problem was resolved after I bought some eco Freude laundry detergent at Rossmann and washed my beddings and clothes again.

Back to my project, the past week has been very eventful, so I thought I'd write a "week-in-the-life-of" post to share some highlights from my week and give you a glimpse of how I am spending my time as a Watson Fellow. It will be a very long post (maybe too long?), but it's an experimental exploration of a format I haven't tried yet. I'll be curious to hear what you think!

Here we go:

On Monday morning I wrote my last blog post. I then spent a few hours in the afternoon learning to make several naturally vegan Turkish dishes with Oya, the powerhouse behind Vegan Community Kitchen since its founding in 2013. She used to offer free community dinners as a way to get more people to try vegan food and to foster social interactions, thus the name of her restaurant, but with the current economic situation in Türkiye, this is unfortunately no longer viable.

On the left are seasonings for the rice: ground red pepper, oregano & red pepper flakes, garlic powder, mint, sumac, black pepper, salt. On the right are mint and purple basil.

Filling for the sarma and dolma: rice with tomato sauce, water, the seasonings above, and olive oil.

All wrapped and stuffed and ready to cook!

Almost done cooking! When cooking dolma and sarma, you are not supposed to open the lid for the first 30 minutes of cooking. "Trust the process," Oya said. After the first 30 minutes, she checked the doneness and added more water to cook it for longer. Then she checked the pot again every 5 or so minutes. The cooking time required can be different each time, depending on the ripeness of the vegetables, humidity, etc. It's just like one cannot give the exact measurement of flour and water when making dough, because it always depends.

We immediately served the mantı we made to customers.

Upon learning about my Watson project, Oya invited me to visit a local market near her home in Balat the next day. It was so nice to have a local (and a chef!) take me through the market. We picked up seasonal vegetables that we then turned into stews that are typically eaten in the summer here. She took me to a falafel restaurant owned by her friend, whose family emigrated here from Syria and have been running the restaurant for years. We borrowed part of their kitchen to prepare the dishes. While the food slowly simmered on the stove, Oya took me on a walk through the neighborhood, which was traditionally home to a mix of Jewish, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox communities.

Baby okra. It was my first time eating such tiny okras!

Eggplant, red peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic, coarsely chopped to be simmered. It's typically cooked with only salt and pepper and oil olive in clay pots. Water is not added at all since the vegetables release a lot of liquid during the cooking process.

Learning to cut off the cap of the okra in a conical shape so as to not create an opening for the mucilage inside the okra to come out.

Oya wanted to show me her mom's way of cooking different vegetables.

On our walk, we picked up this Armenian mezze called Topik. It's a chilled chickpea and potato dumpling filled with caramelized onions, currants, pine nuts, and tahini. Served with cinnamon and a drizzle of olive oil, it looks peaty inside. "Ugly delicious" at its finest.

Besides the dishes we made (which we shared with Oya's friends at the restaurant), we also had falafel, hummus, baba ghanoush, and salad. What a feast!

On Wednesday, I met up with a friend whom I had met at EAGxBerlin last year. He used to run a veganism club at his university in Istanbul and has been active in the broader vegan community here, so I got lots of insights and contacts through him. Our meeting was at a vegan cafe in Kadıköy on the Asian side of Istanbul. I took a ferry there from the European side and explored Kadıköy a bit on foot.

On the right of the picture you can see Dolmabahçe Palace. About 25min walk north of it is where I'm living.

Vegan store in Kadıköy. Of course there's a cat.

At the vegan shop, I was surprised to find Chinese products like Laoganma! Those who know, know.

On Thursday, I went to check out Vegan Istanbul, a family business that serves all kinds of Turkish and middle-eastern vegan dishes at super affordable prices.

I then went back to the vegan shop and restaurant where I had the delicious plant-based kebab plate mentioned in my previous blog post. I had arranged a meeting with the owner, Tarkan, a dentist turned vegan shop owner and restaurant entrepreneur. We talked about his vegan journey, his approach to activism, the inspiration behind some of the dishes served at the restaurant, and how concerning it is that so many (young) people are becoming addicted to low-quality fast food.

He also told me about the story of Osman Evcan, who decided to become vegan while incarcerated. In 2011, Osman went on a hunger strike to protest the lack of vegan meal options and the overall treatment of prisoners in Turkish prisons, which led to a broader campaign for vegan rights and animal liberation within the Turkish prison system. Tarkan participated in a march in Taksim Square in support of Osman Evcan, demanding the Ministry of Justice to provide him vegan food. On the 42nd day of Osman's strike, the prison administration finally accepted Osman's request for vegan food. For a while, Tarkan even sent food to Osman monthly to support him.

Tarkan has been running his vegan shop, located in the heart of the city in Beyoğlu, for over 18 years and. In 2022, he opened a restaurant next to the shop. I had thought the food at his restaurant was expensive while eating there once, but after Tarkan showed and explained to me the thought, effort, and time that goes into the creation and preparation of each dish, I could only appreciate their food more. I was also surprised to learn that there are eight employees at the restaurant, all working full-time in the summer.

Tarkan told me he's addicted to tofu. One could have worse addictions, I suppose.

On Friday, I had a call with my therapist. I've become increasingly aware of my fawning behavior, so we unpacked that and discussed strategies for me to do it less. We also talked about qualities of healthy relating and relationships. Besides all things vegan-related, I've always been interested in these topics. A question I’ve been thinking about a lot is how becoming vegan influences people’s social lives. I hypothesize that there’s something special about how vegans relate to each other that is not present in relationships among people who are not vegan. I’m also curious about the influence of shared values such as veganism on the quality of relationships among couples. I have only talked to a few people about these ideas so far, and maybe I can do further preliminary exploration in the coming weeks and months.

In the evening, my landlady/host, Andy, and I went to kafenasanat, a vegan cafe and community space owned by a friend of hers, Özgür. I always ask vegan business owners about their motivation for starting their businesses and what they did before. Özgür, who used to work as a cinematographer, told me that he wanted to create a space without violence. The space first started as a community center for yoga, dance, theater, meditation, and language classes. Later as they wanted to sell more things in the cafe, vegan food was naturally the answer.

Many of the furnitures and decorations at the cafe were refurbished or hand-made by Özgür. He is planning to dedicate more time to art and cinema projects in the future though, so he is hoping to transfer the cafe to someone who would like to take it forward.

Mixed mantı plate, served with cashew yoghurt, tomato sauce, dried mint, and olive oil

Super tasty wrap: marinated and somked tofu, vegan meatballs, avocado, lettuce, purple cabbage, cucumber, tomato, onion, vegan cheese, and walnuts in whole wheat lavash bread.

I started Saturday with a visit to an organic market. After having some freshly prepared gözleme filled with spinach, mashed potato, and tomatoes, I wandered around the market and bought fruits and veggies for the week ahead.

In the afternoon, I went to Kadiköy again to participate in a vegan picnic, which has been a weekly event for in Istanbul since 2011. I enjoyed a long chat with a vegan couple, Efe and Gülce, who have both been vegan activists in Istanbul for over 11 years.

We talked about how the abolitionist approach informs their activism in the local community, which has mainly focused on social picnics and workshops. I learned about Efe's doctoral research on the factors that influence people's participation in the vegan movement and the broader sociopolitical environment of Istanbul in which certain forms of protests have becoming increasingly difficult to carry out. A singer and musicologist by training, Gülce writes songs about veganism and host concerts with two friend friends from time to time.

The couple shared how much more productive they became with the support of each other. In their own words, they are not only romantic partners but also "allies and comrades."

For 11 years, members of the vegan picnic organizing team gather every Saturday to meet with vegans and nonvegans and answer their questions about veganism. This time, there were around 50 people. A nice crowd!

Yesterday I was exhausted and did mostly nothing at home. Well, I did laundry, cooked meals, video-called my partner, sent some texts, wrote my first quarterly report to the Watson Foundation, did a bit internet research and planning for the upcoming weeks, napped, and wrote some of this post. Overall, I think I’m getting better at pacing myself.

As I wrote in my quarterly report to the foundation, I don’t have definitive conclusions to draw, and I know it’s not expected of me. I hope the piecemeal descriptions and reflections I’ve shared can give you a taste of the kinds of experiences I have so far. To be continued!