Food Delivery in Turkey Quarantine

You Won’t Starve in Quarantine

Turkey Quarantine food is a little bland and it doesn’t look very appetising in the sealed containers reminiscent of airline food. But basically it’s no different than food I order in my favourite Bodrum and Yalikavak lokantas. Each day for lunch and dinner the soup has been different, and so have the stews. So they’re really making an effort to mix up the menu, and they deliver a different dessert with dinner. There’s a decent sized fridge in the room, but no other cooking facilities.

Lunch and Dinner

Lunch is delivered at 12 noon, and dinner is delivered at a blue-rinse special schedule (5pm), there’s also three or four tea trolley runs a day. Bottled water is delivered with lunch and dinner, and if you want extra they’ve not tight about handing it out. You have the option of eating your own body-weight of bread rolls. They keep coming and coming and coming.

Lunch and dinner are variations on the same theme: soup, carbs (rice, rice and orzo, bulgar, bulgar and lentils, or pasta), and a stew with vegetables, beans, or chick peas. Unfortunately my requests for a vegetarian option fell on deaf ears, so I’ve been making do with the soup and rice. I eat around the meat and pick out the vegetables. I can understand the need for consistency. These guys are running a revolving door of quarantine arrivals and departures, and at any one time there could be up to 500 travellers quarantining. Managing special requests would be a nightmare to manage—so they’re keeping it simple.

Packing List: I’d recommend bringing some black pepper with you, or bringing a little supply of pul biber to spice up the meals.

Breakfast Confusion

I arrived at 8am in the morning and my breakfast was delivered at the same time as the morning tea trolly run. My tray consisted of a lump of beyaz peynir (cheese), cucumber, tomato, olives, and individual portions of honey, peanut butter, butter, and a bread roll. It got my seal of approval. I could quite happily live on this for 10 days.

Day Two arrived and when I went to retrieve my breakfast—there wasn’t any. I’d been tired and slept in, so wondered whether they pick it back up if you don’t grab it in time. Must be there way of making sure we get up early. I had granola bars, so it was no problem. But I vowed to get up earlier on Day Three.

Next morning I listened for the breakfast delivery, but the first knock on my door was the tea trolley. I asked where breakfast was, but my tea delivery boy didn’t speak English. My Turkish next door neighbours explained that breakfast was delivered with dinner, and you had to put it in your fridge and leave it until morning.

I’d received a separate breakfast on the first day, because I’d arrived in the morning. But I’d mistaken the breakfast box that was delivered with dinner on Day One as a salad and cheese box to accompany dinner. It hadn’t had any olives or honey in it. It didn’t look like breakfast.

I’d used my plastic knife to cut up the cheese, cucumber and tomatoes to make a small side salad, and used the small bottle of salad dressing I’d bought from Pret A Manger at the Paris airport, to jazz it up.

This salad dressing purchase was a great investment. A perfect size and probably enough to douse four salads.

Breakfast delivery with Day Two dinner was easier to recognise as Turkish breakfast. The olives were back. But the honey was MIA. I dutifully placed tomorrow’s breakfast in my fridge, and I wonder if I put a dead bee under my pillow mother nature would swap it for a portion of honey?

I’ve now had the benefit of four days of experience and see that they’re alternating olives for the pink processed meet in these breakfast trays. I’m wondering if the honey will reappear at some point?

Day Four and I fancied a change, and broke three plastic knives in my endeavour to make a bowl out of my water bottle and cut up an apple. (MacGyver eat your heart out!)

I crumbled a granola bar from the the tuck box stash my brother had packed for me, and I’d saved my yoghurt from the previous night’s dinner. Variety really is the spice of life.

HOT OFF THE PRESS – dinner just delivered. Excuse me while I do a little jig, tomorrow’s breakfast includes jam, a boiled egg and honey (Disclaimer: no bees were harmed or sacrificed). I still have today’s breakfast that came with cheese and olives. So guess who is having a Suprem Türk Kahvalti for breakfast tomorrow?

If you don’t like the food

Meals are free. You get what’s cooked. If you don’t like it there’s a couple of options. On arrival we were given an information sheet. It was in English and gave us the details of how to order from their take out menu, and how to place a grocery order.

Take Out Menu

It’s a basic take out menu with lots of meat dishes, but I think I might be ready to splash out on a fried egg, cheese omelette, or cheese and tomato toasted sandwich by Day Eight.

You place your order via a WhatsApp number, but I’m not sure what time the food is delivered. Maybe with meal times? I think I’m going to have to test it and see.

Grocery Order

On our information sheet was a WhatsApp number to place a grocery order. I placed an order on Day Two, and didn’t get any response. During my breakfast confusion drama, I discovered the number we had on our sheet was incorrect. Some poor guy is receiving a barrage of shopping lists. I wonder if he used to work here, or maybe his friends decided to wind him up and punk him.

My neighbours gave me a different number, and I placed an order for fizzy water, orange juice, a bag of apples, a block of Tulum cheese and some biscuits for cheese. I received a response straight away (“Tamam”), and within two hours my shopping was delivered. Payment was taken by contactless card.

NOTE: Be specific about what you order. I ordered “biscuits for cheese” and 3 bags pretzel sticks were delivered—I won’t get much cheese on those!

I ordered Tulum Cheese (thought I’d get a block of cheese), and received a tub of Tulum Cheese with herbs—I’ve broken two knives trying to get this hard cheese out of the tub. What bright spark designed this?

My 6-pack of water requires a bottle-opener, and I don’t have one. By the looks of it, the boys who live in this dorm don’t have one either.

If you don’t like the free food that’s delivered, you can just order what you want from the market. It’s a good quarantine perk. I’m adding pul biber to my next order to spice up my dinners.

What I brought with me

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like the food, and what the options were for ordering in, so I brought a supply of 5 different types of granola bar—23 in total. I’m on Day Four and I only have 7 left! Opps, need to watch my rations or else they won’t last until my release date.

I packed 2 tins of my favourite instant coffee Azera Intenso. I also ordered a travel kettle which arrived the day before I left. I bought a travel coffee mug from Pret a Manger at Paris airport. Nothing wrong with quarantine souvenirs.

The kettle is a fabulous design. The element is a flat hot plate in the base, and the body of the kettle is made of silicone and squashes down to the size of my travel mug. What an ingenious design. Will have to put this designer in touch with the cheese tub designer, for a bit of coaching.

I’m pleased I bought a coffee mug, or else I’d be drinking coffee in cheap paper cups that the tea is served in. It’s no fun drinking out of those. I think they’re actually water cups, and they’re too hot to hold when they have boiling water in them.

Debbie, my sister-in-law, reminded me to pack a spoon, and although I could have made do with the large plastic dessert spoons provided. My metal tea-spoon feels like the height of luxury and decadence. When you’re in quarantine, little things like this take on a whole new significance.

Two-thumbs Up

All in all, things could be worse. This isn’t a 4-star hotel, it’s a dorm being run as a quarantine facility. They’re doing a good job of delivering steaming hot food twice a day, and you’re not going to starve. If you don’t like it. Put your hand in your pocket and place a grocery order or explore the take out menu.

Read More about my Quarantine adventures

Key Quarantine Essentials:

• Pack a Travel kettle and bring your favourite tea or coffee.
• Bring black pepper and some kind of spice (pul biber is ideal)
• Brings something to nibble on, to keep you going between meals. Everything else you can order from the market.