Ali Dawah - November 28, 2018TURKISH RESTAURANT IN GHANA ep 2 - SALAM DINING
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
163.3533
Summary
In this episode of Salaam Dining, we visit the DNR Turkish restaurant in Accra, Ghana, where we try Turkish Aydan, a traditional Turkish dish served with a dollop of lassi.
Transcript
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Salaam alaikum guys and welcome to another episode of Salaam Dining. Today we're in Accra in Ghana
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and this is the DNR Turkish restaurant. Let's take a look inside.
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We're inside now. We're having a look through the menu. There's a lot of salads on the menu.
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Look at that. I've never seen that many salads on the menu but also on this menu there's a lot of
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images. Every single meal has a different image on it. So you know what it should look like.
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So you're about to try Turkish Aydan. This is probably one of my favorite drinks. This is like Lassiye.
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Definitely needs more salt. You need sugar bro. Are you putting more salt in that?
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That's how it's supposed to be. This is meant to be, this is meant to be sweet.
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What's wrong with you? This is meant to be sweet.
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Like mango or something. MashaAllah, look at that.
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Why are you laughing at? Show yourself in the mirror.
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Okay guys, so what time did you order your food?
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Exactly 7.15pm. No, no, no. They didn't go yet. Just, he left a minute ago. So what time is it now?
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Somebody, some, some, some, some intelligence has told us that you guys had a special time in Iraq.
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Don't worry about that. What happened in Iraq? We know what happened in Iraq, stays in Iraq.
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In Iraq, in February 2017, we actually came from the ISIS drone attack when we were delivering aid on the front line on the eastern part of Boston.
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I'm getting used to this thing, you know. This thing's alright, you know.
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Can you tell, can you tell us, can you tell us,
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Can you tell us what happened? It's like every second. How did it happen?
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So, one of the many places around the world that we work is Mosul.
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We were deployed to Mosul to do a water project with UNICEF, a human relief foundation.
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And the project was basically to take water into Mosul. On a daily basis, about 1.5 million meters of water every single day.
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This water would go into the city of Mosul. While there was a war going on, at that time,
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it was the most, you know, dangerous battle going on in the whole world.
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And we take water in every day. Now, one day, while we were there,
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we basically got surrounded and held at gunpoint by some masked men.
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So, they had balacramas on, they were wearing porn black, they had really big buns.
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And they stopped our cars, and they basically wanted us to get out of the cars, carried out.
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So, obviously, it was a military tech bike. When we got stopped, someone came riding on a bike.
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Do you remember that guy? It was a bike riding on a bike, shouting at the top of his voice,
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get behind the building, drones, drones, drones. We thought this was like a play or some acting.
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The army guys came to our cars and said, get the hell out of the cars. Drones are coming.
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But as soon as we stepped up, they were not army guys.
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To be clear, they were militia. These guys are lawless. They're goons, they're bounty hunters.
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They're not the army. They're out just to benefit themselves and to cause trouble.
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That's why it was scary. They weren't the army.
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So, anyway, we got out of the car, and then all we could hear was the sound of like a mini helicopter.
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We didn't know what to do. We didn't know what was going on.
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You can hear it, but you can't see it. That's how high up it is.
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So, above you is like, like that sort of sound.
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And at that point, there's just panic, like major panic. We got one guy that's telling us,
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oh, everybody get in the car. There's another guy saying, don't get in the car.
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If you get in the car, the car will become the target.
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Same way the guys that were, you know, trying to, like, kidnap us or take us or whatever.
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They turn around and they start shooting because these ISIS guys now were shooting at them.
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So, we're in the middle of a gun battle between these two groups and we're just taking cover.
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And then, out of nowhere, just, Alhamdulillah, they shot it down and it fell about 500 to 600 meters
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away from where we were standing, which is not that far to be honest.
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So, we got in the cars, we evacuated. The one thing that stuck in my mind is literally about 200 meters
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from where that happened when we were in the car. I looked out as we were driving off,
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and there was a woman from here washing all the night and there were three kids playing in the street,
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like it's normal, like it's nothing. When this bomb went off, I hit the floor. I was on the floor,
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the ground was shaking, I was shaking, my heart was shaking and it's got to be like the scariest moment of my life.
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Definitely one of the most scariest moments of my life. And then, to run away from that,
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literally when everybody starts shooting at each other, but looking around us and everybody's still
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living normal life, people are walking on the streets, kids are playing, like you said,
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a woman's putting a washing out. It's absolutely crazy.
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So, we got out of Mosul as quick as we could. We got to a military checkpoint. Those guys there,
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they took us in. They gave us some security and that was just another day in Mosul. The next morning,
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we got off and went back and we did the same thing. Work never stops. All right, let's start
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picking up the standards. Complimentary things like salads, city sauce. I don't do chili.
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So, it's 24 minutes past seven. So, it's about seven minutes since we ordered and the standards have come.
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Now, the real test is how long are the beans going to take? Because if I eat all of this,
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I'm not going to be able to eat my fish. Now, hummus is typically in Arabic. We're in Ghana.
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Nizo, what does it say on your t-shirt since you talked about Iraq?
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This might look affiliated with certain things, but it's not.
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It's a clever idea because we as Muslims get stereotyped a lot.
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Especially with what's going on in the media and a lot of things that happen over here.
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So this has actually helped spark conversation with people in the streets.
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And when you explain it to them, they actually think about it from how we expect it.
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Which is, I think, a really, really clever way to engage with people.
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And to prove to them the misconceptions about Islam are rubbed.
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We're going to be going through a 10-point checklist to rate this restaurant on the food that was given.
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But also, if you check the link below in this video, we're out here in Ghana.
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We're building education facilities, mosques, water wells, and all these other services.
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For all the people in Ghana who are really deprived.
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Personally, I want to say, I'm not a fan of Turkish food.
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But, that being said, I can't knock the quality of the food.
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Compared to everything else that's in this area, the quality of the food here was...
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Even compared to Turkey, I thought here was really, really good quality.
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Especially, we have to take into consideration the environment that we're in.
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And there's no other food like this in this area whatsoever.
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They're good intentions, but I think, another thing, again, we have to take into consideration
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is where we are and the character of the people.
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When we wanted to order, we had to ask three or four times.
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And it's not like the guy was busy doing anything.
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And for that, they're going to lose points with me.
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So, ten minutes after that, that was enough time for us to have our starters.
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Eleven minutes was enough time for us to have our starters.
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You know, sometimes you have your starters and you sit around for a bit, you hit them
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Which isn't a good thing because it means that some food is getting wasted.
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But I think also because of the hummus and the starter, that's probably why I didn't finish
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My kebabs, they, I specifically told the guy that I don't want the bread.
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And he says, I'm going to, the bread comes with it anyway.
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And even when I stopped him, he still was trying to insist that he comes with it anyway.
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I'd say three, but I think you're right, you know.
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Because there's obviously a lot of food that's still left.
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We've eaten, you've got to remember, we don't eat much longer, are we here?
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You've got to remember, we don't eat much longer, are we here?
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If we didn't eat anything, and this was our one meal that we always come and eat,
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We'll rate it for somebody that's coming from Britain.
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For the locals, if their daily salary is 10 CDs or less than 10 CDs, then they'd have to work for four days to be able to...
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They couldn't buy my meal on their daily salary.
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Because there are some people here who can afford it.
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Again, just comparing it to the local market and how things are, we'll go two.
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So four if you're from the UK, two if you're a local.
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Like a separate section, sitting area for families.
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Alhamdulillah, everything on the menu, all the food on the menu is halal.
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But the thing is, I'm going to have an issue with that.
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I think they do have a separate outdoor area where they do smoking shisha.
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Now, that's down to how people feel about shisha.
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We're playing Akon's old album while we've been here.
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We have to take into consideration the local Canadian culture.
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They don't really have a culture of segregation.
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So I think they've got very, very good quality food.
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I think the only thing really letting it down is...
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So if you want us to come and review any more of your restaurants.
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If you want us to come and review any of your restaurants in the UK.