INDOMIE IN TURKEY! - WARUNG NUSANTARA, ISTANBUL

I got a chance to set off on one of the most memorable trips in my life on last year's Christmas along with my family and a group of people. We travelled for around two weeks to Israel (Holy Land). Before heading back home, we shortly went to Turkey for two days and we stayed in Istanbul.

As an Indonesian traveller, I personally would always long for Indonesian foods. One of them definitely has to be Indomie. If you are reading this right now and you do not know what Indomie is, let me explain to you about what it is.

Indomie is Indonesia's largest instant noodle manufacturer brand that shelters below Indofood which produces a lot of other Indonesia's best products. Indomie itself is a big hit. Introduced in 1972, it has developed over time and tremendously hit the market globally. The original heritage and taste is undeniably delicious and heartwarming, especially for us Indonesians.

Honestly, there is always a small place in my heart that longs for Indomie anytime at any place (even though I am not the kind of person who scrumptiously eat Indomie frequently).

Turkey itself is a nation straddling the area of eastern Europe and western Asia, which means its area spans on both continents. A lot of tourists from Indonesia visit Turkey every year which made some of them stay in Turkey to spend their lifetime away from Indonesia. 

On our last afternoon in Turkey, we visited an Indonesian restaurant in Istanbul. The name of the restaurant was "Warung Nusantara" and after checking it out on the internet, I discovered that it is the most famous Indonesian restaurant in Turkey. 

Entering the restaurant, we could see that the owner was a middle-aged Indonesian lady who has been living in Turkey for years with her husband. The staffs in the restaurant were not Indonesian but they did understand Indonesian because most of their customers are Indonesian tourists.

As we were walking in the aisle towards our table, our eyes were caught by a small stall near the window which displays several most well-known Indonesian products. The product that dominated the display was definitely Indomie. We were interested to try the Turkish version of Indomie which was repackaged and served in a different variants of flavors.

As seen from the display, they repackaged the product

with Turkish language, having the special flavor

of both soup and fried variant.

Without having much to think, we all quickly ordered a portion for every one of us. I personally preferred choosing the fried variant because the weather was not just too suitable for the soup variant (besides we also had chicken soup served on our table).

While waiting for a few moment due to the amount of orders that the restaurant owner had to receive from us, we had our lunch which had been prepared by the restaurant. Some of the most popular Indonesian cuisines were served on our table, such as Soto Ayam, Bala-Bala or Bakwan and Ayam Goreng. The taste was slightly different due to the spices used by the people of Turkey.

After approximately 10-15 minutes, our noodles were served. I had this thought in mind that the taste would just be the same like the usual. I tasted both of fried and soup variant and this is what I could honestly say about their Indomie:

VERDICT: 

Overall, the taste was slightly different with the original version. The fried variant had this slight hint of garlic which was pretty dominant to the taste buds. The soup variant was honestly not the best because the taste was just not that intriguing. About the texture, both fried and soup variant had the adequate texture with the original ones (the texture actually depends on how you cook the noodle).

If you choose to have the fried variant, it would be really good because the restaurant served "Bala-Bala or Bakwan" which is a fried Indonesian vegetable fritters that paired the noodle best. Not to mention, Indomie is best served right from the pan with additional fried or boiled egg for a perfect match.

I actually did not know about the price for a portion of Indomie. I finally knew it when we were heading back to the airport and someone said that one portion of Indomie costs around ₺20, which is equal to Rp75.000,00! We were definitely stunned because back in our country, one portion of Indomie only costs Rp5.000,00. Imagine that, 1:15 ratio of pricing.

Yet it was not that bad because it was definitely hard to find Indomie abroad and of course they would have priced it higher as they also paid much to get the product imported to their country. To all of you, fellow readers, I suggest you to try having Indomie if you travel abroad because it might be a fantastic and unique experience to your palates!

WARUNG NUSANTARA

Address: Merkezefendi Mahallesi, Gümüşsuyu Davutpaşa Cd. 42/A, 34015 Zeytinburnu/İstanbul, Turkey

Opening Hours: 12 PM - 9 PM

Phone: +90 212 679 89 34

-  D E T A I L S -

Shot with: iPhone 6

Edited with: VSCO and Snapseed

Key Features: Lens Blur, Exposure Control

Filters: M5

I N S T A G R A M

@richienakata