(30 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Istanbul, Turkey – 23 May 2025
1. Various of vendor preparing and stuffing a baked potato
2. Couple poses with baked potato UPSOUND (English): “Very good!”
3. Various of people walking in neighborhood famous for its stuffed potato vendors
4. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Suleyman Dogan, baked potato vendor:
"The potatoes are big and Ortakoy (neighborhood) is famous anyway. There are many stuffed potato vendors here, nearly 50 of them in Ortakoy alone. There’s demand from abroad. In addition to our own citizens, we have Arab customers, Europeans, coming from abroad."
5. Wide of mosque and bridge over the Bosphorus Strait
6. Various of people by the Bosphorus, some eating their stuffed potatoes
7. Close of Fabien Watterlot’s stuffed potato
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Fabien Watterlot, tourist from France:
"We remember with our friends, you know, we were coming with our kids here and we really enjoyed to be in this area, eating potatoes 20 years ago. And this was our meeting point today. ‘You remember the potatoes? Yes! Let’s meet over there.’ ”
9. Pan right from vendor speaking to her customers to women waving to camera UPSOUND (Turkish): “Did you know about potato day? It’s potato day apparently”; “Wow! I hadn’t, first I hear of it!”
10. Various of baked potatoes being stuffed
11. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Esra Sahin, stuffed potato vendor:
"In general, foreigners don’t like to mix since our preferences are different. They prefer less toppings, unlike Turkish people. In small amounts, without mixing too much, like corn, olives. Some like it spicy, some don’t, but most of them like spice. In general foreigners eat light, more plain. Turks mix it all up."
12. Sahin trying to attract customers
13. Various of baked potatoes
14. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Esra Sahin, stuffed potato vendor:
"It’s great for families and that’s why people choose it. For example, you have a family of four and they buy two stuffed potatoes. They go and eat it and if it’s not enough, they can come back for more since top ups are free of charge and they can stuff the potatoes again."
15. Wide of Rahime Yoldas sharing a stuffed potato with her daughter
16. Close of the stuffed potato
17. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Rahime Yoldas, Istanbul resident:
"I think it’s a great meal because it’s huge. This isn’t something one person can eat. Two people can comfortably eat it and be satisfied."
18. Wide of stuffed potato vendors
19. Close of toppings
STORYLINE:
Whether plain, oozing with extra cheese or dripping with ketchup, Istanbul’s beloved street snack — the supersized “kumpir” — is no ordinary baked potato.
Locals and visitors alike flock to the city’s waterfront neighborhood of Ortakoy, where vendors expertly split and stuff hulking jacket potatoes with spoonfuls of pickled red cabbage to scoops of creamy Russian salad and everything in between.
This vibrant and towering heap of comfort food is a flavorful salute to the versatility of the humble spud that’s being honored worldwide on Friday, the International Day of Potato.
In 2023, the United Nations declared May 30 as the day to celebrate the tuber — a common nutritional crop with more than 5,000 varieties consumed by billions of people across the globe, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Vendors in Istanbul say an average of 2 to 3 tons of potatoes are consumed each month during peak season.
Cultivated primarily in central Turkey, these spuds are specifically chosen for their size.
“‘You remember the potatoes? Yes! Let’s meet over there.’”
Rahime Yoldas agrees.
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