Lunch on a Dalyan Boat: Vegetarians, Allergies and Fussy Eaters

Lunch on a Dalyan day boat is one of the quiet pleasures of the trip. The boat moors up in the shade, the crew cook on board, and a table of plates appears where the deck chairs were. For most people it is simple, fresh and exactly enough.

For some people it is a source of worry. A vegetarian who does not want to live on bread, a parent with a child who eats four things, someone with a serious nut or gluten allergy. None of these is a reason to skip the trip. They are reasons to ask the right questions early and to bring a few words of Turkish.

What a boat lunch usually looks like

Menus differ from boat to boat and day to day, so treat this as a picture rather than a promise. On a typical shared day boat, lunch is cooked on board and eaten while moored. The main dish is commonly grilled fish or grilled chicken, served with salad, and there is often rice, pasta or bread alongside, sometimes with fresh fruit afterwards.

It is the kind of food that suits a hot day: plain, grilled, not heavily sauced. Drinking water is commonly included. Other drinks are usually bought on board.

On a private boat, lunch is whatever you arrange. That can mean a fuller menu, food suited to a particular diet, or bringing some of your own. Settle it when you book rather than on the morning.

Eating vegetarian on a Dalyan boat

Turkish food is kind to vegetarians in general, with plenty of salads, vegetables cooked in olive oil, bulgur, rice and bread. The challenge on a boat is simply that the galley is small and lunch is cooked for everyone at once around a grilled main dish.

Tell whoever takes your booking that you are vegetarian, and ask them to pass it to the boat. When a crew knows in advance, they can usually put aside a vegetable dish, eggs, cheese or extra salad rather than handing you a plate without the fish.

Vegans will find it harder, because cheese, yoghurt and butter are common additions. Say clearly what you do not eat, check again when you board, and bring something substantial of your own as a back-up.

Allergies and coeliac disease

If you have a serious allergy, take it as seriously on the boat as you would anywhere else. A small galley on a moving boat, cooking for a crowd, is not a place where cross-contact can be ruled out, and nobody should promise that it can.

Tell the booking office in writing, tell the crew again when you board, and have the allergy written down in Turkish to show them. Carry your own medication, including any emergency injector, in a place you can reach quickly, and make sure someone in your party knows where it is. Bring safe food of your own if the consequences of a mistake would be serious.

Remember too that you are on a river, some distance from the nearest road for parts of the day. That is a reason for extra care, not a reason to stay at home.

Turkish phrases that help

A few words in Turkish, written on your phone or a card, save a lot of miming. These are simple and widely understood:

• Vejetaryenim: I am vegetarian.
• Et yemiyorum: I do not eat meat.
• Balık yemiyorum: I do not eat fish.
• Yer fıstığı alerjim var: I have a peanut allergy.
• Kuruyemiş alerjim var: I have a nut allergy.
• Çölyak hastasıyım, gluten yiyemem: I have coeliac disease, I cannot eat gluten.
• Laktoz intoleransım var: I am lactose intolerant.
• Bunun içinde ... var mı?: Does this contain ...?

Halal food and pork

Pork is not part of an ordinary Turkish boat lunch, and meat served in Turkey is generally prepared in the local way. If halal preparation is important to you, it is still worth mentioning when you book so the crew know, particularly on a private boat where you may be arranging the menu yourself.

Alcohol is sold on many boats. If you would prefer a boat or a table without it, say so when you book, especially for a private charter.

Children who will not eat what is served

Children and a hot day on the water are not always a good combination for appetite. Some will happily eat grilled chicken and bread. Others will look at a whole grilled fish and refuse to go near the table.

The simplest answer is to pack snacks you know they eat: crackers, fruit, a sandwich from the bakery in town, something that survives heat. Nobody on board minds. Plenty of water matters more than lunch, especially after swimming and the mud baths.

If a child has a genuine allergy, everything in the allergy section applies twice over.

Timing, heat and eating well

Lunch usually comes in the middle of the day, after the morning stops and before the long afternoon at the beach. That order suits most people, but heavy eating followed by hot sand is not a good plan. Eat, drink water, rest in the shade, then swim.

If you are prone to seasickness and doing a sea trip, eat something light rather than nothing, and avoid a large greasy meal before open water.

Fruit and cold water are your friends on a summer boat day. If you have a cool bag, bring it.

What to ask before booking

A clear answer to these tells you what to pack. A vague answer tells you to pack more.

1. Is lunch included, and roughly what does it consist of?
2. Can the boat prepare a vegetarian option if we tell you in advance?
3. How are allergies handled, and can we bring our own food?
4. Is drinking water included, and how are other drinks paid for?
5. On a private boat, can we choose the menu?

Eating after the boat

If lunch on board was not quite what you wanted, Dalyan makes up for it in the evening. The riverfront restaurants in town serve a wide range of food, and vegetarians in particular will find far more choice there than a boat galley can offer. Many visitors treat the boat lunch as fuel and the evening meal as the real one, and that works perfectly well.