Turkish ice cream vendors are known for teasing customers before they can finally have their dondurma.

Turkish ice cream is made with milk, sugar, salep, and mastic. The salep is a flour made from the tubers of an orchid plant. It gives the ice cream its thickness. Mastic is a resin from a tree within the Pistachio genus that makes the ice cream chewy. The mastic allows vendors to throw and stretch the sweet treat to catch people’s attention. I found several of these vendors clad in their embellished, gold vests and fez’s all over Istiklal Avenue (a main street in the Beyoglu District).