It's tough feeding someone as big and active as Boston Celtics Center Enes Kanter, who is 6-feet-10-inches and 250 pounds. It's especially tough when he has to make it through the grind of an 82-game season — plus any potential playoff series.
For the big man from Turkey, eating is made even more complicated because of his dietary restrictions as a Muslim. Luckily though, according to Kanter, Boston ranks above any other NBA city when it comes to halal food that follows Islamic law as defined in the Quran — no pork or wine sauces, for example.
"Every city I go to, the first thing I look at [is] if there's a good halal restaurant and if it's Turkish or not," Kanter said in an interview with WGBH News. "So when I come to Boston, I'm like, 'I'm good.'"
A 2016 Wall Street Journal article featured how Kanter, back when he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder, got his teammates there hooked on halal food — and how they agreed Boston's halal is the best. Now that he's with the Celtics — he signed this summer — Kanter said the food here is a blessing.
The very best halal food he's found in Boston is a Turkish restaurant downtown, a spot that has become a safe haven for Kanter. He can come in, have a quiet place to eat and connect with people from his homeland in relative peace and quiet — a rarity for someone with NBA fame, and especially meaningful since he cannot go back to Turkey safely.
For several years now, Kanter has been a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarianism, speaking out against the government's detainment of more than 50,000 people, including journalists, lawyers and academics. Erdogan has cracked down on his political opponents, both domestically and internationally, and the Turkish government has revoked Kanter's passport and sought an international warrant for his arrest.
The restaurant — where Kanter downed two whole plates of lamb, chicken, white bean salad, pita bread, rice and fries before he was ready to begin the interview — offers him a taste of meaningful comfort.
"It helps a lot, for sure," he said. "Because America gave me a lot — America gave me so much — but in the end, you still want to talk your own language ... eat your food and hang out with your own people. And that's what the food does — just bringing people together."
The owner of the restaurant declined to be interviewed for fear of retaliation from the Turkish government for appearing in an article featuring Kanter. WGBH News is not identifying the restaurant for the same reason.
Muhammad, a local Turk who left the country during a period of political turmoil, has a similar story. WGBH News is only using Muhammad's first name because he's afraid loved ones back in Turkey could be affected if his full name appears in a story about Kanter.
Muhammad said that Turkish restaurants in Boston are like a home for displaced Turks.
"We are not able to go back to our country," he said. "So this is the only way which we can feel just like in our country. And so it makes it ... much more important than before."
To be clear, Muhammad says there are other halal options in Boston. They're just not usually Turkish.
"They're generally from the other Muslim countries, like Pakistan, Afghanistan or maybe the Arab world," he said. "But our culture is quite different than the Pakistanis or the Arabs. ... You know that Turkey is between Middle East and Europe. So it's same as in our cooking tradition as well."
Growing up, Kanter remembers his mom in the kitchen making meals like the ones he now eats at the restaurant in downtown Boston.
"One of the reasons that I came here is a home-cooked meal. It felt like a home cooked meal," he said. "'Cause I remember growing up, my mom was making the food — the same food that this restaurant makes — and it kind of tastes the same."
But not every meal a busy NBA star eats can be from a restaurant that caters specifically to his needs, especially during a hectic season. That's where the Celtics' team chef comes in.
Nick Arcuri is in his third season with the Celtics, but has never before had a Muslim player who requires halal food. Both Kanter and rookie Tacko Fall are Muslim.
Arcuri said reached out to the New York Knicks, who Kanter previously played for, to get a better idea of what the center would need.
"Now, we're not a halal kitchen by any means. He's one of many diets we accommodate," he said. "But as a performance chef, my goal is to fuel the athlete. So whatever I have to do, we're willing to go out of our way to make sure that these guys eat and stay out of the drive through."
Arcuri, who is also the director of team nutrition and dietitian, did research on what halal is and what the Celtics were already doing that was compliant. He said Kanter helped him fill in any gaps in knowledge he needed help with.
It turns out the butcher the Celtics use is halal-certified, so now all the chicken the team uses is halal. They also do the little things for Kanter, like making sure they don't cook his food in anything that's had pork in it beforehand and marking what food is halal in the buffet line at the Auerbach Center, where the Celtics practice in Brighton.
But the players Arcuri cooks for aren't the only ones with a competitive spirit. He's hoping Kanter challenges him to make a Turkish dish.
"My favorite thing to cook is something I've never cooked before. And I really take a lot of pride in looking up the roots. So I want to find out what are his favorite dishes, his Turkish dishes," he said. "Or if they're not Turkish, whatever his favorites dishes are from that region of the world and really digging in to finding out, 'How would his great-grandmother prepare it?' and figuring how we can make that conducive and approachable to everybody, not just Enes."
It's not necessarily the food he grew up with, but these small gestures mean a lot to Kanter. Something as simple as food can mean much more to a player far from home.
"But now, when I get a bite of a Turkish food, that's the first thing that comes to my mind is just all the good old days," he said. "It definitely means a lot to me. It's more than food. ... It's more than a taste. It's a lot of memories."
