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Back in April I visited Istanbul and tried this ice cream firsthand. You didn't really need a knife to cut it, but it most definitely had a slight "chewy" texture to it, and was creamy like a gelato if you let it melt a bit.

You could eat it in a dish or cone, and per my friend (who is Turkish) the guys with the paddles are more for tourist show. Comes in all sorts of flavors (pistachio, coffee, chocolate, fruit). The best place for dondurma is a sweet shop chain in Istanbul I believe was Mado.

I could go on and on about the amazing varied foods that were there (can't wait to go back and eat).

Discussed at Desert Candy here. She ends up using cornstarch as mentioned earlier today for the same reasons: salep is difficult to find. I actually made this last night and it is wonderful.

I had this once at a friend's wedding in India. At least I think it was the same thing, because it has the same chewy consistency you mention. It was made on huge metal rollers. We all thought it was pretty cool.
Speaking of the guar gum suggestion, I've been experimenting with trying to make low carb ice creams with no sugar. The problem with no sugar ice creams is that they tend to freeze as a solid lump. As a part of these experiments I added some guar gum/xanthan gum to my ice cream and yes, it does turn out a little chewy, even with not very much gum added.

i too had it in istanbul. i loved it. and miss it! i would love to find it again in the States. it is a bit wierd to have to chew your ice cream.

Dondurma is the Turkish word for ice cream, not only this specific type of ice cream. This stretchy type is called Maras Dondurmasi, I have no recipes but it's very common. Btw nobody eats it with a knife and fork, but you can eat it between two layers of thin and crispy wafers called "kagit helva," because maras dondurmasi usually melts relatively slower than regular ice cream.

I have never eaten better than I did in Tureky. Everything I tasted was wonderful and somehow hit all the diiferent taste corners of my mouth..... i love it there.

Maras is a city which is popular with its icecream, the famous shop MADO's name came from that Maras and Dondurma, but there are nicer local producers.
Here is a recipe from
http://zeytinagaci.blogspot.com/2006/08/mado-mu-evdo-mu.html
1 kg. milk
250 gr. sugar
3 gr. salep
1 packet vanilin
first mix salep, sugar and vanilin together, add all these slowly in warm milk and continue warming in medium heat.
After it started being creamy contiue boiling it 40-45 minutes. Watchout so it doesnt stick to pot. After 45 minutes take the mix from heat and let it cool than put it in the freezer. note:the picture of the icecream is yellow because blogger used salep more than she should.

I had something similar happen when I added a bunch of melted Starlight mints to a vanilla ice cream base I was making for a dinner party. The resulting mixture really was more like taffy than ice cream, and it never really 'set' in the freezer.

I wish I had know about Maras Dondurmasi, I would have told everyone I did it on purpose.