Sunday, July 11, 2010

Istanbul Spice Market

The Istanbul Spice Market is a cornucopia of food and spices that assaulted our senses. It was as wondrous a new experience as the five times daily call to prayer. The air was warm and still and the humidity was high; the occasional blast of body odor mingled in with wondrous smells of exotic spices that we could feel in our noses as we breathed; bright and vibrant colored foods and spices were everywhere; and a cacophony of sounds, including the buzz of the Turkish language all around us which we did not understand, combined to create a sensory overload.   As we walked down the isles we were barraged with requests and demands to look and buy. My favorite line was "hey lady," which invariably hit us from each side about every 20 feet. We learned that we look like Germans, the most common guess for our points of origin (and we were not even wearing shorts and black socks) and that every vender in Istanbul has a family member that lives in California. Every vender wanted us to stop and to get us talking. So here is a sampling of photos: Cherries and many different types of olives...
I got a sample of about seven different varieties for our hotel room (I'd already picked out my favorite black ones by the time I took the picture)...
More olives...
Fruits and vegetables...
Spices...
And more spices...
Turkish Delight in many varieties...
More spices...
More varieties of Turkish Delight...
Dried flowers and teas...
And stuff about which I have no idea...
And more spices, including many different kinds of peppercorns...
The guidebooks all say to go to the Grand Bazaar. However, Judy and I both agreed that the Spice Market was more fun. We just had some chicken tonight barbecued with chicken spice we purchased in the Market and a Greek salad with salad seasoning purchased in the Market. One of the most unforgettable experiences of our trip.

3 comments:

  1. Now that I look at the spice pics, it strikes me how perfectly formed each mound was. Those vendors must take classes on How to Refill the Spice Bin.

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  2. Did you trust the more cleaned-up vendors more than the more rustic vendors? Or did it make no difference. I recognize the nutmeg. Dave's mother gave us one when we married that I'm pretty sure she brought back from Turkey all those many years ago (they lived there). I had no idea what to do with it then (young dumb housewife) and eventually tossed it. (Young Dumb Housewife). I have purchased my own whole nutmeg--it came from a market in Italy--and I use it a lot, esp. in my Snickerdoodle cookies.

    I think spices, with their pungent aromas are closely tied into our memories. This looks like a fabulous place--it's on my list of things to go and see before I put away the passport for good.

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  3. We generally distrusted all of the vendors, including the ones we bought from. The ones we did work with, we figured if we were getting ripped-off it wasn't a huge amount in the long run.

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