Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Travel Bite: Spice Bazaar, Istanbul, Part 2



Part 1 of Travel Bite: Istanbul, Spice Bazaar showed the inside of this bustling market, but the outside was a flurry of edible activity too, minus all the groping. Oh well, you can't have everything.


Okay, so I was wrong about the groping. This shop owner had a lot of touching and feeling to do. And I liked to watch. (click to enlarge)


Fig stacking is apparently a high art in this part of the world. Of course, the perfect fig cried, "Pick me" from the bottom row.


Finding unstuffed grape leaves was the easy part. We did the heavy lifting in my Turkish cooking class, as you can see.


Cheese vendors wore latex gloves, to my germophobic delight, although exemplary hygiene wasn't enough to prompt a purchase from me. I was saving myself for the baklava bacchanal.



Non-buyer's remorse: How could I have passed this up? Oh well. Guess I'll have to go back. I wonder what the expiration date is.

4 comments:

  1. All of your photos are gorgeous, but the second one from the top is stunning! What a gorgeous cornucopia of produce. I love how they artfully display fruit strung like semiprecious beads. Such a contrast to the sterile environment we shop in. Why don't they do that at Vons?

    I couldn't help but notice the word Bonanza hidden among the fruit. How appropriate.

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  2. Just found your blog-- beautiful pictures! And your "about" section made me giggle :-)

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  3. Thanks Silvina, and welcome, Anna. Thanks for stopping by!

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