1 post tagged “spice bazaar”
The weather in Istanbul has started getting cooler, and is actually starting to resemble Portland's fall weather more closely than we had expected!
Yesterday we had planned to go to the Prince's Islands with some friends, but the sunny weather suddenly became overcast and our friends all came down with colds. We decided instead to put off our trip to the islands until a sunnier day and to go to the Spice Bazaar instead. The Spice Bazaar is also known as the Egyptian Bazaar and as the Mısır Çarşısı.
Like the Grand Bazaar, it is covered (thus our choice for the rainy day), lined with shops jammed to the rafters with things to buy, and inevitably contains a misrepresentatively large portion of the English speaking population in Istanbul. "Hello can I help you?" "Hello where are you from?" and "Hello I love you" are some of the more popular phrases.
Unlike the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar is not insanely large, the salesmen aren't as pushy, the crowds are much smaller, and there's more stuff that you actually would want to buy. I set off with a list of spices in English and Turkish and was taken by surprise when the sales people immediately spoke to me in English, which I automatically replied in. Only after a few interactions did I start using Turkish more, and nearly every shop keeper was happy to see that the group of yabancıs (foreigners) were able to speak (some) Turkish.
We sampled Turkish Delight and honey dipped off the comb with tiny spoons, smelled innumerable scoops of spices, and had a long, enjoyable conversation with a young man who had just returned from his obligatory military service in the East. After asking him where we could buy a practical caydanlık (a Turkish teapot), he walked with us outside of the bazaar to a side street where the small shop was to help us get an uninflated price. Everything was closing up early for ıfta (breaking fast at the evening call to prayer) but I'm looking forward to going back when we have more time.
With all the things I got at the bazaar, our cooking is likely to improve as well!
