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| Shopper's Heaven |
Spicy Istanbul
Spice Bazaar
Full of products
from spices to soap, delights to deserts – the Spice Bazaar is one of the most popular destinations
for tourists. It is also a small market compared to the Grand Bazaar but a much larger street market area stretches along several roads to the northwest of the Spice Bazaar.
It is also only a short tram ride or a walk from the Sultanahmet area to Eminönü Station.
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| Tasty Tatseven |
As
it was late, we stopped to eat at the popular Tatseven restaurant on the Eminönü square. You won’t find it in guidebooks. There were so many local patrons so it had to
be good. We shared a mouth-watering, half
BBQ chicken – two meals for TL 11.50. Don’t
forget to ask for Turkish tea.
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| Turkish Delight |
Afterwards we went to the Spice Bazaar, which is officially the Misir Çarşisi or Egyptian Market because it was built in 1664 by the administration of Egyptian part of the Ottoman Empire.
We bought spices and dried apple mix to make the quintessential tourist tea.
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| Just Delightful! |
Plus there are lots of yummy things to buy such as baklava, nuts and dried fruits. The best and more expensive Turkish Delight have nuts in it. It is hard to believe that Turkish Delight is the origin of American jelly beans.
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| Cheese Bar |
Agriculture Superstar
Did
you know that Turkey is one of the major agricultural countries of the world? It is a top ten producer of apricots, figs,
cherries, raisins, strawberries, and cumin.
Don't forget to try Turkish cheese
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| Tea Jockey |
Turkey produces 75% of worldwide production of hazelnuts! I fell in love with hazelnuts when we lived in
Italy since my favourite gelato flavour is nocciola
(hazelnut). An absolute must is to try
Turkish hazelnut butter. It’s to die
for! It beats Nutella hands down. By the way, 25% of the world’s hazelnut
production is used to make Nutella!
Tea jockeys bring tea to the shopkeepers. You have to go outsize the bazaar to find restaurants and cafes.
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| The Long Market |
We
discovered this area on our first stay in Istanbul. After we toured Süleymaniye
Mosque, we headed east where we had the best and cheapest sahlep drink at the local
price. From here we walked down Uzun Çarşi
Caddesi – another busy and long (uzun) market (çarşi) street – where the
working class do their shopping. The amount of things for sale is overwhelming.
Coffee Anyone?
You
will love the Spice Bazaar, as it is compact but not overcrowded. That’s because the prices are higher. If you want see where the locals shop just
continue south out of the Spice Bazaar and walk along the parallel street, Çiçek
Pazari Sokak or flower market street.
Turn right at the west end of the lane then left on Hasircilar Caddesi as you fall under the spell of coffee roasting aroma. Here you will find delicious Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi kahve (coffee beans) to bring home. We made one big mistake! We only brought one bag home. This is some of the best and smoothest coffee on the planet!
Turkish Contributions
Coffee
came to Europe in 1598 via Venice, the controller of Adriatic trade between the
Ottoman Empire and Europe. The coffee
came from the Ottoman Empire. That may
be the biggest contribution of Turkey to the world (ha ha). The English word "coffee" is
derived from the Italian word caffè, which is derived from Turkish word kahve.
The
pistachio tree is native to western Asia and Asia Minor, from Syria to the
Caucasus and Afghanistan. Archaeological
evidence in Turkey indicates the nuts were being used for food as early as
7,000 B.C.
Musical Contributions
The
Ottoman Mehter, founded in the 13th century, became the model for the world's
marching bands. Think cymbals, timpani
drums and bells. Mehterân music also inspired or influenced European classical music composed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Medical Contributions
The
technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised
in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the
English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724.
Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly
smallpox at least 50 years before the West "discovered it". Our word vaccination comes from variola (Latin), which means smallpox. The Chinese can claim they used smallpox vaccine at least since it was documented in a medical book in 1549.
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