Of course I am referring to the Sunday market in Kasımpaşa which I blogged about just over two years ago.
It’s such a great place!
It’s the one where folk living in Kastamonu and İnebolu up by the Black Sea drive down in the early hours of Sunday to arrive in Istanbul at around 5am in order to set up their stalls.
It used to be a more local affair but in the two years that have passed since I last went, I can see changes. For a start, the car park has become a paying one! More and more people from outside are going and yesterday there were even a couple of foreign tourists! Whatever next!
What makes it different from our regular neighbourhood pazars which happen each week all over the city?
Well, of course it’s the produce.
Everything is doğal or natural – at least, I hope it is! It’s all so totally seasonal with not a glimpse of an aubergine or a hint of a courgette. Masses of nuts – chestnuts available by the sack load, baskets full of walnuts in their shells – especially at this time of year, lots of berries and homemade cheeses, jams, honey on the comb and molasses/pekmez, as well as huge colourful jars of pickles/turşu which Turks are so fond of. And loads of eggs: I can’t resist them, I’m a sucker for the brown ones tucked into layers of straw in their little baskets!
It’s also the season once again for those amazing orange mushrooms flecked with green that looks like mould: don’t be scared, these are called çintar mantarı and they are absolutely fine. Then there is the bread: wonderful rounds of köy ekmeği, others stuffed with spinach or swiss chard, all baked in outdoor fırın or stone ovens, often on beds of walnut leaves.
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