Kadıköy Tarihi Salı Pazarı Photo Trek

Kadıköy Tarihi Salı Pazarı  

It is said that we must visit the market in order to really know a culture.  I think it is true and wherever I go I try to see the markets where the locals buy their food, fruits, vegetables, etc.  İn Istanbul, there is a market in every neighborhood but we are going to focus on a very special one: the Salı Pazarı (Tuesday market in Turkish) at Kadiköy in the Asian side of İstanbul.   This trek will takes us 3 hours aprox. (during the morning preferable).

 Rainbows in the sky

Salı Pazarı is functionaly open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:00 to 18:00 hrs.   The rest of the days, İt looks like a huge empty parking lot.  But when it gets to Tuesdays, the place is full of little shops and people going on and off.  The streets sorrownding the market become a real traffic jam nightmare so a lot of pacience is requiered to get in with your own car.

From soap to ceramic, from clothes to food, you can find just about anything you can use in a everyday's life.  The great thing about this trek is that you can get really good and colorful pictures of simple things. You will discover new fruits and vegetables that you have never seen before and you will get to see the authenticity of Turkish people. 

Soap

The olive soap tipical in hammams (Turkish baths) you can find soap made of fruits, flowers, herbs, nuts, etc.  You can also find Peştemal (Turkish towels) made of cotton.  

 Soaps, colors and scents

   

Ceramic

Turkish women love ceramic and you can notice that just by looking at the crowded shops where there are women trying to pick the best ones.  

Shining plates

You can find lovely pieces of tea glass with their little plates. I just pick those mugs since I love coffee and colors.

 Dotty mugs

Fruits and Vegetables

The food come from all over Turkey and I would say even outside the country. You know when is a season to a fruit when you come to this place. The vendors encourage you to try to taste them so you will like them and buy them. You deffinetly have to come with an empty stomache. : )

Salı Pazarı is the place where I usually buy fruits and vegetables since they so good and fresh. You can even find organic ones a real good prices.

Radish want a bite?

My two favorit potato vendors

Boiled and Fried

Partners 

I have no idea how to cook this. Some advice?

Love Fruits!

   Burn Watermelons 

This is an interesting fruit called Momordica charantia often called bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash in English but it has many different names according to the country.  It grows in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.  This was the first time in my life I see this fruit and I love the shape of it but wasn't encourage to try and taste it.  

My sweet and lovely corn! Turkish people eat a lot of corn, they boil it or grill it and eat it. You can see that in the streets were you can always find a corn vendor. I come from a culture where we are all 'Hijos del Maiz' (sons of corn) so I just love corn.   

 

 Veggi cutters

Pickles

You can find not only peppers but a lot of vegetables in vinegar such as carrots, green beans, green tomatoes, onions, artichokes, you name it. 

Olives

As a Mediterranean country, in Turkey is easy to find different types of olives the hard thing though is to find them filled with anchovies or peppers. 

Nuts

 

I usually buy a lot of macademia nuts and pistachios, so I always come to this place were I find good quality at an average price. This vendor would always give me a date after I buy pistachios. : )

Accesories 

  Lucky elephants

Clothes
At Sali Pazari you can buy clothes from international  trademarks that are manufacture in Turkey. So it is common to find Massimo Duty, GAP, Tomas Hilfinger, Benetton, Polo Raulph Lauren among the shops.

Colors of Benetton

It is fun to see how cloths are presented for a culture were must of their women wear dark colors and a lot of them wear scarf.

  Happy underwear part 1

Happy underwear part 2 

Bags and Shoes

To find a pair of shoes you just have to look up.  Yes look up!  Because all of them are hanging from the awnings. It is fun to see them challenge gravity.

Real good Leather is one of the things you can find in Istanbul. You can find leather shops all over the city.  At this market you can find very few bags of leather but  the majority are leather imitation.  

Food corner

There are a couple of corner shops where you can eat boreks, simits and durums along with çay, ayran, nescafe or softdrinks.  It is refreshing to seat for a while and enjoy a bit of flavor from the market. There is so much to see that you can even get a bit tired.

I hope you enjoyed the trek and views of Sali Pazari. There is certainly so much to see, you can lean a lot about Turkey just by walking and observing.  Again i feel that I still have so much I left out  specially people but it is not always easy. Some of them are willing to let you take their photo but some other would not.  Be respectful and ask is always a good choice. 

Hasta la próxima! 

Soreya Reyes

www.searchingforemotion.com

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