Istanbul: The Spice Market and Pastirma

Following our lunch in the Fish Market we walked back across the Galata Bridge. One can easily spot the (Egyptian) Spice Bazaar as you cross the street from the bridge.

 

Originally built in the 1660's as part of Yeni Mosque, it is commonly called the Egyptian Bazaar because during the Ottoman era, the bazaar, which support the Mosque next to it, sold many items from Egypt.

It was pretty funny, we entered the market via one of the side streets drawn in by the lack of a huge crowd……

 

And the enticing food stalls…….

 
You know I just can't resist a market……

 

You learn so much about the what folks eat…. and in turn the culture…..

At first I thought these were pigs feet….. but really had my doubts since Turkey is overwhelming Muslim. Turns out these were Mutton Feet.

 

Suddenly, about fifty feet into the market, we were caught in a crush of people……which was pretty much how it was for the rest of the time we spent in the market.

 

Besides the thousand or so Lokum (Turkish Delight), dried fruit, nut, and Spice (Turkish Viagra anyone? Scary thing is, it looks like candy!) stands, are other stands selling everything from kitchen wares to hardware, which was great for us since I had a voltage converter, but found that all the outlets were recessed! Lucky, one of the handy dandy stands sold an adapter…. best 3 TRY ($1.75 or so) I spent!

In need of a break, I stopped when I saw this:

 

I asked the very friendly (like everyone else, it seems) gentleman behind the counter if this was "pastirma" and was told "yes, yes…. you want?"

Which gave the Missus time to check out the wonderful collection of mezes……

 

 

 

Which led the Missus to get a sampling of meze…. Her favorite was this:

 

I'm not quite sure what this was, as I believe Koruk Eksisi is what they call grape vinegar…….

Still it was delicious. This shop had a dining area on the second (where there was a hot food – steam table operation) and third floors. Which is where we settled in and had our second "lunch" of the day.

The Missus just had a small variety of meze…..

 

I had a Pastirma sandwich. Pastirma is a cured, air dried beef. I read that Turkish Horsemen used to place slabs of spice cured meat in the sides of their saddles. The process of pressing the meat by their legs would enhance the curing process…. creating Pastirma… literally "pressed meat". If the name sounds familiar; I've read from more then one source (including an article in Savuer) that this is the origin of Pastrami.

 

The meat itself is highly spiced, and quite strong in flavor. It stood up well to the aged goat cheese. The flavor came through real well. It was too strong for the Missus but I enjoyed it. The tomato added a nice acid touch, which cut through the spices.

I'd later find out that this place is a well known shop called Namli…. in fact, it's right there in the Lonely Planet guide to Turkey. In fact, we'd come to find that LP's guide to Turkey would turn out to be pretty good compared to other LP guides.

After eating we headed into the Spice Bazaar proper, and made our way through the crowds….

 

And piles of spices and tea……

 

Back out into the shadows of Yemi Camii……

 

Where boxes of tulips were set out bringing color to the crowd.

 

More on Yemi Camii later on, we were tired, and the walk back to our hotel in Sulthanamet put us in dire need of a nap!