Grocery Shopping in Kadikoy: Feast of Colours

With the opening of Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport and the arrival of numerous budget carriers to Istanbul from various parts of Europe, Kadikoy, which has long escaped the radar of millions of tourists that visit Istanbul every year, is gradually becoming one of the must-see places in this metropole with more than 20 million inhabitants. During my latest visit I notice a lot of hotels - some of them recently opened while others have been tastefully refurnished to cater to a more discerning clientee - have sprung up in the district right across the Kadikoy-Eminonu ferry pier and the airport bus terminal. And one now frequently encounters foreigners with cameras and guidebooks in their hand around the streets of Kadikoy, exploring this part of Istanbul.     

But the nice thing about Kadikoy is, in spite of its rising popularity amongst foreign visitors, it is still by a large a place where locals live, shop, dine, wine, chill out and enjoy themselves. And for whatsoever reasons, shops and restaurants and cafes stay open in Kadikoy much longer in the evenings than in Sultanahmet or Eminonu, which makes Kadikoy a much more fun and enjoyable place to stay in while on a visit to Istanbul. One can still find something to eat at 1am in the morning along the busy waterfront and the cafe and bar zone in the district of Moda.

For me, the top attraction of Kadikoy is its daily fresh produce market, which sells everything from flowers to fish to household items, cheese, meat, honey, sweets, bread, nuts, dried fruits, and almost everything Turkish agriculture has to offer. To walk along the stalls and enjoy the sensation of being bombarded by the multitude of bright and vivid colours, sounds and taste is one of my favourite activity each time I am in this part of the city.

 

Granted, prices in Kadikoy are not necessarily cheap - it seems the fresh produce market on a side street outside of the Egyptian Market in Eminonu is cheaper by comparison - but the variety of items available in the stores in Kadikoy is much wider and more up-market too. Here you will find speciality honey from the snow-covered mountain ranges of Eastern Turkey, tea from Central Asia, South Asia and other countries, cheese from all over Turkey, top-grade pomegranate sauce and hand-made soap from Mardin, Southeast Anatolia and Aleppo in Syria, pistachios of all grades from Antep, and food and cooking ingredients for some unusual dishes, as well as lots of shops selling freshly roasted coffee beans and freshly-grounded coffee by weight. 

The ambience of the market in Kadikoy reminds me of the fresh produce markets in the city of Paris and in the small towns and villages of southern France, except that there are far more tourists and more stalls selling postcards and handcrafted soaps and souvenirs at the markets in Provence. With the exception of some items available largely in Turkey and Greece only, the things on display in the market of Kadikoy are by and large not that different from those seen in French markets. And the market crowd in Kadikoy is just as loud and noisy as the case in France, except that the language used for shouting and bargaining is Turkish.

While in Provence it was black, green or red olives pickled with garlic, herbs, basil and oregano and steeped in brine, olive oil or lemon juice, in Kadikoy it is green, black or red olives pickled with oriental spices, stuffed with almond and steeped in brine or oil and served with some freshly squeezed lemon juice. The same goes to the fruits and vegetable stalls: in France the stalls are full of fresh greens, tomatoes (dry, fresh or pickled), garlic, onions and aubergines tied up along some straws like little bouquets, while in Kadikoy the stores are full of rows of sun-dried tomatoes, garlics and dried aubergines tied up in  a bunch and hanging down from the roof like rows of beaded curtains. The only major difference between the market in Kadikoy and those in France is the absence of tourists in the former, as well as the smell of the market - every market in the world has its distinctive range of smell - and the prevalence of dairy products made with goat or sheep milk in Kadikoy.  

I can very well imagine if this market were in Provence or Paris, there would be throngs of tourists walking around, all equipped with cameras of all shapes and sizes, busy taking photos of everything in difference poses from various angles. But here being a not-yet touristy part of Istanbul, one can still shop around for groceries and have a cup of coffee or tea with some turkish-style sweet pastries in total ease, without having to worry about pickpockets (as was the case in many Parisian markets) or over-zealous shopkeepers' constant hassles and endless questions of 'Excuse me, can I ask you a question?' (Anyone who has been to the Egyptian Market or the Grand Bazaar will know what I am talking about).

Each and every store in the Kadikoy market provides some extremely attractive and colourful motifs for those who are interested in documenting the images of a vivid market life in one of the most populous cities in the world. By looking at the kind of food ordinary Istanbul residents consume in their daily life, you can get much better insight into their lifestyle and mentality. Nothing transcends different cultures and communicates better than food and maybe music. When you understand what goes on in a country's kitchen, you are on your way to better understand its society.

At virtually every turn of the corner one finds shops and cafes with outdoor seatings, just like in the markets of France, where people can take some time out and have some refreshments or a cigarette break before continung their shoppin sprees.

Copyrights@2011. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.