Second Attempt

Today another teacher and I headed into town to try to find the “covered bazaar.” What we’d found before was the “pedestrian arcade.” The arcade is lined with stores – for several blocks. But they have plate glass windows and sort of standard interiors. It clearly wasn’t bazaar like.

This morning we got out relatively early and took a bus. I turned out to be going the mall and not all the way to the center of town. We got off there and walked into town through the big city park. It was wonderful. The air was still cool and there weren’t too many people in park. Once in town we walked past the entrance to the arcade and headed down a commercial street that was a bit more “primitive.” By that I mean each merchant had a kind of stall that could be closed with a heavy wooden door at night. Most of their merchandise was right on the sidewalk. Part way down the street we looked left up an alley. Eureka, we found it – at least we thought we had. The street was narrow and covered and wound gently uphill. At first there were nothing but copper artisans/merchants. But we then came to an area where everyone was selling herbs and spices – and handmade soaps. Then there were the textile folks selling tablecloths and blankets. Mostly we just looked. I ended up buying a tablecloth for 3 TL (about $1.75) to cover the desk/table in my living room. It adds some color and softens the feel of the room a bit.

After our little sojourn in the market – and a failed attempt to locate a particular store near the castle – we headed back to the mall where my friend was going to – bravely – get a haircut. I went to the bookstore and got Orphan Pamuk’s new novel The Museum of Innocence. In the US he’s known for his novel Snow. I was amazed they had the book in English, because they have only a handful of English titles – among them Dan Brown’s new book.

As usual, this whole narrative is really heading to food. I’d heard about this special kind of Turkish ice cream. There is a store in the mall that sells it. It turns out not to be a store but a restaurant. I talked Judy into sharing a plate. It’s served in slices – like they’d been cut from a roll We got a plate with a slice of vanilla, slice of chocolate and – surprise, surprise – as slice of pistachio. It’s hard to describe the texture. It’s not as creamy as what we think of as ice cream. It’s more like the texture of a fudgesicle but not as icy. And the flavors were very intense.

But the real surprise of the afternoon was the beverage we ordered, something called sahlep. (Go to this link for a great article on sahlep. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-192329-keep-the-winter-chills-at-bay-with-a-warm-cup-of-sahlep.html ) A sahlep is a kind of wild orchid. This drink is made from milk, sugar and a flour made from the dried tuber of this orchid. It was topped with cinnamon, which had been applied using a stencil of two dolphins chasing each other in a circle, and – bet you can’t guess – chopped pistachios. It was one of the most amazing beverages I have ever consumed. For starters, it was quite thick, but not like cream. Clearly, the orchid flour thickened the milk and sugar mixture. We kept trying to think of what the flavor reminded us of. I thought of bread pudding – but not quite. Apparently rose water is sometimes added and that might have been one of the things we were tasting. Clearly, this is a kind of comfort food and would be fabulous on a cold, damp day.

Epilogue:

On returning to our apartment complex we learned that we had not, in fact, been at the "covered bazaar." This will require yet another -- third -- foray into the center city. I will keep you posted.