A guided food shopping tour of Istanbul
Where I buy spices, dried fruits & nuts, sweets & more.
Friends,
As promised, here’s a few places where I do my regular food shopping in Istanbul, along with a suggested itinerary for a full day of exploring some of Istanbul’s best food shops and places to eat a smaller meal or street foods on the way. I’ve also included a map with all the places marked.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of good places, but it’s the places that I return to after many years living in the city. It’s also the places where I take my groups of culinary tourists every spring and autumn. They’re mainly located in two places: At and around the spice market (Mısır çarşısı) and in Kadıköy on the Asian side, allowing you to see some of the best parts of Istanbul from the sea on the way. I’ve also included some tips for if you return to Karaköy on the European side for an extensive day out.
Hope this serves you well, should you have a chance to spend some time in Istanbul!
Since this month has been full of Istanbul tips rather than the usual recipes, there will be a bonus new recipe for paying subscribers next week, which would otherwise normally be a break as this months has 5 weeks in it.
With all best wishes from Istanbul ☀️
Vidar
The spice market (Mısır Çarşısı)
Formally The Egyptian market, the L-shaped spice market is a treasure trove of beautiful ingredients, but also a tourist trap of sorts. With inflation rampant, most places have, unfortunately, removed the price labels that were helpfully common until recently. This means they may size you up before quoting you a price.
There’s no easy way to make sure you get a good price, but I find it helpful to always ask the price before showing proper interest, and to give a rather indifferent response if the price is acceptable – or to simply scoff and move on if it sounds outrageous. This shows you’re price sensitive and will usually make them offer a more reasonable price than if they sense a clueless tourist.
The worst thing you can do is never to mention price until everything is boxed and ready, and all that’s left is pay. In that case, you may need to do some hard bargaining at the end.
Some establishments still have prices displayed. Where that’s the case, there’s little to no room for bargaining.
While most shops will offer you the full range of spices, nuts, dried fruits and sweets, they each have their specialties. I therefore shop at different places for different ingredients, even if I can get everything in one place if I wanted to.
If travelling, make sure to ask them to vacuum seal everything for best storage until you get home and are ready to start using the ingredients.
The places I do my shopping at are: