Despite the frigid temperature and recent snowfall, the January produce market in Ankara, Turkey was bursting with fresh citrus, giant cabbages, and just baked bread. And just in case the photos don't do the goods justice, it was one of the most pristine markets I've visited. And don't even get me started on the pomegranates!
Every vegetable and piece of fruit had been cleaned of all unsightly outer leaves and dirt and sat in the displays ready to eat. In Ankara, Turkey's capital city, folks don't seem to need much visual reassurance that the produce in this market comes from the ground. Purveyors were proud of their bounty and sliced open squash, pomegranates, and tangerines to show them off and offer a taste. The prices were nothing to blink at, either. Juicy, fat pomegranates were 2.5 Turkish lira per kilo, or less than a dollar per pound. Gorgeous bright green skinny peppers were piled high next to persimmons and neatly trimmed bunches of leeks longer than my arm.
Housed in a covered but open air structure, the market in the Umitkoy/Cayyolu district of Ankara houses plenty of fresh produce, fish, and bread ranging from thick pita to homemade phyllo dough. Shoppers included business men and housewives, carrying on discussions with the purveyors about the freshness of the produce. Keeping with Turkish tradition, a man with a tray walked from stall to stall distributing glass tea cups filled with black tea to each of the vendors. Just lovely!
Related: Behold the Simit: A Very Crusty Turkish Bread
(Images: Stephanie Barlow)
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Wow! I'm impressed that someone wrote about a place in Ankara instead of Istanbul. I'm from Istanbul but I live in Ankara since 2002, so if you visit here I'll be glad to help with anything in the future. By the way, I also recommend Izmir open bazaars (produce markets as you say). They sell great variety of herbs and edible plants.
Awww.. this is making me miss Turkey so much! I spent a semester in Eskisehir (due west of Ankara, halfway to the sea) and would get all my food from the bazaar. So good! And waaaay cheaper than the grocery stores! A trend I could get behind here in London :)
Turkey's produce blew me away when we were there in Sept. for a month. I was spoiled growing up in Northern California with a number of farmer markets. I now live in a very rural area in the South that depends on the local supermarket chain for disappointing tasting vegetables and fruit. While in Turkey, I loved being able to get up every morning and go to the local outdoor market and purchase some of the most fabulously looking and tasting produce I have ever had. I still dream of my morning breakfast of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese and fresh baked bread with honey
And all you find in this kind of bazaars has the real taste of the fruit or the vegetable. Still have the taste and the smell. I miss it here in London.