Mısır Çarşısı – Spice Market

Posted on July 25, 2020 by livingtheturkishdream

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 17: Gözleme

Posted on December 1, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Gözleme is a popular street food in Turkey, marketed in holiday resorts as ‘pancakes’ even though they aren’t really pancakes at all, they’re more of a flat bread. It’s made with flour, water and salt, which forms a basic pastry dough. The dough is rolled very thinly on a special low round table, then filled, folded and cooked on a metal plate. Traditional fillings are savoury – mincemeat, parsley and onion, cheese and spinach or potato and onion etc, but in some areas you will find sweet flavours too – lemon and sugar, nutella and banana, etc, flavours which have been highly influenced by tourist crowds!

My favourite is mincemeat and potato, and our favourite place go for one is the Korkmaz family’s stall in the Fethiye area weekly markets!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 12: SIMIT

Posted on November 26, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Ok, so not really a ‘dish’ but a Turkish staple food regardless!
Simit is a round bread with a hole in the middle, covered in sesame seeds. It’s kind of a cross between an American pretzel and a bagel, a perfect mix of the two.

It’s perfect with breakfast, or as a quick snack while walking around the streets of Turkey. It’s sold in bakers, corner shops and from little carts on street corners and markets. It’s even sold from trays piled high with the bread, expertly balanced on the seller’s head, while wandering the streets shouting ‘simit!’.

Perfect with a glass of Turkish tea, too!
Funny story – my maiden name is ‘Smith’ and Turkish people cant pronounce that – they always said ‘Simit’ instead!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 8: BAZLAMA

Posted on November 19, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Bazlama is a kind of village bread. It’s big, round and flat. It’s quite heavy and thick, kind of like a cross between a naan bread and a crumpet? I can’t really explain, but it’s really yummy.

My favourite way to eat bazlama is at the gözleme stalls in Fethiye or Calis market. They slice the bread in half and fill it with your choice of filling, cheese is the most popular but I love cheese, tomato and chili flakes. It’s then cooked on a metal plate. It’s like a giant toastie! So delicious and so filling. One whole bazlama is definitely enough for two people and is usually served with salad or pickled vegetables.

Berkay’s stepmum made some bazlama bread from scratch while we were there in September – the family goes through so much bread that it’s cheaper to make their own sometimes!

The best pancakes in Fethiye!

Posted on June 24, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

One of my favourite things about living here in Fethiye is market day!

The markets are held on Tuesday in Fethiye town centre and Sunday in Calis, and one of the best things about them is the food on offer at the little trailer cafe’s that are located inside the market areas.

There are all sorts of food on offer, but by far the most popular with tourists are the pancakes or ‘gözleme’. Our favourite place to get these pancakes is at the cafe in the photo below – it used to be distinguishable from the others as it had a stuffed toy black and white lamb outside, but this has since gone missing. As far as I’m aware the vans don’t have specific names – not that I’ve ever noticed anyway, but if anyone is visiting the area and wants to check out this particular one look out for this sign, and this man, as he is always working there! (I should add here, he is not paying me to advertise this, he’s an old school friend of Berkay’s but I genuinely think this is THE best place for pancakes in Fethiye!)

They’re not pancakes as we know them – more of a really thin pastry filled with whatever you decide. There are savory ones, like mincemeat & onion, potato & cheese, etc, or sweet ones with fruit fillings like apple, banana & nutella or the good old favourite lemon & sugar. The prices are really cheap and you get a generous size portion, it’s guaranteed to leave you feeling full & very satisfied.

Mincemeat, onion & potato gözleme

Banana & ice-cream gözleme
There’s always a big jar of pickled red cabbage and pickled chili peppers on the table to accompany the pancake should you chose to have a savory one. I’d never had a savory pancake until I came here, it might sound strange but it really is a perfect combination.

Just walking past the little trailers inside the market you could be forgiven for thinking they’re not anything special, they are basic with plastic garden chairs and cushions for seating, but it all adds to the atmosphere. Everything is kept very clean, and there’s an open window on the trailer so you can see everything being prepared and cooked by the women – it’s actually really interesting to watch this process, especially how they cook it on the big metal plates.

This place in particular is a family run business and they are really friendly people who won’t hassle you. They must be doing something right as they are always busy, when we walked past with the intention of having some lunch a few weeks ago there were no seats whatsoever so we had to go and do our weekly market shop and go back later on when it was slightly quieter. I posted a photo on my Facebook page last week and lots of people also said they always go to them for their pancakes too so they are very popular.

If a pancake isn’t your thing, they have other food on offer, another favourite of mine is ‘bazlama’ a thick spongy bread sliced in half and cooked with a filling inside, normally white cheese. It’s almost like a toasty and is very filling, one between two people is more than enough. I love it with cheese, tomato and chili flakes, yum.

They also have really delicious freshly squeezed fruit juice, orange and pomegranate being their specialities, yum! Of course if you want a more authentic experience there’s always the Turkish favourite ayran (a yogurt based drink) which is also made freshly here.

If you’re in the Fethiye/Calis area on market days definitely check out this place – the food is amazing, cheap and delicious. Tomorrow is Tuesday – Fethiye market day, so I know where we’ll be eating our lunch! ❤

First week back in Turkey!

Posted on June 10, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I’ve been back in Turkey for over a week now – it’s gone quick, yet somehow it still feels like I’ve been here forever. Weird! I failed at my plan to post daily updates, but I’ve decided to get my butt into gear and fully concentrate on my blog from now on, so as of tomorrow, I will hopefully be back on track and posting everyday.

Here’s what I got up to in my first week back in Turkey!

Tuesday.
Tuesdays are my favourite days, why? Because its Fethiye market day! I live in Calis, a 20 minute bus ride away from Fethiye, but Fethiye town really is my favourite place around here. I love walking around the markets, although it’s not so fun in summer when it’s absolutely boiling and the sweat just drips off you. On Tuesday we hopped on the bus to Fethiye in the morning as soon as Berkay had finished work, it was the first time I’d been there in 9 months, so it was really great to be back. Seeing the mosque opposite the bus stop and the street view as I walked around the corner was great, it felt like I was finally home!

We were really hungry so our first stop for breakfast was a tiny cafe opposite Is bank – I had Kiymali borek, which is basically mince in a puff pastry type pie – it might sound like a weird thing to have for breakfast but I love it, I love the potato ones too, mmmmm. Next we headed to the bank and then went for a little stroll along the seafront.

After doing some shopping for the boring stuff, tinned things and cleaning products, we went to the market. It was REALLY busy, which was surprising, as I hadn’t seen many people around until this point. There were coach load’s of tourists turning up for the market and wandering around, I guess the weather helped, it was raining so it wouldn’t be much fun sitting around a hotel pool trying to get a tan! 😉 We bought the essentials for our weekly shop – tomatoes, lettuce, melon, strawberries, blackberries, onions, peppers, potatoes, chicken and eggs. We never go to the supermarket for a weekly shop here – most things we eat are made from scratch. Walking around the market I really noticed the price of vegetables had gone up, last time I was here potatoes were 50krs – 75krs per kilo, now they’re 3tl/kg, what is that all about?!

After stocking up on it all, we went to Berkay’s friend’s little pancake van and shared a tomato, cheese and chili flake bazlama, yummy. I’ve previously written about all the other food you can find at the market if you’re interested, click HERE to read.
After all the shopping we got the bus home and went for a walk with Boncuk, she’s far too big to be cuddled like this nowadays!

Wednesday.
On Wednesday we went to the second hand market held on the first Wednesday of every month in the same area as the food section of the Tuesday weekly market. Our friend had a stall so we used her table and managed to sell some old clothes, shoes, bags, hats, nail varnish etc. It’s amazing what people will buy. Some of the stuff you see really is crap, teddies with missing eyes, clothes with holes in, used, dirty, holey shoes… but people are happy enough to buy as they only pay 50krs- 2tl for each item. Our clothes were all in good condition and we managed to make around 20tl – not much, but those things were just sitting in a cupboard taking up space at home, so it was better than nothing! We gave the bag of clothes that we didn’t sell to Berkay’s mum to take back to their village and hand out to the needy. The lady who’s table we were using is good friends of ours – Berkay works with her husband and last year we always used to go on picnic’s etc with them, they have a little boy, Cinar, who was only 9-10 months old last time I saw him, now he’s over 18months and going through the terrible 2’s! He didn’t remember me, wouldn’t come over to me or let me hold him without kicking and hitting me, what a nice welcome! Haha. He loves Berkay though. After the market had finished, we headed to the fish market and spent our profits on dinner, we picked out our fish and took them to one of the surrounding restaurants who cooked and served it for us – lovely. (:

Thursday.
On Thursday we had no plans to do anything as the weather was bad. I was woken up at 5am by huge cracks of thunder and lightening which led to the customary mad dash around the house unplugging all electricals before the power surge blows them up (I’ve learnt this from experience!!) Berkay slept in the morning, woke up at 3, and we planned to cook dinner and stay at home – that plan was altered a bit when we realised our gas bottle had ran out. Berkay’s friend works in the place that delivers the gas bottles on their little scooters, so a quick phonecall to him and the crisis was averted, however, the inevitable happened and we ended up being invited around to his friends house, so we went after dinner. Last August I posted about these friends and congratulated them on being pregnant with twins (click here to read), well these twins are now 3 months old so I met them for the first time, they are so, so, cute. One of them took a liking to me and found me hilarious! It’s funny how one has light, fine hair and the other a full mop of black, fluffy hair! Sweet. Their names are Emir and Emre but I’m not entirely sure which is which, so for now I know them as ‘hairy baby’ and ‘non hairy baby’!! Although incredibly cute, they were incredibly hard work, the mum didn’t have a minute to herself the whole time we were there, and both the grandparents were there helping non stop too! These are spoilt babies, never out of someones arms and they only slept on a blanket for 10 minutes the whole time we were there – life lesson = don’t have twins! At one point both babies were screaming so they laid each of them down on a white blanket, lifted up the edges and formed a kind of hammock and began swinging them back and forth. ”Turkish!” their grandad said to me with a big grin on his face. Crazy was my opinion on the matter, so I couldn’t help taking a photo. They were stood rocking them both for at least 30 minutes each, and this took 4 people… goodness knows what would happen if the mum was ever alone with them both!

Friday.
I woke up early Friday morning and headed off to the hotel Berkay works in as the boss needed me to help with something, an hour and a half and a free buffet breakfast later, we were still there. This was the first really sunny morning I’d had since I was there, it was really hot so the pool looked really tempting! Boncuk was really happy to see me at the hotel and came running up to me then proceeded to run around me in circles for 5minutes not letting any of us get her to put her back inside, she’s crazy! After we’d finished helping at the hotel, we went for a walk with Boncuk along the seafront where I managed to get sunburnt. It was really hot!

Berkay must have thought it was hot too, as when we were in the middle of walking Boncuk he turned around and said ‘Do you want to go for a swim?’ – Berkay NEVER says this, its always me bugging him to come to the beach with me! So off we went to get changed and have a dip in the sea. It’s so lovely now we live a 60 second walk away from the beach. The sea was a bit wavy, and kept knocking me over which I hate as it means I end up swallowing a mouthful of salty water, gag! It wasn’t too cold, just nice, we only stayed for 30 minutes or so but it was nice to cool off. When we came home we both had a sleep and woke up to another thunderstorm and heavy rain, it’s crazy to think that in the morning it was boiling and clear blue skies, then a few hours later, pouring with rain and stormy – in June! Madness.

Saturday.
On Saturday we had no plans so just caught the Dolmus to Fethiye for lunch – we had Doner. Mmmm. You can’t beat a good chicken doner, especially with chips inside and a side helping of tiny hot pickled chili peppers. Much better than the greasy kebabs back in England! I also got a slice of this amazing cake for my dinner – banana cake with cream and lots of layers. Mmmm. Are you sensing a food theme here on my blog?!

Sunday.
There are no photos from Sunday – at 11pm Thursday night Berkay came home from work to pick up some change of clothes for his brother who was rushed into hospital to have his appendix out. Berkay’s boss covered for him so he stayed all night at the hospital with his brother and didn’t come home til 4pm on Sunday. Then his Dad and Stepmum traveled from Denizli so that his brother wouldn’t be alone at the hospital. She popped into our house to say hi and bought us some goodies from their village – homemade butter and yogurt, a leg of lamb, chickpeas, lentils, corn kernels, onions… His brother is still in hospital at the moment recovering, hopefully he’ll be back to himself and at work in Hisaronu again soon!

Monday.
Today Berkay wasn’t home again until 5pm as he had to go and do a one day course to get his food hygiene certifcate. I had dinner waiting for him when he came home and then we went off for a stroll along the seafront – it was lovely and warm but very quiet. It seems like the season still isn’t in full swing yet. Hopefully when we get into July/August things will start to get busier!

As you can see, we had a pretty busy week. Berkay works night’s so he’s been having a couple of hours sleep in the hotel then either staying awake til 3-4pm so we get all morning and lunchtime together, or going to sleep when he comes home and waking up at 3pm so we get the afternoon and dinner together. I much prefer him working night’s to days, or I’d never see him.

Sorry for the long, photo heavy and overdue post. I WILL be back tomorrow with another! ❤

Bodrum Day 3. Views, boxes full of chicks and a broken down bus..

Posted on October 2, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

We spent our last few hours in Bodrum much the same as the previous two days, stuffing our faces with food and taking photos..

Breakfast was as good as ever. P.S, who doesn’t love hotel freebies?

After breakfast we wandered up to the roof terrace of the hotel where we had amazing 360oc panoramic views of Gumbet. The blue sky with a few clouds, boats on the sea and white buildings on the hillside make a great backdrop. It looked like a postcard.

I love how all the buildings in Bodrum and surrounding areas are white. It definitely adds something to the place, it makes it look so traditional and beautiful.

We sat by the pool for 10minutes and had a game of table tennis, then packed up our things and went to Bodrum. We had to check out at 12.00 but our bus back to Fethiye wasn’t til 14.30 so we had 2 hours to kill.
We wandered around Bodrum market, it was a lot bigger than the Fethiye ones. They also had some interesting things for sale… one man was sitting outside with a cage of rabbits, two boxes of baby chicks and several huge chickens/cockerels. So random.

Who wouldn’t be cheered up by a box of fluffy chicks though!? So cute.

Finally it was time to board the bus, it took over 5 and a half hours to get home, the silly old bus broke down for 45 minutes!

Overall, we had a fab time. We weren’t so keen on Gumbet, but the hotel we stayed in was lovely and Bodrum town was beautiful. It made a nice change from Fethiye and it was good to spend 2 days away together. It all seems a million miles away now I’m stuck back in England though. ):

Market Day Treats..mmm.

Posted on August 20, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

After walking around carrying bags of fruit & veg, what better way to cool down and recover than to stop at one of the little cafe van/trailers in the market area. Good food, cheap prices and friendly people. (I LOVE market days, can you tell?)

This is another of our Tuesday/Sunday traditions. Going to the market and getting a traditional Turkish pancake (gözleme). Yum. They come in lots of flavours, sweet or savory. My favourite is the simple lemon sugar pancake, but I’m also a lover of the meat ones! They’re all freshly made in front of your eyes and are a million miles away from the pancakes us English know and love.

kıymalı gözleme (mince meat) lemon, sugar & icecream gözleme

These are more like very thin pastry folded in half, filled with your choice of topping and served warm. Lovely.

There are tons of other Turkish foods available too, döner (chicken/salad in a half bread), peynirli bazlama (special bread with cheese in) and for the adventurous, kokoreç (lamb or goat intestines, usually served in a half bread!) ~~Yuck.~~

peynirli bazlama

Lets not forget the drinks too, you’ll see piles of fresh fruits outside the trailers waiting to be juiced, pomegranates, oranges etc, as well as the usual soft drinks. They also have the Turkish drink Ayran (made with yogurt, water and salt). I’m not a fan, ~~to me it just tastes like sour milk~~ but my boyfriend loves it. Apparently it’s refreshing and good for you as the salt helps you keep hydrated. It is an acquired taste for sure. My ultimate favourite drink to cool us down though, is kar şerbeti (literally- snow sherbet). This is basically a slush puppy. Only different. It’s made with snow, actual, real snow bought down from the mountains. They knock a chunk of snow off, stick it in a bowl and crush it up (using elbow grease, not a machine!) they then and add your choice of flavoured syrup, (cherry, grape, lemon, strawberry, orange etc…) This is so refreshing on a hot day, even with the brain freeze that often results from drinking/eating it too quickly!

ayran kar şerbeti

Market Day, hip hip hooray!

Posted on August 19, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

One of the best things about living in Turkey (besides the sunshine! ) is the cheap, fresh fruit and vegetables. And there is no better place to get them than at the weekly markets.

Instead of heading to the air conditioned big supermarket’s like Kipa (Tesco) or Migros, and buying perfect size/shape fruits and vegetables, we buy the same things for a much cheaper price in the market. In fact, we manage to do most, if not all, of our weekly shop there. Granted, the experience of being pushed and shoved through crowds of people in 35oC+ heat under tents, haggling to get everything a couple of lira cheaper is a little stressful, but it’s all part of the experience, and I love it.

The market’s are held every Sunday in Çalis, and every Tuesday in Fethiye. We always go in the late evening, it’s cooler and as everyone starts to pack up it’s much easier to haggle a good price ( just shout ‘‘Aksam fiyati” at them) It’s all undercover so no need to worry about getting burnt, although it’s still very hot under there.

Fethiye market is the largest, and best. It is popular with tourists, but you’ll easily spot the thousands of locals doing their weekly shop there too. There are hundreds (literally) of stalls filled with fruit, vegetables, herbs, plants, even fresh milk and olive oil packaged into empty coke bottles from the villages. You have to see it to believe just how impressive it really is. Everything is done by kilograms, if you went to the market for just a couple of tomatoes, the stall holder would look at you like you had two heads. We normally buy several kilograms of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers, etc. I think my arms have grown a few inches with the amount I carry home! You really have to look around for the best prices, it’s not uncommon for us to spot tomatoes for 2tl and walk up and down for another 10 minutes until we find some for 50 krs (15p) cheaper (every little helps, and all that!) It’s all part of the fun.

There’s also a ~~very smelly~~ cheese section of the market, a section with bags full of spices, a meat & egg section, and my favourite part – the Turkish delight (Lokum) section. Yum. Most will offer you free samples too.

Past the food section there is a little area with tables, chairs, and vans selling Turkish pancakes etc. Another post coming about that soon.

Beyond all that, is the section mainly for tourists. It’s practically non existent in winter when everyone has gone home! Here you can find everything you’d want for a souvenir. Bracelets, watches, keyrings, sunhats, sunglasses, shoes, towels, bedding, blankets, baby clothes, t-shirts, football shirts, dresses, belts, bags, wallets, even pots and pans. You name it, they’ve got it. Be careful though, don’t be fooled by the Nike or Adidas badges, the football shirts, the Versace or Chanel sunglasses. They are not real. They are lovingly known as ‘genuine fakes’, a little joke among stall holders and customers. Walking along, you’ll hear ‘cheap as chips’, ‘primark prices’ shouted at you from all directions, but there shouldn’t be too much hassle. If you’re not interested, make it clear, but it’s always fun to join in the banter. Once you’ve found something you do like, NEVER pay what they ask, always haggle. Don’t be afraid, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, and the stall holders expect it. My best advice is to take a local Turkish person along with you, if someone is there who can speak Turkish, you’ll get a better deal. Sad, but true.

We don’t often buy clothes or other goods from the market, just food. But when my family come to visit, they always go home with a few bags of goodies. If you’re passing by, or need a break from the pool for a few hours (yea right!) visit the market to see exactly what i’m talking about.

If nothing else, its an experience.