The Sunday open-air fruit and vegetable bazaar in Istanbul's scruffy Tarlabasi neighborhood is among the city's best markets, a rollicking, lively affair that seems to roll on endlessly through the area's streets. The neighborhood is currently slated to get Istanbul's notorious "urban transformation" gentrification treatment, and there is concern that the Sunday bazaar could find itself without a home.
EatingAsia's Robyn Eckhardt and David Hegerman recently visited the market and filed a wonderful report for the Daily Zester website. From their piece:
"Bir lira bir lira bir liraaa!"
From behind a table heaped with bunches of tere (a jagged-edged variety of cress) a vendor at the
weekly market in Istanbul's Tarlabasi (Tar-luh-BAH-shuh) neighborhood bids for the attention of passing
shoppers. His guttural bellows are loud enough to set the ears ringing. But
take two steps back and they're lost in the cacophony of those peddling cheese
and olives, nectarines and cherries, lamb and fish, cosmetics and household
goods. It's 4 in the afternoon on a sultry summer Sunday and the Tarlabasi pazari ("market" in Turkish) is in full swing.Rock-bottom prices on everything from watermelons (one
Turkish lira each) to otlu peyniri (herb-speckled
cheese from Turkey's far east) draw Istanbullu from all over the city to
down-and-out Tarlabasi, in central Beyoglu district. Located just a stone's throw from crowded
Istiklal Caddesi walking street, the area is a maze of sloped streets lined
with ornately embellished 19th- and early 20th-century row houses,
churches and mosques in various states of decay and repair.
You can read the full article (which has a great slideshow that runs with it) here.
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