Street markets in Istanbul: My local pazar
I’d love to start this post by writing that I go to my local market in Göztepe in Istanbul every Monday but I can’t. My husband’s the one who goes. He’s known to the vendors as the Turkish looking foreigner (his mother was Italian) who buys the food for his family, rejects any apples, strawberries or tomatoes that aren’t perfect as expertly as any Turkish housewife, and can’t ever be talked into buying rock hard avocados. I only go when the mood takes me, and usually pay more attention to what I can photograph than what I can eat. Unless of course it’s cherry season.
Over the years the produce on sale has remained largely the same, but on my most recent visit I noticed a distinct change in the displays. Oranges have always been stacked in artful pyramids and eggplants piled in glossy castle defence towers, but the bar has definitely been lifted.
