Istanbul, Day One and Two - The Grand Bazaar

[bf_nightingale]

I went there with my two cousins, whom I met for the first time ever that day. Probably needless to say that they were both awesome, and - even better for me whose cousins' average age was at least 20 years older until now - they are my age! They both spoke a pretty good English as well despite my first fears, although I had sometimes still trouble

Comments

[yoru_yume]

Sounds absolutly amazing! I read through your other posts too^^ *adds Turkey to her list of interesting places I want to see some day* Mmmm the Turkish food sounds goooood!

Congrats for passing your Nikyuu too! =D

[bf_nightingale]

Turkey is cool! (Well, Istanbul is, can't tell for the rest yet of course. And I'm not talking about politics and that kind of stuff here of course.)
I've heard several times, from completely independent sources that turkish cuisine is considered to be one of the three "classical" cuisines in the world, next to french and chinese cuisine. I have no idea why it's not even half as well-known as the other cuisines, most people I know probably don't even think further than Döner Kebap!D: (Because, yes, it also tastes soooo good!^_^)

Thank you!:D

[yoru_yume]

I didn't know that, but it kind of makes sense to me...French, Chinese and Turkish that kind of covers the what I guess is the main influence on European, Asian and Middle Eastern cooking styles respectively?

Mmm middle eastern cooking is good! We have this great recipe book at home for middle eastern food, it's quite well loved by my mother =)

Says me, who is sitting eating dinner while commenting^^;

[bf_nightingale]

I don't think it has anything to do with their geographical location, but more with the wide variaty of food in their cuisine. Or at least, that's the explanation my aunt came up with, who is quite a passionate cook (for french cooking of course).
It may be stupid but I don't really dare to comment on the french food because I'm so used to it I can't really say what is typically french and what is... well, standard recipes, but chinese food should be well-known for it's variety, isn't it? Same with turkish cuisine apparently, who got a lot of influence from, well, the whole ottoman empire. Or so I heard.^^;

I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know middle-eastern cooking that well compared to others, but I'm currently having a lot of fun to get to know it better. Any particular recs?:9

And I need to try not to go searching for chips or something. I still have a few hours till dinner time.;>_>

[lemiru]

wow, so viele Sachen! Da weiss man ja nicht, wo zuerst schauen. Wobei die Bude mit den Lämpchen ist irgendwie total süss, und zugegeben, vom Tee würde man mich wohl nicht mehr so schnell wegkriegen.

Und Backgammonnnnnnn! Als ich noch wusste, wie das geht, hab ich das auch total gerne gespielt (so... vor 15 Jahren). Dein Nachmittag tönt ja voll gemütlich. und ich bin ein stalker und hab die Familengeschichte gleich mitgelesen und spannend gefunden, ätsch. /o/

[bf_nightingale]

Du hast da zielsicher meinen eigenen Favoriten herausgepickt. Ich fühle mich von Lämpchen angezogen wie eine Motto vom Licht, und nächstes Mal kaufe ich bestimmt eine ganze Sammlung davon!*_* (Der Tee roch soooo gut!<3)

Du auch? Wir müssten unbedingt mal zusammen spielen... sobald ich durchblicke wie Internet-Backgammon funktionniert. *hüstel* Freut mich wenn sie nicht nur für mich unterhaltsam sein konnte.xD *zurückstalk*

[lemiru]

Lämpchenladen würde ich wohl leerkaufen, wenn das ginge. Und um mich aus dem Teeladen wieder herauszukriegen müsste man mich betäuben. Dafür kann ich mich sowas von nicht fürs Kleidershoppen begeistern. Gesunder ausgleich?

Ohoho, an die Möglichkeit, sowas übers Internet zu spielen habe ich natürlich wieder nicht gedacht. Ich werde wohl alt, was. D= Dann muss ich nur nochmal herausfinden, wie man das Spiel nochmal spielt...

[bf_nightingale]

Ich habe mich leider zurückgehalten und "nur" ein Windlicht gekauft, das ich schon über alles liebe. Und nun bereue ich, dass ich diesem Windlicht keine 23673726752 Geschwisterchen mitadoptiert habe.D: (Für Tee kann ich mich seltsamerweise erst seit der Türkei begeistern. Und nicht zuletzt dieser Laden hat mich innerhalb von einem halben Tag bekehrt obwohl ich eigentlich nur wegen der Gewürze schauen wollte, ich liebe Gewürze! Das sollte dir eine ungefähre Idee davon geben, wie toll dieser Laden ist. Ich befürchte also, wenn du Tee wirklich so sehr liebst, wirst du wohl in diesen Laden einziehen wollen.D:)
Bei mir kommt's drauf an: Habe ich kein besonderes Ziel und ein wenig Geld auf dem Konto und bin in der richtigen Stimmung (was ungefähr zweimal im Jahr vorkommt), kann ich schon mal mit vier oder fünf Tüten nach Hause kommen. Wenn ich unbedingt und dringenst Klamotten brauche, muss ich mich in jeden einzelnen Laden treten. Wie jetzt, wo ich seit genau fünf Tagen nur noch eine einzige lochfreie Hose habe und bisher noch nicht die

[rhagi]

That bazaar is like the coolest place ever! Not like I'd have imagined either, but like you said, uneducated tourist with oriental phantasies much ^^; I guess Scheherazade's time is over, huh? ;P

Btw I have never heard of the food before, but it all looks rather tasty :D

Oh, and the Spice Bazaar <3 I love spices, even if I can't cook to save my life. Gnah, looks so delicious!

Istanbul definitely made my Must Visit list :D

Oh btw, what's a narghile? *curious*

[bf_nightingale]

It was really nice, though I'll have to go again with plenty of time (and a large number on my bank account) one day!<3

The best thing ever (next to what my cousins' mother cooked) was İskender kebap. SO TASTY! I have to find out whether I can do it at home as well or whether this one dish I'd better eat at restaurants only... *sigh*

And yep, I can definitely recommend Istanbul!^_^

A narghile is a hookah or shisha (or simply waterpipe). And good thing I searched the wiki article for you, because now I also read the part about the effect for your health. Oh great, and here they told me smoking narghile was significantly less bad than smoking cigarettes and would be a-okay for non-smokers too... orz Not that I'm mad at them, it was an interesting experience at it's not a one-time smoking that'll kill me (not after I spent 3 1/2 years regularly locked in a room with heavy smokers when I was still a firefighter), but so much for the rumors. *facepalm*

[rhagi]

Haha, yeah well, these kinda trips usually tend to empty my wallet, too ;)

Gosh, this really looks quite tasty. And I'm not even that much of a kebap fan ^^; I probably wouldn't say no to one of those, though :)

Definitely on my To Visit List then :D

Oh, a shisha <3 Heh. I just skimmed through that article. Seems like my das wasn't just trying to scare the hell out of me. I do like to smoke a witerpipe, occasionally ^^;

[bf_nightingale]

It's horrible, isn't it? And you can't possibly consider going home without a souvenir or two or three? And since I'm not the kind of tourist who is satisfied with some kitsch stuff from the tourist shop with a big TÜRKIYE written all over it, I need to buy the real nice stuff. Something authentic. Or as close as I can get to authentic that is, without having to invest millions in some antiquities. ._.

In that case, the "kebap" doesn't have much to do with döner kebap, except that the meat slices are being cut from a vertical pole. Says wiki. And wiki also says that there are nobel restaurants who serve nothing else but this İskender kebap. So no, definitely not the same as döner bebap.:)

At first, I definitely liked the tavla (turkish backgammon) game better than the smoke. But I admit it got much more fun later in the hostel, when we shared a narghile for about ten people maybe. *g*