Sunday afternoon in Kadıköy

A beautiful sunny day but the Spice Market/Mısır Çarşısı is closed so decide to go over to the Asya/Asia side to the neighbourhood called Kadıköy. This is one ferry stop away from Karaköy, my local stop. My goal is to locate those delicious preserved olives I ate at Çiya so many weeks ago.

Fortunately, Korhan is here and very kindly agrees to show me the sights of Kadıköy. We arrive on the Asia side, scope out the shop for the preserved olives and continue on to the walking/shopping street in this non-tourist area.

First off is a cookie break at a family run shop specializing in particular bakery goods. It had been threatened with eviction a few years ago but the local outrage was sufficient to garner it some kind of registered status so the family business will continue.

The shop window is full of so many varieties of pastries and sweets.

The treats here are two-fold: Tanhini Pide, a tahini biscuit

 with sesame both inside and out;

and silver foil-wrapped Leblebi, a chickpea version of halva, best kept chilled.

All this walking leads Korhan to suggest a nice sit-down under some trees with a cuppa, so we head off to the Communist Party Cultural Centre. To get there we walk down this charming narrow street, lined on one side with tiny stalls of individual craft artists, and on the other with medical devices such as corsets, trusses, crutches, toilet seat extenders, foot and ankle braces - an extremely unpredictable combination.

On the way we pass a cafe serving only jacket potatoes with a broad range of toppings. Perhaps this is the origin of the dressed jacket potato? A Turkish tradition, this cooker on the pavement looks like it's been there a few decades.

The Cultural centre also projects films onto the large white wall in the back of this shot.

So very crowded, the only tables available in the shade are under a glass roof.

The building itself is an old and well maintained place, with bookshop and very clean loos.

Heading back to the ferry we stop to select and collect the preserved 'fruits' (technically an olive is a stone fruit, like a plum) but the colourful marzipan catches my eye as well.

Resplendent faux fruits are wasted on me, so after sampling the purest form I take 250 grams. This marzipan is probably 95% pure almond paste, with only a touch of sugar. The texture is delicate, soft, and not at all like the rock solid balls of chocolate covered hard centred Mozartballs. Reminds me of the first time I'd tasted home-made marzipan in Denmark so long ago.

Finally I focus on the preserved 'fruits' which are (L to R, top to bottom, skipping the puddings on the top shelf): individually gold foil wrapped whole chestnuts (marrons glaces), tomatoes, whole chestnuts loose, green olives, whole walnuts, peeled baby eggplants, unpeeled baby eggplant. Astonishing and beautiful.

Fully packed, wrapped and airplane-proofed, I am given the treats in this great little bag.

It's a good thing they are all so beautifully wrapped as otherwise I'd be sorely tempted!