Shopping in Kadıköy 2.0

A return to Kadıköy by myself this time.

With a birthday party looming today I decide upon those jewel-like preserved vegetables

for Andrew who is 'too old for presents'. Naturally this means I must return to the shop with the fabulous almond paste sweets, Cafe Erol. Looks a bit like a Konditerai, inside and out.

Some of the almond paste sweets are rolled in crushed pistachios (rear right), but I am a purist (rear centre).

These particular jars of boiled sweet historically indicated that the Jannisary, the Sultan's crack troops, were pleased with their paypacks. Still called “akide şekeri” (lit. “good faith/allegiance candy”) the colours are splendid.

I then pop over to the organic spice shop to get a small bottle of sumac molasses, an extremely tart syrup similar to the more readily available pomegranate molasses, as a thank-you to Korhan. The items dangling from the shop awning are strings of sun-dried red peppers and, on the far right, thumb-sized patlaçan, or baby eggplants, cored and all ready for stuffing at Çiya.

The shop assistant is particularly nice.

Jars of various spices

tempt me to take 100 gr of both powdered sumac and red pepper flakes.

Returning to the ferry, I pass a stall offering these these prepared (honestly, pre-pared!?) artichoke hearts, as seen on this Yotam Ottolenghi  clip from his Channel 4 series on Istanbul and other Mediterranean cuisine. The clip shows how all the outer leaves and inner stickers are removed for you. A bag of 4 cost TL10, or about £3/$5.

And they are massive! I simply steamed them and ate them cold, sliced with a little lemon and mayo. Yum.

The return ferry travels past a massive structure, the Army Barracks, seen in the background at the horizon.

This is where Florence Nightingale came during the Crimean War and started the practice of modern nursing. There is a small museum devoted to her, apparently in one of these towers.

And it is right at the commercial part of the waterways, with cranes and container ships everywhere.

And this is one of the smaller vessels!

Composition in orange and blue.