Sunday, July 1, 2012

Almost Famous

Hello People,

I know, I know.  Hazel and I have broken our promise.  We have no where near given you a post a day about our life in Telmar.  I apologize, however we have been busy and I plan on using that business to make it up to you.  Last week I promised you pictures of our local market.  Today I make good on that promise.  I didn't know how it would go over taking a camera with me.  Lets face it, you either love cameras or hate them; love tourists or just want them all to go away.  Good for me, maybe a little too good for me, the market, apparently, loves them.  As soon as I arrived I was greeted with cries of "Take Picture!" and "Facebook'da!*"  At every table people were motioning me over and asking me to take pictures of, not only their produce, but themeselves as well.  I only got through half of the market and took 33 pictures.  As all of the venders were quite thrilled to be so sought out by a paparazzo as myself, and here I quote one man,"I am almost famous!" (to which I replied, I am a golden god...no I didn't), I couldn't bring myself to edit them.  So, without further ado, I give you the uncensored record of my most recent trip to the pazaar.

Please note: because of the number of pictures I've split this post into two parts.  Don't miss the link to the second part midway through.

There are two things to know about the market.  1) Everything is very fresh.  2) It is horribly exciting, by which I mean, it is great fun going.  Believe me, its not your typical trip to the grocery store where you will stand quietly but impatiently behind the coupon user blocking the aisle with 4 carts.  No, here you jostle and bump and cut through and generally try to avoid stepping on or being stepped on and boy is it worth it. Can you see the 85 krus price tag on those watermelons?  100 krus = 1 lira.  1.89 lira = 1 dollar.  You do the math.

The stall below was my first foray into asking the dreaded question, "Take Peecture?"  You can see by the picture below that, I had nothing to worry about.


You can get just about anything at the pazaar.  From the fresh fruits and vegetables that you see above and will see again below, to the carpets in this picture and the clothing and luggage in the background, and even to vacuum cleaner bags that we had searched for in stores for over two months!

Look at this.  Mountains and mountains of fresh, handpicked cherries.  Delicious.

As a vegetarian, I approve this picture.  Eggplant galore here. All of the prices here are by the kilogram.   Two lira a kilogram for eggplant.  Wow!  Vegetarian heaven.


 More and better pictures after the jump...

Ok, I'm not going to burden you with my ramblings about each and every picture.  I'll just write a little about some of the pictures that need explaining.  Below is a view looking down the market lane.  It give you a good idea of what its like walking through. Sadly, it can't give you the sounds and smells, but that can be cured which a short 20 hour plane ride and several busses.

These are all olives.  They are quite different from the flavor of olives in the states.  I believe the curing process is different, if it is a curing process at all.  These are eaten with breakfast, lunch, and supper along with various cheeses.  Bread, cheese, and olives are the main staples here so accordingly they have plenty of all of them.





This is Yufka.   It is a very thin dough with which they make a delicious dish called "Borek."  To try and make your own borek check out this link.  I haven't actually tried this recipe, but it seems like it is pretty accurate and it comes from NPR so of course it can be trusted.  http://www.npr.org/2012/03/27/149467233/take-time-to-savor-the-borek-a-flaky-turkish-snack

 These are the dough ingredients for several other Telmarine dishes and honestly I don't know them all.

From Saffron to Cinnamon, you can get all of your spices here.



Yes, Sam. I do remember the taste of strawberries.









I was given a free demonstration of how to cut the roots from these.


Once again, you can get anything here.

This fellow was very funny. He knew some english from school and he had learned more from the movies, apparently.  He kept explaining, "Oh my god!  I am so famous!"  He was quite fun to joke around with.

Green beans.  I'm glad they have plenty of these here as they are one of two things that I can cook.  Bess, I hope you like these because at 2 lira a kilo I bought all he had for when you visit.

These were all of the pictures that I took.  Recently I was telling my dad, I rely on words to express myself 99 percent.  The other 1% I use by waving my arms wildly when I talk.  Its been hard for me living here, not speaking the language, and not working in an environment where I am among the people on a daily consistent basis.  What I got from this trip to the market was more than just a bunch of pictures and the best tasting strawberries I've ever eaten.  I came back with a new sense of the way that friendships can be built even without words. I know this is going to sound cheesy, but I joked and laughed with all of the venders as I walked through.  I learned that if there's anything that can reach beyond the barriers of language, it just may be a smile and some laughter.

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