Shop for Saffron and Turkish Delight at the Spice Market
If cooking is your passion, be sure to visit the Spice Baazar in Istanbul. The Spice Bazaar, is an L-shaped building consisting of 88 vaulted rooms. Completed in 1660, the building is part of the Yeni Mosque and was initially constructed so that rent from the shops could help pay for the upkeep of the mosque. It is the second largest covered shopping complex in the city next to the Grand Bazaar and the center for spice trade in Istanbul. But if you are there looking for inexpensive Turkish saffron, remember...you get what you pay for.
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Saffron comes from the dried stigma of the saffron crocus. It is both a seasoning and coloring agent with a bitter taste and hay-like smell. Native to Southwest Asia, it takes 75,000 blossoms, or 225,000 hand-picked stigmas to make a single pound making it the world’s most expensive spice by weight.
The name comes from the Arabic word Zafron meaning yellow and its color is considered the epitome of beauty becoming the official color of Buddhist robes. This pricey spice also has medicinal benefits as an antispasmodic, diaphoretic, carminative, emmenagogic and sedative, however, large dosages can be fatal. It is also the world’s most frequently falsified spice most likely due to its high market value. Low grade Saffron has been treated with urine to give it color and most often been mixed with dried calendula or marigold. Turkish saffron is merely dried safflower. It is not have the same medicinal properties nor does it smell like saffron but it will turn food yellow if used in a sufficient quantity. A writer named Flitcraft in the Turkey Travel Planner gives some tips on how to identify real Saffron: “True saffron is dark reddish and comes in long tangled threads. What is sold as "saffron" is orange-red, shorter in length than true saffron, and often contains a few dried flower heads. (That's a tip-off that it isn't a variety of saffron--saffron is the stamens of a particular kind of crocus, so you would never find a complete dried blossom. Safflowers, on the other hand, do have a pom-pom type of head.) Incidentally, price is another tip off. Since saffron has to be picked manually one flower at a time, it's expensive even in countries where the labour is cheap (like Iran, for example).” |
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The saffron may be fools gold but the Turkish Delight is guarenteed to be the real deal.
Wikipedia - Turkish delight or Lokum is a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar. Premium varieties consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios and hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; the cheapest are mostly gel, generally flavored with rosewater, mastic, Bergamot orange or lemon. The confection is often packaged and eaten in small cubes dusted with icing sugar, copra, or powdered cream of Tartar, to prevent clinging. The sweet as it is known today was invented by Bekir Effendi, who moved from his hometown Kastamonu to Istanbul and opened his confectionery shop in 1776. Originally, honey and molasses were its sweeteners, and water and flour were the binding agents, with rosewater, lemon peel and bitter orange as the most common flavors (red, yellow and green). Lokum was introduced to Western Europe in the 19th century. An unknown Briton reputedly became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul and purchased cases of it, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish delight. It became a major delicacy in Britain and throughout Continental Europe for high class society. During this time, it became a practice among upper class socialites to exchange pieces of Turkish delight wrapped in silk handkerchiefs as presents.
Wikipedia - Turkish delight or Lokum is a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar. Premium varieties consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios and hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; the cheapest are mostly gel, generally flavored with rosewater, mastic, Bergamot orange or lemon. The confection is often packaged and eaten in small cubes dusted with icing sugar, copra, or powdered cream of Tartar, to prevent clinging. The sweet as it is known today was invented by Bekir Effendi, who moved from his hometown Kastamonu to Istanbul and opened his confectionery shop in 1776. Originally, honey and molasses were its sweeteners, and water and flour were the binding agents, with rosewater, lemon peel and bitter orange as the most common flavors (red, yellow and green). Lokum was introduced to Western Europe in the 19th century. An unknown Briton reputedly became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul and purchased cases of it, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish delight. It became a major delicacy in Britain and throughout Continental Europe for high class society. During this time, it became a practice among upper class socialites to exchange pieces of Turkish delight wrapped in silk handkerchiefs as presents.
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For tips on visiting Turkey CLICK HERE
For tips on visiting the Middle East CLICK HERE
For general travel tips on what to pack and how to plan ahead CLICK HERE
For tips on travelling on a budget CLICK HERE
For tips on visiting the Middle East CLICK HERE
For general travel tips on what to pack and how to plan ahead CLICK HERE
For tips on travelling on a budget CLICK HERE
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Where I Stayed...
Hotel Arcadia Istanbul,Turkey Dr.Imran Oktem Caddesi No:1 Sultanahmet 34400 Istanbul Tel: 90-212-519 96 96 Website: www.hotelarcadiaistanbul.com Email: [email protected] Hotel Hali Klodfarer Caddesi No:20 Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey Tel: 0090. 212. 5162170 Website: www.halihotel.com Email: [email protected] |
