My few days in Istanbul before heading to the Black Sea were fabulous.
The city is beautiful and is an exciting place to explore. The street vendors and complex bazaars are incredibly enticing. You could without a doubt spend weeks getting lost down the various alleys teeming with foods, wares, textiles and crafts.
The street sellers also offer roasted chestnuts and corn on the cob all of which were fantastic.
My Tourist Tick Box:
- Explored Istanbul
- Saw Blue Mosque
- The Cistern
- Galata Tower
- Grand Bazaar
Hazelnuts
While in Istanbul it became incredibly apparent that the hazelnut value added market in Turkey is highly developed. The range of products and uses for hazelnuts were varied and cut across the price brackets from luxury foods to more common every day biscuits from the supermarket.
A further interesting point was the lack of peanuts and peanut products which are very common in the UK, Australia and the USA. They could be found but by far hazelnut was more prevalent.
Having developed in the UK our own cobnut dukkah, I had expected to find some savory uses for hazelnuts in Turkey but it was clear during the whole Turkish stage that it is very much used in sweet products such as confectionery and desserts.