Spice Bazaar and Pastry Ingredients

While we were walking our guest from Izmir on the 19th of May holiday, we realized that we missed doing this for a long time. When we said let's go there, let's go here, we finished this holiday, but there are good memories and photo frames that I can share with you. The first of these is Eminönü – Spice Bazaar.

It is one of the oldest and most well-known districts of Istanbul, whose borders date back to the Byzantines, surrounded by walls. This historically-smelling town, formerly Byzantion, took its name from the Customs Assurance nearby.

While watching the galata from the other side, you will be caught by the smell of the sea while walking step by step. While the sounds of the ferries mingle with the sounds of seagulls, you dive among the pigeons. On one side, the New Mosque, where people flock to and fro, and on the other side, florists accompany you on this short journey as you head towards the corn bazaar.

When you come to its door, time has stopped, the date has changed and the clocks have been set 300 years ago. When you enter through the door, the smell of spices filling your nose hits you, and you forget where you came from and where you are going. You just want to live there, you can't see the effects of the wearing time there. The crowd becomes a singular solitude and you you stay in the middle. As it progresses, the scents of Turkish delight and coffee take the place of the spice scent. You unconsciously pass by the voices of the vendors who want to force you sweet treats. Handmade jewellery, elaborately painted bowls, bowls, casseroles, pattern-patterned lamps, candlesticks, rugs with the texture of history engraved on them, straw covers leave unforgettable traces on you. You want to examine them one by one, one by one, to digest the Spice Bazaar.

In the past, bazaars were places where tradesmen selling the same kind of products gathered together. Like today's coppersmiths' bazaar, blacksmiths' bazaar. When I was a child, when it was mentioned as a corn bazaar, I always thought of a place where various kinds of corn were sold. It is not that I was not disappointed when I had the opportunity to go and see it. There was no corn in sight. When I researched its history a little, the story of the Egyptian bazaar coming to this day is as follows;

In the place of the Egyptian bazaar, there was a covered bazaar known as "Makron Emvolos" during the Byzantine period, and Jews lived in the neighborhood. With the construction of the bazaar, the Jews were transferred from here to the Balat district. The construction of the Spice Bazaar, the second largest covered bazaar of Istanbul, which was built as the New Mosque complex, started in 3 with the instruction of Safiye Sultan, who was the wife of Sultan Murat III and mother of Sultan Mehmet III. The foundation of the Yeni Mosque, which is known as the longest mosque in Ottoman history (3 years), was laid by the architect Davut Ağa. However, a year later, with the death of the architect Davut Ağa, the chief architect, Dalgıç Ahmet Çavuş, brought in for the continuation of the mosque. continued. The death of Mehmet the 1603rd in 3 and the fact that Safiye Sultan was forced to live in the old palace caused the construction of the new mosque to fail. Later, Hatice Turhan Sultan, mother of Mehmet the 4th, had the New Mosque completed by the chief architect Mustafa Ağa and asked him to build a bazaar here as a new mosque complex. Thus, the Spice Bazaar, which still serves customers today, was completed in 1664 as the work of Architect Mustafa Ağa.

Before I get married, I take a short shopping tour, starting from the Spice Bazaar to the Şark Han, which I bought from henna supplies to my wedding candy, from many small kitchen utensils in my house to my trinkets. .

I continued this habit last Saturday, but this time I was there to buy sugar dough and sugar dough materials to serve a sublime purpose :) When the desire to apply what I read about cake making techniques, decorations and models from sugar paste, which I just started to be curious about, started to outweigh. I set out for Nuans, which I have heard many times, selling cake ingredients. When you exit the gate that connects the Spice Bazaar to Tahtakale, you can smell the coffee and the aroma of the dried coffee maker Mehmet Efendi, who is on the right corner, spread around.

When you pass the coffee lovers who have lined up to buy this historical and famous Turkish coffee in front of you, Nuans is on your left. When you get there, if you ask any of the tradesmen who have known each other for years, they will happily show you their place.

When you enter the door, you enter another world. Various cake decoration products. Molds, tools. I never thought that pastry was so detailed. It is a shop where you can find not only ready-made, but also the necessary materials to make your own sugar paste. I would recommend it to friends who are interested and thinking of going.

I have been working on figures with my wife for two days at home with the materials I bought from Nuans. I will explain it with pictures in my next article.

You can find more pictures below