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Petek Turşuları, Beyoğlu, Istanbul

Turkish Food – Discovering Istanbul Pickles

You may remember, way back last winter, we did a few posts about Turkish pickles and we even discovered that they’re good for you. Well, that’s always going to be a bonus for us seeing as we struggle to get through a meal without having a side dish of pickles.

Our visit to Istanbul last weekend was a very short one and as we’ve been up there a few times now, we were happy to spend the three days pottering around the Beyoğlu area as that’s where we were staying. Dodging your way up and down Istiklal Caddesi is an event in itself but off this main stretch there are warrens of side streets to lose yourself in. Whilst wondering around aimlessly on our second day, we stumbled across this most wonderful of establishments…

Petek Turşuları, Beyoğlu, Istanbul
Colourful pickles brighten up Beyoğlu

You can imagine our glee at seeing such a splash of colour and then realising that the splash of colour was turşu. Home made pickles of all varieties. Sometimes you see a shop and you get really excited and you just have to go in there. This was one of those shops for us.

Petek Turşuları Varieties
Pickle production in Petek Turşuları

Actually, we’re doing it an injustice, calling it a shop. This is a fine pickling emporium: Petek Turşuları (Petek Pickles). We pushed the door open and the air was filled with the aroma of pickling vinegar. The shop owner produces his wonderful pickle creations behind the counter and all around you are floor-to-ceiling shelves stacked with beautifully presented pickles, placed in their jars in such a way as to squash in the maximum amount – and to make you want to buy them. This guy quite clearly takes pride in his pickle presentations.

It wasn’t just picked vegetables on display. Also for sale is pickled fruit (you can see the grapes on the bottom row of the photo), home made salça (tomato puree and pepper puree) of varying degrees of heat and nar ekşisi. We just couldn’t leave this place empty handed. Wherever we travel to, we always buy a little souvenir to bring back to Fethiye with us. Travels to Istanbul usually entail book purchasing – but this time, the discovery of Petek Turşuları in Beyoğlu meant the books were sacrificed and pickles won the day.

Pickle Display At Petek Turşuşarı
There was even pickled fruit

Baby red bell peppers, jalapeño peppers and nar ekşisi were bought (very cheaply) and brought back home with us. Unfortunately, there were never going to be enough and we’re already rationing them out to make them last as long as possible! The baby red bell peppers are sweet with a perfect heat and go perfectly with Turkish white cheese. The jalapeños – well, they’re just being eaten with everything and the nar ekşisi; home made, thick and syrupy. That was drizzled, in generous quantities, over last night’s salad.

It’s not every day you come across emporiums such as Petek’s and we can’t imagine there’ll be any future visits to Istanbul without stopping by here for edible souvenirs.

October 21, 2010 by Turkey's For Life 11 Comments

Filed Under: Istanbul Europe, Turkish Food Tagged With: Beyoğlu, Pickles, Turkey Souvenirs

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Comments

  1. denizdalya

    October 21, 2010 at 9:37 am

    o la la süper görünüyor fotograf makinesinin markası ne 😕

    Reply
  2. Turkey's For Life

    October 21, 2010 at 9:49 am

    Teşekkürler Denizdalya. Fotoğraf makinesi pahalı değildi. Fujifilm Finepix S5700. Çok seviyorum. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    October 21, 2010 at 10:16 am

    just wanted to say how much i enjoyed reading about your trip to Istanbul.
    Thanks
    Sue xxx

    Reply
  4. Turkey's For Life

    October 21, 2010 at 10:32 am

    Thanks Sue. We’ve got LOADS more to write about this time’s visit to Istanbul but we’ll dotting them about between other posts. Wouldn’t want to bore everyone. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Yeşim Çağlar

    October 21, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    istanbula geldiğinde bana da haber ver , next time:) ali nazikte aynı hünkar beğendiyle, en azından ben öle yapıyorum :p

    Reply
  6. rose deniz

    October 21, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    Yum. Love pickles, and I’m often the recipient of my mother-in-law’s experiments in pickling. My favorite is her pickled green beans!

    Reply
  7. Turkey's For Life

    October 21, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    Yeşim – next time. 🙂

    Rose, we love pickles too. Strange you should say about the pickled green beans. They’re in the photos in this shop and we were very tempted to give them a go. I think next time we’re in Istanbul, we’ll be experimenting too.

    Reply
  8. The Enchanted Cook

    October 22, 2010 at 2:32 am

    Oh what beautiful photos and what a gorgeous pickle emporium 🙂

    I’ve never heard of pickled grapes?! Wonder what they must taste like?

    Best,
    Veronica

    Reply
  9. Turkey's For Life

    October 22, 2010 at 11:18 pm

    Thanks Veronica – the shop was beautiful; not the photos. 🙂

    Yeah, there was a lot of pickled fruit. might have to give it a go next time.

    Reply
  10. Ayngelina

    October 24, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    I love pickles, but have never had any turkish pickles. Agreed that the photos are beautiful.

    Reply
  11. Turkey's For Life

    October 24, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    Thank you Ayngelina. Turkish pickles are an institution. Not many meals are eaten without a sidedish of pickles of any variety.

    Reply

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