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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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SEPTEMBER 2012
93
ISTANBUL
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THREE PERFECT DAYS
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
THE INSIDE SCOOP FROMTHOSE IN THE KNOW
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PETER JAMES FIELD
Didem Şenol
CHEF, LOKANTAMAYA
“I often go to Tahtakale near the Spice
Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar to search
for different kinds of kitchen items and
get lost in the small streets. There are
so many little things to buy that you
can cook with.”
Asli Gezmis
REPRESENTATIVE, FABRICANTES
METALES DUROS
“I like to meet up with friends in
Nişantaşı to drink and eat at trendy
restaurants like Juno. It’s a posh
area with a lot of stores, so it’s also
good for shopping—or, more often,
window shopping.”
Coşkun Uzunkaya
ARTIST AND TEACHER,
CAFERAĞAMEDRESESI
“There is a great place called Sırevi
where I like to go and sing karaoke
when I’m done working. Everyone
is really nice there, whether you can
sing or not.”
follow that with a puff on the narghile at
Çorlulu Ali Pașa Medresesi
, a tea garden
filled with plush carpets, wiry cats and
ash motes. Though your water pipe holds
strawberry-flavored tobacco rather than
the opium and crushed pearls of old, the
multiple cups of Turkish tea and coffee
you consume (they keep bringing it, and it
wouldbe rude to refuse) are consciousness-
altering in their own right, and you enter
the nearby
Grand Bazaar
in a haze.
Givenyour giddy state, you suspect that
these convoluted passageways peopled
with honey-tongued hawkers could be a
dangerous place for your wallet. You are
correct. Within anhour, youhave amassed
a hoard of carved backgammon sets, silver
tea services, silk scarves and sundry glit-
tery things to rival the treasury you saw
earlier. Oops.
Fearful that youmight start buying bits
of the market itself, you make a retreat
to the
Çırağan Palace Kempinski
, where
you’ll be staying tonight. This sprawling