Kadıköy Market

Market · KadıköyIstanbul,Türkiye

A dense grid of food lanes behind the Asian-side ferry pier, where Istanbul shops for dinner among fishmongers, pickle shops, spice sellers and old patisseries.

Kadıköy Market is a dense grid of food shops in the lanes behind the ferry pier on the Asian shore, and it is where Istanbul actually shops for dinner. You wander in on Güneşlibahçe Sokak past crates of silver fish on ice and barrels of olives, and the air turns to brine, roasting coffee and ripe fruit. Fishmongers, cheesemongers, spice sellers, pickle shops and delicatessens press wall to wall. Vendors call out prices and cats weave between the stalls. Locals call the whole tangle the çarşı, and it grew shop by shop over more than a century; there is no roof and no grand gate. Tucked among the counters are two institutions: Çiya, where a chef spent decades reviving forgotten Anatolian recipes, and Baylan, the last surviving counter of a patisserie family founded in the 1920s. The pickle shops explain the faint smell of vinegar that follows you around. The lanes are busiest at midday and stay alive until the shutters roll down.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come hungry, not with a shopping list — the market rewards wandering and tasting; the best find is usually the sample cube a cheesemonger hands you, not anything you planned to buy.
The ice is the calendar — what is heaped on the fishmongers' counters turns over with the months, and it reads the season more honestly than any printed menu.
Let the vendor choose for you — say what you are cooking, not which piece you want; a good greengrocer or pickle seller picks better than you would have grabbed yourself.
Finish standing at a coffee counter — the coffee shops behind the produce stalls grind to order, and a market run ends with a small cup drunk on your feet, not carried away.

Things to do

1
Trace the market by its smells
Start on Güneşlibahçe Sokak and follow your nose — brine at the fishmongers, roasting beans at the coffee grinder, ripe melon at the greengrocer. Don't aim anywhere in particular. Drift down the narrowing lanes, double back when a smell pulls you, and stop wherever the crowd thickens around a stall.
2
Drink a glass of something sour
Find a turşucu, the shops walled with brine barrels, and ask for a small glass of şalgam or pickle juice. Drink it standing at the counter the way locals do — bracing, salty, faintly spicy. Point at a stuffed pickled aubergine while you're there and eat it on the spot.
3
Take a seat where nothing has changed
Step out of the produce lanes into one of the market's old pastry counters, where the marble tables have barely moved in decades. Order a Kup Griye and eat it slowly among the regulars, most of them here out of habit rather than curiosity. This is the one corner of the market where nobody hurries you.
4
Fill a plate at Çiya's tray counter
Walk the whole length of Çiya's tray counter before you choose anything. Look past the familiar stews for a colour or a shape you cannot name, then ask for small portions of several. You fill the plate yourself and it is weighed at the till, so a wide sweep costs no more than one deep helping.