July 2, 2010

Lovelies from Turkey

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Wow, it’s been awhile.  I spent the past two weeks in Turkey – mainly Istanbul and the Cappadocia area – and was blown away by the abundance of colorful, aromatic foods and handmade textiles.  I thought I would share a few of them with you.

There was the fabric…

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Pashmina scarves,

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cotton dyed with fruit, herbs and minerals and hand-woven wool tapestries,

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fabric stores in the Grand Bazaar,

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a button shop with a tiny aisle through floor to ceiling stacks of buttons and

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carpets from every area of Turkey, hand-woven kilims or hand-knotted wool in every color and pattern imaginable.

Then there was the spice bazaar…

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with 1000 year old shops,

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mounds of spices, tea and dried fruit,

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baklava,

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blocks of fruity hard candy filled with pistachios, and

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little cubes of Lokum, or Turkish Delight - soft, nut flecked candies flavored with rose water, strawberry, lemon or carrot and dusted with powdered sugar.

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