Turkey in the eyes of an alien - The vegetable and fruit markets...

Published in the "Multicultural Guide Ankara - June/July issue"

The hot summer months are around the corner!  A lot of aliens have made comments about Ankara like  “There is no sea”, “There is no nature”, etc.  But hey, let’s look at the bright side, none of us have actually complained about the weather in Ankara, have we?  The weather in Ankara, except the last long winter spells across Europe and Balkans, has been always very pleasing and rarely disappoint. 

Another best thing to enjoy in Ankara during the summer months apart from the nice sunny weather should be the wide selection of fruits and vegetable.  Watermelons, strawberries, apricots, the “permanent members” apples and oranges;   not only have we got a wide selection, you will also notice the abundance of it. 

I would like to share with you my experience with fruit and vegetable shopping.  If you have lived in a country which is akin to Europe, the United States or some South-eastern Asian countries like Hong Kong, Japan in terms of food price, you will immediately feel the resonance. 

It was a sunny Sunday I ventured to the local fruit and veggie bazaar – colorful, fresh, good quality fruits.  Little had I noticed the price!  I had not in mind what I really wanted but only knew I had to buy for one-week consumption, for two.  I did not know a lot of Turkish at the time but was just enough to understand that my brother there (because he called me “abla”, which means “sister” in Turkish) asked what I would like to have.  So I pointed to the apples, showed two fingers; pointed to the oranges, again two fingers; the plums, three fingers….

Of course, my fellow aliens know what happened – he handed me two kilos each of apples and oranges together with three kilos of plums.  I actually wanted to mean:  two apples, two oranges, and three plums!

 I told him then: “yok yok, iki..” (“no, no, two…”) he looked at me with his eyes sparkled in sympathy (which at that moment, I could not understand why).  One can also easily notice his softened voice while putting in a plastic bag my order.  He gently handed me the bag and said “Here you are!”.  The natural course of event would render me no other choice but to ask how much I owed him, followed by his answer: “no that’s fine, please take them as a gift”. 

I replied “thank you very much”, walked away, felt puzzled.

Surely the whole mystery went unraveled after I told my friends and colleagues about this.  A kilo of apple at that time was around 1.5 lira, same as oranges and plums.  While the norm of the bazaar is to buy with a unit of every two kilos, I asked for two individual fruit.  My “brother” there must have thought I was miserable and very humble to ask for the all together few pieces of fruit. 

Is this embarrassing or cute?  This I let you judge.

Of course I do not tell you my experience so that you order kilos of fruit and veggie even when you do not need it; I only wish to give you a glimpse of this country’s abundance of agricultural products.  This, in my view, is richness.  Aliens like us, should make the most of it and enjoy thoroughly.

Until the next issue, my fellow aliens, one more tip: If you wish to purchase a watermelon, you have got to buy the whole thing (in other countries you have the option to buy by the slice).  Make sure you have enough space in the fridge before you venture to the bazaar! 


Cheers! 


12 May 2012
Ankara, Turkey