Page "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul" Paragraph 38

Another peculiarity of the market during the Ottoman age was the total lack of restaurants.

The absence of women in the social life and the nomadic conventions in the Turkish society made the concept of restaurant alien.

Merchants brought their lunch in a food box called sefertas, and the only food on sale was simple dishes such as doner kebab, tavuk göğsü ( a dessert prepared with chicken breast, milk sugar and rose water sprinkled on it ) and Turkish coffee.

This simple dishes were prepared and served in small two-story kiosks placed in the middle of a road.

The most famous among these kiosks is the one-still existing but not functioning anymore-placed at the crossing of Halıcılar Caddesi and Acı Çesme Caddesi.

It is alleged that Sultan Mahmut II came there often in disguise to eat his pudding.

The Bazaar was in the Ottoman Age the place where the Istanbullu ( so are named the inhabitants of the city ) could see each other.

Not only the market was the only place in town where the ladies could go relatively easily, ( and this circumstance made the place especially interesting for the Europeans who visited the city ) but-especially from the Tanzimat age-was also the only public place where the average citizen had a chance to meet casually the members of the Harem and of the Court.