Reputedly the “best fish market” in Istanbul, the Galatasaray Fish Market or Balik Pazari, located in the bustling Beyoglu district, was obviously a “must see” for Marketman. Frankly, there weren’t more than say 20+ stalls here, and coming from an island nation with fish markets that are simply stunning, I was a trifle bit disappointed by the Balik Pazari. However, I did find fish that I have only rarely seen prior to this market foray… if I am not mistaken the warty fish up above is a turbot. Turbot is a flatfish and very distant relative of flounder and fluke and possibly even our own lapad, but this was only the first or second time I had seen it for sale whole.
The fish market is located along an alleyway branching off from a main avenue, and there are both cooked and fresh seafoods, produce stalls (Part II), and restaurants and other wonderful food shops.
Steamed mussels for sale with a lemon based sauce…
Beautiful but relatively limited displays of fish on beds of ice are “garnished” with various leaves…
There were some varieties of fish and seafood that looked familiar, but for the most part, I was unsure which fish was what…
While the selection of volume of fish was limited, I was impressed by the displays and wish that more places in Manila pay attention to both the quality of the seafood as well as the manner in which it is desplayed…
15 Responses
i had to look closer before recognising that your 1st photo is of a fish. i’ve never seen one before. it looks a bit weird, if you ask me. i wonder how it’s cooked.
is the “palad” you’re talking about the same as the “isdang lapad”?
MM, Thats the underbelly your showing, right? I remember them with darker skin and with both eyes on the same side.
it’s always fun and educational to go to produce and fish markets when you’re in a foreign country…
I love going to the local markets when I am abroad.It shows you a lot about the people and its culture…even our markets in the provinces have great “finds”….
Weird looking fish but I’m sure if it’s a relative of our isdang lapad, it’s delicious when steamed wrapped in gabi leaves. Nice choice of pix MM, very catchy among the several posts for the day!
melody….I must be dyslexic or something…yes, you are correct, lapad and not palad, I have to correct the post. Artisan, yes, it is the underbelly… kind of ugly, no?
yeah, MM…it’s got a bad case of acne vulgaris—hehehe…lovely fish market–i can smell the freshness. nevermind the warty underbelly–it must taste good steamed and served with black bean sauce or deep fried and served with sweet and sour sauce. let’s add an abundance of the usual julienned veggies!!!
Nice picture on an ugly looking fish. I’m sure Philippines has more to offer it just that our market normally dont care about variety they are more into qty of what the mass will buy. Its about time to have a market man like seller in our local market to satisfy people like us
i dont want to eat that flat fish…parang may sakit…hehe..by the way MM, you should see the fishmarkets here in uae, almost all indian vendors knows how to speak tagalog and they know names of our fishes (like bangus, tilapia, talakitok…and many more which me myself dont know) hehe very funny and amzing as well.
the warts on that fish freaked me out. do they always have those small peculiar growths?
no, no, it was not a mistake, MM…tagalogs call it lapad, while cebuanos and ilonggos call it palad. same way bisayas say “insakto” when they really mean “exacto” :-)
never knew fish could get chicken pox. do chickens get fish pox?
Haha nice one millet!It’s like squid balls and fish balls… are they the balls of the…..hehe, memories of battle of the brainless in channel 5 : )
Marketman, I wonder if you’ve had Steinbutt before. It’s really delectable. White, sweetish flesh like cod but way better. It’s native to Norway. I wonder if a cousin of it is available locally.
The fish in the first photo is a ‘turbot’ from the Mediterranean Sea. We had this exact same fish at this fish market..We even followed the cook all the way to the kitchen just to make sure that they cook the fish we chose.