Creative writing. This article first appeared in issue 15 of Umbrella Magazine.
Illustration by Dan Howden.
Visiting an inner-city convenience store can be profoundly depressing. From the sharply inflated prices to the lonely self-service checkout, the ‘metro’, ‘local’ and ‘express’ versions of our favourite supermarkets often feel soulless and dehumanising. Essentially, they’re the Tinder of grocery shopping.
Step forward then the Turkish supermarket. These welcoming havens of delicious flatbreads, affordable olives and pickled vegetables (pickled everything, it would seem) offer a delicious alternative to the familiar tubs of pasta-salad-to-go and those weird microwaveable burgers.
Gone are the sliced white loaves, replaced with freshly-baked piles of pita, pözleme, lavaş and mısır ekmeği. Forget the landfill cheddar, too – delicious slabs of Beyaz peynir, Çökelek and Örgü peyniri are what you melt onto your late-night toastie after a visit here.
The differences don’t stop there. Jars of Sultan Baci quince jam balance on top of tins of Arnika Durmaz black olives. Türkel ring-cut pickled jalapenos sit side by side with Aynoor sliced chicken sausage and Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi coffee rubs shoulders with Bodrum mixed atomic cezerye. Whatever that is.
And If this all sounds a little too exotic for your tastes don’t worry, there’s always a great selection of Haribo, too.
To visit one of these stores is as close to wandering through a sun-drenched bazaar as you can get without leaving the glum British high street. Many are open 24 hours a day, meaning you can rely on your local Turkish for everything from the ingredients of your breakfast menemen [eggs, peppers and tomatoes] to the cuts of chicken and lamb for your evening köfte (followed by a delicious baklava pastry and washed down with a bottle of Efes Pilsen, natch) at prices that put the more established stores to shame.
Sure, you’ll carry your goods home in a flimsy blue carrier bag – and don’t expect service with a smile if you try and pay with a card for anything costing less than a tenner – but what these stores lack in slick modernity they make up for with variety, personality and charm. A Turkish delight indeed.