Antalya Food and Culture: The Bazaar and Spice Market, Turkish Cooking Class, Fresh Fish at the Harbour, Pide and Kebab in the Old Town, the Antalya Hamam Tradition, and the Cultural Evening Program
The Antalya food and culture route covers the covered bazaar and the spice market in the city centre, the Turkish cooking class with the local family, the fresh fish restaurant at the Roman harbour, the pide flatbread and kebab in the Kaleici old town, the traditional hamam experience, and the cultural evening program of the folk dancing and the belly dance.
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Antalya Bazaar: The Spice Market and the Covered Market
The Antalya covered bazaar in the city centre, the historic market that the Ottoman commercial infrastructure created adjacent to the Ulu Camii mosque and the hans, is the most authentic commercial market in the Antalya urban area with the spice shops, the dried fruit and nut stalls, the textile merchants, and the copperware shops that still serve the local resident population alongside the tourist trade. The Antalya Friday market in the Dogu Garaj area is the largest weekly market in the city and the most authentic food shopping experience available to the Antalya visitor.
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Turkish Cooking Class: The Family Home Experience
The Turkish cooking class in the Kaleici or the Konyaalti area, offered by the local families and the cooking schools in the traditional kitchen with the wood-burning stove and the garden herb cultivation, covers the making of the traditional Antalya dishes - the hibes sesame paste, the portakallik orange orchard salad, the Antalya dumplings, the lamb kofte, and the sutlac rice pudding - in the most direct cultural experience available to the visitor interested in understanding the connection between the Anatolian agricultural landscape and the Turkish culinary tradition.
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Fresh Fish at the Roman Harbour: The Kaleici Dinner
The fish restaurants at the edge of the Kaleici Roman harbour, where the fresh sea bream, the sea bass, the scorpionfish, and the red mullet from the Antalya Bay fishing boats are grilled on the charcoal and served at the terrace tables above the water, provide the most atmospherically complete Mediterranean dining experience in Antalya. The Kaleici harbour dinner with the meze appetizers, the grilled fish, the cold Efes beer, and the harbour view illuminated at night is the most consistently recommended single meal experience by the Antalya repeat visitors.
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Pide and Kebab: The Old Town Lunch Circuit
The Antalya pide restaurants in the streets behind the Kaleici bazaar, where the flatbread boat-shaped pide with the minced meat and the egg topping is baked in the wood oven and served directly from the oven at the marble table, and the kebab restaurants with the Antalya-specific Piyaz salad - the white bean and tahini salad that is the most distinctive single side dish in the Antalya culinary tradition - together constitute the most cost-efficient and most locally authentic lunch in the old town. The Antalya Piyaz is the most discussed single dish in the Turkish food traveler literature.
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Antalya Hamam: The Traditional Bath in Kaleici
The Antalya Saat Kulesi Hamam in the Kaleici old town, operating since the 18th century in the vaulted stone bath building adjacent to the bazaar, offers the traditional Turkish bath sequence with the hot marble, the kese exfoliation scrub, and the soap massage in the most historically atmospheric single bath building in the Antalya province. The early morning hamam visit, when the local male population uses the facility before the tourist groups arrive at 9am, provides the most authentic version of the daily ritual that the Turkish bath tradition maintains.
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Cultural Evening: Folk Dance and the Aegean Music
The cultural evening program at the Antalya amphitheatre and the Aspendos Theatre during the Antalya Opera and Ballet Festival season from June to October, presenting the Turkish State Folk Dance Company, the Anatolian folk music concerts, and the opera productions in the ancient theatre, provides the most sophisticated cultural evening program on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. The Aspendos Theatre productions, where the 1,850-year-old acoustics of the Roman theatre are demonstrated by the opera performances, are the most extraordinary cultural experiences available in the Antalya region.