Chapter 5 – The Fish Market
We wanted fish. Well I wanted fish; Roy’s allergic but he loves seafood. We were told the only place to go was The Fish Market in Fethiye. So after spending the day by the pool at Villa Mandarin, we hopped in the car for a drive. Fethiye is the largest town in the area, a small city actually and we wanted to see it and explore a little. Once we took the exit we were immediately lost. Being Sunday nothing was open but we found a gas station and were able to get directions. Everyone knows the Fish Market. We drove to the waterfront and parked the car. The promenade along the harbor is beautiful and since it’s Sunday people are walking, talking and having leisurely lunches at restaurants dotted along the way. There are lots of boats docked; fishing boats and gulet boats available for charter. Fethiye is a point of departure for the famous gulet trips. We had to ask people where the fish market was and finally found it. Not where we thought it would be, along the water, but on a side street a few blocks in.
From the street it looks like a storefront, but when you walk through the entrance it’s an open air marketplace with a fish market set in the middle and restaurants surrounding the market with outdoor cafe seating. There seems to be a half-dozen fish markets side by side with everyone happily trying to sell their catch; no competition between them. The fish is fresh, really fresh; not fresh frozen or shipped from Thailand. The variety is endless and I am totally confused and don’t know what to choose. I ask what’s good and a sea bream is picked out of the ice. It looks great and I’ve never had sea bream. Roy’s choice is beautiful prawns. Once you pick your fish it handed over to one of the restaurants where it will be prepared as you like. Mine will be pan sautéed and Roy’s will be sautéed with garlic.
Roy walks to the refrigerated case at the restaurant and chooses some items for meze, which are delivered to our table. I’ve yet to be disappointed by meze. And then the main course arrived. The fish was excellent; a light, white fish perfectly prepared. Roy’s prawns were piled high and done just right. Finished off with Efes beer, the beer of Turkey (excellent by the way), it doesn’t get much better!
After lunch we walked around the Fish Market; we’ve never seen anything quite like it in our travels. Not only is there a fish market and restaurants but grocery stores and a produce market.
We’ve saved room for some dondurma (Turkish ice cream) which we eyed on the main street. Dondurma is a thicker type of ice cream than what we are used to and it is scooped out, sometimes very dramatically, on a very long spoon. It’s really delicious.
We spend a little more time walking along the harbor and hop back in the car for our ride back to Faralya. I’d say it’s been a pretty good Sunday; pretty, pretty good!
