Turkish Food Centre, Dalston

Turkish Food Centre
89 Ridley Road
E8 2NP

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, May 17, 2009

The Victim: Myself

The Damage: £10

The Background: I really can't explain why I do the things I do. On Saturday morning, I woke up and said, "You know what I want to do today? I want to go to the Turkish Food Centre in Dalston." Luckily for me, there's a bus that picks me up right on my corner and takes me all the way up to the Dalston Kingsland Road Junction.

The Entrance: To get to the TFC, you have to walk through Ridley Road Market. More about that tomorrow. (Or maybe Monday. Depending on how I'm feeling.) I will say this…Ridley Road is awesome. And if you like tripe, you'll probably find it even more awesome.

Towards the end of Ridley Road, you'll come to the TFC. At first, I was a little disappointed. From the outside, it didn't look like much of anything. In fact, it sorta looked like the Turkish grocery on my corner. I could have just stayed at home.

But these feelings all gradually disappeared as I entered and made my way down the first aisle.

Behold, the hummus. And the tarmasalata. A huge-ass container of hummus = £4.29. Take that, Waitrose.

And then there was the olives and cheese guy, who was so sweet and picked me out some of his favorite black olives, along with a big block of Greek feta.

Onto the sweets!I bought some baklava, and to be truthful, it was a bit too wet for me. So I wouldn't recommend it.

But the bread…these photos don't do it justice. I couldn't get a good shot because there were all these people picking out their bread. But here's some, hot out of the oven.

And well, mindful of getting my daily fruit and veg requirement these days, I did spend some time looking at the green stuff. Lots of peppers. Didnt buy any though.

The Verdict: I hope the pictures speak for themselves. I need to hang out in Dalston more often. You too. In fact, the whole field trip had me looking at property in Dalston for days afterwards. Hmmm.

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