What is the going price for vanilla beans, cardamom, good saffron etc. available in Istanbul. What are the best places to buy spices? We will be traveling along the coast to Ephesus and then to Capadocia and back to Istanbul.

Are prices better in other areas?

I would like to have an example of prices to give to firends who want me to buy.

We are going in mid March.

Thanks for your help.

If you are from the US, and since these are "fresh" items (dried ok,once-upon-a-time living)...can you bring them back to the US?

I only know about saffron from the Spice Mkt in Istanbul. Many of the stalls, inside and out, sell it as well as the other spices you're looking for.

There were usually 3 types of saffron: Indian - which is actually tumeric; Turkish; and Iranian which is their best quality, and is deeper in color, and more aromatic than the Turkish.
If I remember correctly, the price of the Iranian was about 4mil/gram.

Has anyone brought these items into the US, can you advise?

We brought saffron in from Spain with no problem at all.

--Marv

You might want to go to this site:

(http://www.aphis.usda.gov:80/ppq/ppqca/travel.html),

The import of "Sauces, canned or processed" and "Spices,
dried" is generally allowed. Curry leaves are specifically
excluded.

Thanks for the information.

I bought saffron in the Spice Market bazaar (different from the Grand Bazaar), but I don't remember the price. The different types and levels of quality were explained to me. There were a lot of other good spices there, and there seemed to be quick turnover of the productsd, so they were probably fresh. The selected spices were sold by weight and then made into an airtight package with one of those machines that seals two pieces of plastic together. i was told that we are allowed to bring it back to the USA. (Just don't get any strange poppy products.)