When I think of pumpkin seeds, my mind wanders to scooping out the insides of a pumpkin and carving jack-o-lanterns for Halloween when I was little. The stringy pumpkin goop mixed with the seeds never looked or smelled appetizing to me! Nevertheless, I tasted the pumpkin seeds and they were quite tasty! They had a light, crunchy texture and tasted similar to a sunflower seed.
I was surprised when I tasted the dry cotton candy. First of all, it looked nothing like the cotton candy we eat in the United States! It looked like a block of powdery sugar, which was cut into small bite-sized cubes. Even though it didn't have a soft, cotton like texture, it still tasted sweet and melted in my mouth the same way American cotton candy does.
When I tried the rest of the treats, I felt happy and satisfied. My favorite treat was dried apricots, which is a specialty of the Cappadocian region. Tasting the dried apricots made me realize how much I've missed munching on dried fruits. In Romania, I usually don't buy dried fruit from the grocery store because it's too expensive. So I knew in Turkey I had to take advantage of the abundance of dried fruits, so I purchased a box of chocolate-covered dried apricots to bring back to Constanta.
There are two different ways that the market prepares the dried apricots. The first way is to dry them in the sun, which gives the apricots a darker color. They also look wrinkly, like a raisin. The second way is to dry them with chemicals, which gives the apricots a more vibrant orange color and a softer, chewier texture.
