Turkish delights

T'was heaven on a stick when we found our way to the Istanbul Spice Bazaar yesterday - stall after stall piled high with Turkish delight, nuts, figs, dates, enormous slabs of goats cheese, huge pastramis and carefully sculpted mounds of spice. First act was of course to buy some Turkish delight, which is much more gooey and less rose water-flavoured than the stuff we get in Oz, but very enjoyable, especially the stuff encrusted with pistachios.
The tactics of shop owners are always a source of amusement but we've had some particular creative ones here in Istanbul.
"How can I rip you off today sir?"
"Everything is free!"
"Would you like to buy some poison for your mother-in-law?"
The other source of amusement for us and them has been the fact that Phil is vegetarian. On several occasions while perusing a display menu we've asked about vegetarian options, and the restaurateurs have automatically assumed that I was the vego. One guy nearly died laughing upon finding out that Phil was the vego, and kept patting Phil's belly as if to suggest that no way could it have been gained on a vegetarian diet. Phil explained that beer was the culprit and they seemed satisfied with that!