Pendik
Pendik is on the Asian side of the city, along the Sea of Marmara, located on the left side of Tuzla district which is neighbouring with Kocaeli city. It was a small town before late 1990s. Since then, it has been transforming to a modern city.
Pendik is one of the unlucky district of the city. The history of Pendik is rich of fire outbreaks. The most destroying occurred in 1889. The damage of fire was overmuch. Almost 1200 buildings destroyed at the end of the event. Sultan invited environmental engineers from Paris after the last fire event. Pendik was rebuilt by Parisian engineers and became the first planned town of the city.
Pendik stayed as a small fishing town till 1960s. In that times, residents of the city would have come to Pendik by train, would have bought meat from famous butchers located beside train station and would have had a picnics in the town. Pendik had never changed till late 1990s. People even used to use metal barrels for their water need in early 1990s. Then many investment projects actualized in the district.
Istanbul Park, is motor sport race track, is located in Pendik. It receive Formula 1 and MotoGP. Total capacity is over 120,000 and it is famous of Turn 8 a.k.a Diabolica which is legendary corner of race track. Many shopping malls and hotels built following after Istanbul Park. Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is another important feature of the district. Airport was received Turkey’s Most Successful Tourism Investment 2010 award. After two important investment, Istanbul Park and Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Viaport Shopping Mall was built. The shopping mall influenced many housing estate around the neighbourhood.
The latest exiting project of district is Marinturk Istanbul City Port. Except being a marina, Marinturk houses commercial area where various sectorial companies are represented. Also, there’re cafes and restaurants along the marina which provide a lively atmosphere.
Pendik Bazaar, is set up on Saturdays, is a traditional event for residents of the district. It’s located along the seaside. The bazaar offers various product and cheap. If you like bazaars and shopping, Pendik Bazaar can be a good event. You can spend all the day in Pendik but definitely it’ll worth. There are buses and minibuses from Kadıköy and a bus from Şişli on European side. As an alternative and faster option, you can take a metro from Kadıköy to Kartal and then take a dolmush (dolmuş) or minibus to Pendik.
There’re many Bosnian migrants living in Pendik. Even, there’s a neighbourhood where all the Bosnians gathered. They have a traditional dish called Suho Meso which is dry meat. Bosnians usually eat Suho Meso with pilaf, dry bean and they cook specialize, cracking egg to a pan and putting Suho Meso while they are cooking egg, with it at breakfast. You can find Suho Meso only in two place in Istanbul. Gaziosmanpaşa and Pendik. In Gaziosmanpaşa they are sold at butchers and in Pendik at markets.
