I'm heading home for a couple of weeks nad want to take some gifts back with me. Where do you recommend I shop? Can I take nuts out of the country?

u can take them out of the country but depending on where you are going you may not be allowed to take them in to that country. Of course that doesn't mean you can't....

going to the states, Washington DC, where they are paranoid about everything...

so in my suitcase or carry on?

as far as I remember when I lived there (2003-2006) it was illegal (I may remember wrongly) to take in food stuffs. (Somebody can maybe correct me). That said, many Turks that I know used to take food in their suitcases and not declare it. They never had any problems.

yap, kinda illegal, but I guess not declaring it is the key.

Believe it or not my friend's husband returned from El Salvador last year ( to DC) with a freshly killed and cooked chicken on New years for the dinner celebration because Salvadorian chicken 'tastes better'.
He got through with no problems, yet, her brother, in full military garb and a soldier couldn't transport his weapon... (I'm sure there's more to it, but you get the gist)

Not true, seggiest. Basically any type of processed food can usually be brought into the U.S. Fresh fruits and vegetables, non-processed meats, etc, can be more problematic.

I bring food in from Turkey to the U.S. all of the time (olives, nuts, ceviz ezmesi, etc) and I always write it on my customs declarations form. The guy at customs asks, ''What kind of food are you bringing in?" I answer, and that's the end of that.

In Istanbul, some places which sell open nuts (Malataya Pazar in the Spice Market comes to mind) also have a machine that can vacuum-pack stuff for you. I imagine you can find the same in Ankara or in a pinch just buy the bags which are sold in the nut section of any market.

Here's the info of what foods you can bring into the U.S. from the U.S. Customs website:
http://help.cbp.gov/cgi-bin/customs.cfg ... _topview=1

thanks Burbaco, that's why I was so hesistant as I wasn't sure

thanks. Now what about bringing things back to Turkey? I think only 2 bottles of wine...

there's probably a limit but i've never seen a soul checking bags on the way out of ataturk! i just stock up at the duty free next to baggage claim and roll on out

It's true. in more than 10 years I've only been stopped once.

and then what happened?

Seggiest maybe you are thinking of downunder where you have to declare absolutely every edible item, they spray the plane, sniffer dogs poke around your luggage and they very often confiscate stuff.
Last time I went the beagle started barking next to my bag because I had had a mango in the outside pocket for some of the 20=something-hour journey. The fact that the mango was by then in my intestines did not seem to bother the dog. It got its Pavlovian tidbit as a reward and every inch of my bags was searched!

[quote user="mafzal" post="107654"]and then what happened?[/quote]

They took a sniff of my lime pickle and let me pass.

[quote user="Spine" post="108066"]They took a sniff of my pickle and let me pass.[/quote]