You know how brunch is a wonderful way to relax of a Sunday morning-into-afternoon? Well, the Turks have gone one better, and they engage in this fabulous weekend tradition every morning. We have been puzzled on more than one occasion when we’d enter a restaurant at around noon or 12:30, and they’d say ‘breakfast’? Very possibly our Turkish, we’d think, and we’d say no, lunch. Then someone clued us in. A Turkish breakfast (kahvalti) is less a meal than a state of mind. Working Turks eat it early in the day, but the idle rich enjoy it all day long. And there is so much to enjoy!
Basic Components of a Turkish Breakfast
As we understand it, here are the requirements:
- Simit: a little like a sesame bagel, a little like a pretzel.
- Cheese: goat, sheep and cow: feta, string cheese, a young mozarella-like cheese, yogurt, herbed cheese – at least three and very possibly all of them.
- Meat and Eggs, ideally together: nearly always scrambled, but sometimes fried, and served with at least one kind of sausage (sucuk, most likely, but possibly also pastirma – on both of which more soon!).
- Spreads: jam, pepper spread, olive spread, nut spreads like Nutella – again, probably more than two.
- Turkish tea: drunk in vast quantities.
Classy Additions We Are Fond Of
- Other breads: pide, soft bread, rolls, you name it.
- Buttermilk cheese (kaymak): this is made from buffalo milk and tastes a lot like clotted cream. Excellent with honey.
- Menemen, in addition or instead of eggs. This is basically eggs with tomatoes and peppers, which we have always loved and now have a name for. See how travel broadens the mind?
- Olives, black or green or why not both? Our favourites are grilled.
- Tomatoes and cucumbers: a mainstay of every Turkish dish we have ever been served – so naturally they make an appearance here. (So that‘s what tomatoes are supposed to taste like.) Sometimes with what look like dandelion greens and/or long green peppers, and often with parsley.
- Grilled veggies, e.g. zucchini or eggplant. Our new favourite breakfast dish!
- Pastry, e.g. gözleme, filled with cheese or spinach or both, or something else delicious.
- Kuymak: cornmeal grits, usually very cheesy.
- Spices: a combination of salt, pepper and cumin is what we’ve seen most often, but there are many varieties.
- Coffee: if that’s your thing.
- Fruit juices: ditto. NB one does not drink alcohol at a Turkish breakfast.
As you can imagine, this breakfast sets you up nicely for the day. Especially if the day includes sitting around with friends and drinking tea, and not moving around very much.
