Turkish breakfasts
26Tuesday 01 December, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Scoffing is a national pastime here, which is probably why Turkey ranks I think third in the world based on calorie intake. That’s no surprise though either; having seen how our ‘beautiful young’ bloat like aging buffalo upon reaching their 30th birthday !
Easily done though, I must say… we are not a nation of burgers & chips munchers (although, even out here, the fast food joints are gradually and sadly appearing), but bread is our thing here – seriously, Turkish bread is to absolutely die for!!! Bakeries still use wood fired stone ovens and zero preservatives for most bread, so to see a family make two trips a day to a bakery is not uncommon at all – can’t say I blame them either. If you’ve ever been here, you know what I’m talking about.
Personally I’ve had to steer well clear of it all, partaking in breakfast with bread just at the weekends when my wife is at home – it works though, as my usage of a belt has changed from taking over the job of the trouser button, to one of helping to keep them up 🙂
This is what we call breakfast by the way (for two) – bread and çay (tea) both out of picture.
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And the roll-call, going top to bottom, left to right:
Locally grown tomato
Mild cheese
Mixture of Pekmez (grape molasses) and Tahini (sesame paste)
Fresh cucumber
Roka (or you may call it Rocket), plus lemon
Crumbly cheese (usually later mixed with some of the spicy oil)
Local pine honey
Pumpkin jam
Potato boiled with a handful of pure butter, hence the colour!
Farm eggs fried in olive oil, with sprinkling of red pepper flakes
Olive oil with red pepper flakes and other spices
Homemade butter
Semi-hard strong white cheese
Strained yoghurt (usually homemade)
Local olives, variety of
Cherry jam
Yellow honey melon (very sweet, having matured since summer)
Fried cheese rolls
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Yum… I too would have to watch out for all those goodies as well…. Thank you for the link to this post… ~ Bluebird
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oooo – I like your version of breakfast. Yum.
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Now that is what I call a breakfast! Delicious …
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My undying respect to the one who is doing all that ‘homemade’!
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I LOVED the food in turkey, especially breakfast. Yes the bread absolutely delicious. Thankfully I was there cycling. 🙂
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That’s probably the only way to survive our diet 🙂
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Yum! I love pumpkin jam!
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I think I moved my belt notch just reading this! Looks and sounds so yummy! Mangiare!! (as we say in Italian)
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And at a third of the Italian prices. For us, everything was about 3-4 times the price there 😦
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That’s insane! I will never understand any of it.
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Yep, such is life.
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I love that kind of presentation. It allows one to savor each food separately. Perfect. ☺
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Yep, my kinda meal!
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Oh my goodness – I would be so fat – I love bread especially Turkish – and your breakfast foods oil sensational. Really enjoyed reading your post.
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Perhaps one of the reasons I emigrated here…
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That’s my kind of jam! I mean breakfast. Miam Miam as we say in French.
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Always sounds better in French.
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🙂 Looks very delicious. But too much food for breakfast for me.
More likely a brunch.
Have a very HAPPY evening 🙂
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Who said we ate early? 🙂
We never have a lunch, so often it’s mid-morning for us, and that’s it till evening (but we are considered weird around here)
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🙂 Oh, well, then that’s perfect! 🙂
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It reminds me a bit of the Persian breakfast my friend would serve me when I visited her (yes, she’s Persian) but only the vegetables, cheese and a lovely flat bread (not pita)….no eggs or potatoes or maybe those were saved for very special occasions.
Just last week at the grocery store I helped a man (?Somali or Ethiopian) find a loaf of bread that didn’t have any form of sugar. Although he spoke English his reading wasn’t very good. We finally found a nice Tuscan loaf with only natural ingredients. Almost everything else had sugar, honey, molasses or some derivative and lots and lots of preservatives. Simple is best.
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I love the differences – makes for a more interesting world (for some)
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The white cheese would be what I would try first – and you are so right – not all bread is created equal – and the natural oven baked is nothing like the processed “enriched” breads-‘
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I would rather starve…
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I hear ya – 🍞🍞🍞
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looks so good! it’s making my stomach growl. 😀
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