Turkish breakfasts

26

Tuesday 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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