Turkish Breakfast I

As I’ve said in the previous entries, I’ve collected lots of interesting things from my trip to Turkey. Today, it’s time to mention the Turkish people’s breakfast culture. I’m calling it as culture, why? Because it has a different meaning for us, it’s more than a simple meal. For us, it means sharing, having conversation together, spending time together, and relaxing a little bit. 

Typical Turkish Breakfast - Don't worry, I will mention all the typical tastes step by step :) We have different types of cheeses, meat types, jams, hams and vegetables in order to enhance our breakfast tradition. Most of these types can be found only in Turkey. These particular tastes have to be tasted when you'll visit Turkey because all of them are extremely tasty.

Due to the fact that there are numerous kinds of dishes including in Turkish breakfast, it’s quite difficult thing to say that we can have this kind of long breakfast every day. As you guess, it takes time and for that reason, unfortunately we can have this particular breakfast some specific days, especially weekends. On the other hand, it’s also difficult to say “we have a same breakfast culture in all regions of Turkey”. Why it’s difficult? Because Turkey is a big country and its culture consists of different cultures. In terms of food culture, Turkey is a meeting point for different cuisines from east and west. We can say that not concerning only cuisine, Turkey is a country for Europeans seems Oriental, for Oriental people it seems European. So we have very mixed culture and regarding food culture, we have countless typical dishes and it’s possible to find these all kinds in the same country, Turkey. If we are talking about Turkish people’s breakfast habits, it shows also diversity according to the regions like all other components of our culture. So, I accept that it’s really changeable; however we can talk about fundamental Turkish breakfast which has validity more and less all of the territory of Turkey. 

Let’s start to mention step by step our traditions on breakfast. What we are eating during breakfast? Our breakfast tradition is quite similar to English or German breakfast style. However we have different typical foods for breakfast. However if we would like to compare the Italians’ breakfast habit and Turkish breakfast, easily it can be distinguishable that it’s totally different from Italians breakfast perception. Italians are eating croissants with coffee or cappuccino and that’s all. Some of them are eating biscuits with some milk at their kitchens. But, we, Turkish people, we cannot feel ourselves full after eating one croissants. We need something more fulfilling :) 

 As Italians, in Italy we got used to have breakfast in Italian way. I like Italian Breakfast also very much. However it doesn't mean that we've forgetten Turkish Breakfast. When we have time, especially weekends, we enjoy having Turkish Breakfast. It's generally difficult thing to find all components of Turkish Breakfast, here in Italy however we found some ways to attain them after 2 years :) Here on the picture, you can see typical Italian breakfast; Cappucino & Small Pastry with cream. It could be coffee and croissants as well.

As an eating habit, on the contrary of almost all other cuisines, we really like to eat the sugary things and salted things together. For example, I mean in the same mouthfuls, we can eat honey, cheese, butter and bread together. Maybe it seems a little bit strange for you; however just try to eat in that way, you will get used to for sure after a little bit time :)

Now let’s investigate in depth, Turkish people’s breakfast culture. Are you ready?

According to Wikipedia, Turkish breakfast is identified like this; A typical Turkish breakfast consists of cheese (beyaz peynir, kaşar etc.), butter, olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, jam, honey, and kaymak. Sucuk (spicy Turkish sausage), pastırma, börek, simit, poğaça and soups are eaten as a morning meal in Turkey. A common Turkish speciality for breakfast is called menemen, which is prepared with tomatoes, green peppers, onion, olive oil and eggs. Invariably, Turkish tea is served at breakfast. The Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, means "before coffee" (kahve, 'coffee'; altı, 'under'). 

I think that it seems amazing. I would like to introduce these incredible tastes. There is honey and "kaymak" on the plate is located behind the big plate. On the big plate, there are various types of cheeses and marmalades and hams. I will mention them on the next entries in depth.

In Turkey, because of this breakfast culture, besides you can have Turkish breakfast at your home, there are some places outside that serve Turkish Breakfast. Especially, in Istanbul, close to the Bosporus you can find different places in order to have this amazing breakfast with the charming air and atmosphere of Istanbul's Bosporus.

To be continued...