Types of Turkish breakfast in Istanbul

Depending on the region, certain products and the way they are prepared predominate on the tables of local residents.

But no matter what variety you choose, you will always have several varieties of fragrant cheese, a lot of fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, pastries and something for dessert.

Açık büfe kahvaltı – breakfast buffet

All tourists are familiar with this type of meal. In the descriptions of hotel services, you can often find the presence of a buffet breakfast. This means that guests choose their own dishes, and in unlimited quantities.

The food is laid out on large trays. Everyone takes from them, putting as much food on their own plate as they can eat.

The names of the dishes are written in several languages, which is why there are usually no difficulties, unless you encounter it for the first time.

Serpme kahvaltı – mixed breakfast

Such a breakfast is served for a close company, which is located at the same table. Even if it is designed for two, you need to have a trained stomach to absorb everything that they bring.

Each dish is served in a separate dish, which is why everything is filled with all kinds of bowls, plates and saucers, and their contents make eyes wide and salivate.

It doesn’t matter at all whether you are dining in a cafe or at a party, according to tradition, consumers are always given a choice of several varieties of each product.

Bread is the head of everything, not only in our country, but also in Turkey. Many families have preserved the tradition of baking it at home, although there is no great need for this – there are bakeries at every step, from where the tantalizing aroma of freshly baked bread (ekmek) can be heard. Often it is sprinkled with sesame seeds, like the famous simit bagel, dried fruits, seeds and nuts are added or seasoned with spices.

One of the most popular local pastries is sigara böreği. Outwardly, it resembles a stuffed pancake or a cigar, but it is only deep-fried. It turns out a crispy crust with a delicate filling.

No Turkish breakfast is complete without cheese, and since local cheese makers have long reached perfection in this, the product has become an integral part of any meal.

It is prepared from cow, sheep and goat milk, giving it a different texture, color and taste. It is impossible to make a choice in favor of any one, and therefore it is difficult to stop until the sample is taken from each.

Breakfast is not complete without eggs – the most international dish. Like us, the Turks like to cook them in many ways – boiled to varying degrees of “coolness” or fried, which also has its own nuances.

One of the easiest ways is to scrambled eggs in vegetable or butter, so that the proteins are fried, and the yolks remain liquid so that bread can be dipped in them.

This way of cooking is called “sahanda yumurta”, which is simply translated as “fried egg”.

Another variant of “sucuklu yumurta” is an egg with sausage. Actually, in this case, too, do not expect any surprises. In addition, healthy eating fans look at her with suspicion.

However, it is worth trying such a Turkish breakfast at least once. To give the dish a special piquancy, fragrant sausages are first fried, and then eggs are added to the oil soaked in their aromas, which makes the yummy incredible.

The third common way to prepare eggs for breakfast is “menemen”. It looks like an omelet with vegetables. First, onions, sweet peppers and tomatoes are fried in olive oil, and then eggs are driven in and seasoned with spices.

The mixture is constantly stirred so that it is fried evenly on all sides. The main thing is not to miss the moment, and not to overdry the dish. It should remain juicy, and then it just melts in your mouth.

Because every chef brings their own creative twist to a recipe, the results can vary greatly each time.

No meal is complete without olives. Green and black, with and without bones, stuffed with cheese, fish, lemon and other additives – an indispensable attribute of any breakfast, lunch and dinner.

During serpme kahvaltı, everyone chooses a snack according to their taste and puts it on their own plate. There is really a lot of food, but such is the Turkish tradition.

Kahvaltı tabağı – breakfast plate

In such a feast, everyone is served a separate plate, in which is a mix of everything that was mentioned above. There are chopped vegetables, cheese, bread, eggs, sausages, etc.

If the breakfast is held in the family circle, the participants are free to choose what exactly will be on their dish.

Often such a choice is provided in a cafe / restaurant. Please note that in the traditional kahvaltı tabağı portions are also impressive, and one is quite enough to eat together.

Köy kahvaltısı – rustic breakfast

This breakfast is very similar to serpme kahvaltı (mixed breakfast), where each meal is served in a separate bowl, but the emphasis is on farm products.

One of the traditional rustic breakfast items is gözleme, a flatbread stuffed inside, usually salty. It can be meat, seafood, cheese and greens.

Although not a single feast is complete without bread in Turkey, in the periphery more attention is paid to unsweetened “burek” pastries made from puff pastry with filling. These can be whole pies from thinly rolled layers, which are then formed in various ways:

• They layer on each other.
• They make small portioned products that are very reminiscent of our pies.
• Wrapped in the shape of a cigar.
• Twisted in a spiral.
• Anything can serve as a filling in burek – meat, mushrooms, cheeses, vegetables, potatoes, greens.