Turkish breakfast

Hey there, all you foodies, it's time for some food posts. Let's start with Turkish breakfast, or kahvalti, which literally means "before coffee."

Every morning in my guest house I wake up and enjoy this tasty Mediterranean meal. A typical Turkish breakfast will have some variation, but here are some of the basic ingredients.

There's always some kind of tasty cheese, usually beyaz peynir, a salty white cheese made from unpasteurized sheep's milk that reminds me of feta, and/or kaşar (also: kasseri), a medium-hard yellow cheese also made from sheep's milk that reminds me a bit of provolone. It is also unpasteurized and needs to age for at least four months to develop a good flavor.

In addition to the cheese, you'll typically have olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, hard boiled eggs, then butter, honey, and fruit preserves for the heaps of bread you would normally eat if you weren't me (though I confess to eating a slice or two with breakfast just so I can eat the honey). All this is most commonly drank with Turkish çay (pronounced: chai) or Lipton tea.

But this isn't what everyone eats. One of my colleages just eats a packaged cupcake and a cup of tea for breakfast. Turks also eat soups and Turkish breads (one in particular, simit, is sold by vendors like jumbo pretzels all over Istanbul...they kind of taste like them too). Another common specialty is called menemen, a preparation of roasted tomatoes, olive oil, green peppers, and eggs, which I haven't tried.

For your viewing pleasure, see the kahvalti above (iStock photo, not mine), and a picture of simit (also iStock) to the right. And a word to the wise: I've been instructed not to eat the simit from vendors (not that you should each much vendor food anyway), because these guys don't use gloves, and a friend of mine once saw a vendor picking his nose and then serving simit with the same hand...hey, I'm just saying. You can buy them in the perfectly sanitary cafes that are everywhere, or eat them from a vendor at your own risk.