Breakfast.

Turkish breakfast is different enough to warrant a separate post. In the hotels, there have always been buffets so you don't have to eat it if you choose so.

Turks have coffee or tea....it is must. In the hotels, we have had Nescafé--and Turks drink that as well----but Turks also drink Turkish coffee. In American parlance, it is not unlike espresso with much of the grounds at the bottom of the cup. The grounds can be read when you are done, but I think this is more of a novelty like if you have coffee with friends.

Tea is made in a double boiler tea pot. The bottom tea pot is bigger and hold the water. The upper tea pot holds loose teas and is smaller. You heat the bottom chamber, which heats the top. Then, you pour the concentrated tea into a glass tulip shaped juice size glass and then dilute it with the hot water to your desired strength. Turks drink a lot of teas and this works out to be an efficient method. In the hotels, Lipton tea bags are used.

The constants for traditional Turkish breakfast are tomatoes, cucumbers, olives---usually black, but green is also eaten----and white cheese. It can be similar to feta, but creamier, or perhaps you might choose not such a salty variety of cheese.

Hard boiled eggs, cheese or sliced meat that looks bologna like are the main types of protein. If I remember correctly, yogurt is also a standard. Thicker, creamier and tangier than regular America yogurt and even the recent surge of Greek yogurts.

Bread rounds it out. It fills you up but is not heavy like a farmer's traditional breakfast of eggs potatoes and bacon or sausage.

It is good. I have been loving the quince jam on bread or toast with the spreadable white cream cheese. Enough so that I will need to find a jar of quince jam upon my return. Also, yogurt and a ton of Nescafé. To finish it out, maybe an egg or yogurt with honey or melon. I look forward to breakfast everyday.

Let us be real.... It is not just breakfast---it is any eating opportunity, not just breakfast, not just meals.