Breakfast is a big deal in Turkey. There has to be fresh bread, and cheese, and tea, and multiple types of jam. Often you get more than that: vegetables (e.g., fresh cucumbers and tomatoes), eggs, sucuk (spicy beef sausage), honey, olives, olive tapenades, etc.
Breakfast is taken especially seriously in rural villages. The little country kitchens seem to be engaged in a competition to see who can do the biggest servings and have the widest variety of food.
When my mum and dad were here recently we took them to our favourite breakfast place: Köy Sofrası in the village of Kirazlı (one valley over towards the sea). They were not disappointed…
Dad studies his camera while we wait for the food.
The restaurant is set in the gardens where a lot of the food is grown; the chickens that lay the eggs share the undergrowth with a few cats. You lounge on a traditional sedir (Turkish low sofa) and enjoy the shade while you wait for your order.
So much food!
They brought us a truly ridiculous amount of food, but it all tasted fantastic. My favourite was the spicy olive tapenade (top centre in the photo above) but the soft cheese drizzled with cherry jam was also excellent.
Cucumber and tomato salad; soft cheese with cherry jam.
The eggs and sucuk have arrived.
This place is a great reference point for us: once our own rooms are open and we’re serving breakfast as part of the package, we hope to do as well as this. It will help a lot that there’s so much great produce available in our village.
