Breakfast in Beyoglu
Now that i have a regular job (i.e., i have to get up early, be seen in the office between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. and drink lots of coffee) after having worked freelance for more than three years, my breakfast routine has been compromised. i am not a big fan of food, i just eat whatever i find when i am hungry, but i rarely miss breakfast and “breakfast time” used to be my precious hour of the day in my freelance days. during the first weeks of the new job, i really tried hard to be content with the pogaca (a lump of foul fat and “too-soft-to be-true “dough) of simit sarayi and felt lousy the whole day. then i came across the tadim soguk sandwich people.
they are a couple in their fifties, they serve the jobbing people of beyoglu with their small three wheeled cart. the husband prepares the sandwich (you can select from three sorts of cheese, salami, olives, eggs, tomatoes, parsley, nutella, butter, honey, etc.) his wife (teyze who did not want to be photographed) is responsible for packing and chatting. they can be found between 7a.m. and 11 a.m. around tepebasi. it is impossible to miss them as there is always a queue of at least five waiting to be served. a king-size sandwich costs 2.5 ytl.
We need street vendors like that here in the US. Do they still sell pickle juice?
Oh oh oh … you make me miss Istanbul more with posts like this. Belgium is so … hmmmm ‘quiet’ after Istanbul. Glad you found a good breakfast spot anyway.
What is Bal Kaymak? Bal is a child right…
“Bal” is “honey”, “kaymak” is the naturally produced cream of milk. And they both go perfect together! In Turkish “bal” has nothing got to do with “child”.