Turkish breakfast was a refreshing change. Tea or Turkish coffee, one hard boiled egg, a chunk of feta, dried oiled olives, sliced cucumber, tomato, butter, honey, jam, and bread. After not eating traditional heavy English style breakfast for so long, the idea of fried eggs, potatoes, and sausage is not appealing.
I stopped at a strange little food stall in the Grand Bazaar where everyone, about 9 people including me, crowded around a tall table with bins of green things in the middle. What you do is order lamb or beef, pork (not seen here) and they give you a rolled up meat filled pita, a pile of parsley, pickle strips, and grilled, long green peppers (anaheim) on a piece of paper on the table. You sprinkle the parsley with lemon juice and salt, and as you eat the pita, you stuff your mouth with the other things. As you need more, you can grab it out of the center bins.
I did what I usually do and ordered the strangest looking thing to drink. Salgam, not only falls into the strange category, it defines it. I was startled by the taste of this dark purple/brown liquid. It is spicy, fermented, purple carrot juice. I drank it all, out of fascination rather than pleasure. My curiosity was satisfied and I will not be buying it again.
Another meal was a scorchingly hot ceramic dish with beef, tomatoes, cheese, and spices. It was delicious with the chewy and plentiful pita bread. I could eat this many times.
The Turkish custom of having tea all hours of the day is interesting in that you see everyone with a little saucer, spoon, and glass cup. I mean everyone. People sitting by a blanket strewn with trinkets have a cup, clerks in stores have cups, people everywhere have them. They get delivered and collected by whatever café is near. Walking around you can see forgotten empty cups and saucers sitting on the sidewalk, on electrical boxes, railings.... everywhere. The tea is typically a bitter apple tea that you can sweeten to taste.
