The Turkish Breakfast

Kahvalti - the name means 'before coffee' - is Turkey's grandest daily ritual: not a dish but a tablescape, dozens of small plates crowding the cloth with white cheeses and aged kasar, olives green and black, honey poured over clotted kaymak cream, tomatoes and cucumbers, jams, sucuk sausage with eggs, menemen scrambled soft with peppers, borek pastry, warm bread and simit - all of it refilled and unhurried, washed down with endless tulip glasses of black tea. The weekend 'serpme' spread is the full theatre, stretching a morning to its edges; the eastern city of Van is so famous for its breakfast houses that a whole street serves little else. It is the meal Turks abroad say they miss most, and the easiest immersion a visitor gets: sit down hungry, surrender the table, stay two hours.

What you actually see

• The serpme spread - dozens of small plates covering the table by default.
• Kaymak and honey - clotted cream under a golden pour, the table's crown.
• Menemen and sucuk - soft-scrambled eggs with peppers and garlicky sausage.
• Cay without end - tulip glasses of black tea, refilled until surrender.

When to go

Any morning, but weekends are the institution - arrive before 10 am or queue at the famous breakfast houses. In Van, breakfast is an all-morning affair worth planning a day around.

Honest expectations

A proper serpme is priced per person and the portions defeat almost everyone - skip lunch. The celebrated spots in Istanbul's Besiktas and in Van run weekend queues. It is leisurely by design: if you need speed, a simit and tea is the honourable shortcut.

Nearby

Van's breakfast street, Besiktas's breakfast lanes in Istanbul and good kahvalti in every Turkish town.