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Apr 13
Monday
Reviews (Eats)
Van Kahvaltı Evi: The Kurdish Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Beast of the East

In Turkey’s predominantly-Kurdish eastern provinces, breakfast is not just for breakfast anymore. Particularly in the city of Van, not far from Turkey’s border with Iran, the morning repast has been turned into serious business: the town is filled with dozens of Kahvaltı Salonu’s – breakfast salons – that serve a dizzying assortment of farm fresh breakfast items day and night.

In recent years this boffo breakfast has been working its way westward, with several Van-style Kahvaltı Salonu’s now open in Istanbul. Our favorite, by far, is Van Kahavaltı Evi (Van Breakfast House) in Beyoglu’s Cihangir neighborhood. The restaurant has quickly become one of the area’s most popular, and it’s easy to see why. The people running the friendly place – a crew of hip, young Kurds who seem to be members of the slow food movement without even realizing it – serve a mean Van breakfast, bringing in most of their ingredients, some of them organic, from back east.

The Van breakfast takes the traditional Turkish breakfast of cheese, tomato, cucumber and some bread and turns it up several notches. At Van Kahvalti Evi, along with the standards, your breakfast plate comes with an assortment of local Van cheeses (including a very tasty one that contains brined wild herbs), the heavenly kaymak, tangy cacik (thick yogurt spread) and murtuğa, a heavy wheat flour porridge that looks almost like scrambled eggs. Butter, jams, olives and some of Van’s famous honey round all this out – along with endless glasses of strong tea. One plate is certainly enough to feed a whole family. Along with the breakfast plates, the restaurant also serves fried eggs or menemen, scrambled eggs cooked with sautéed onions, green peppers and tomato. They also serve excellent gozleme, thin sheets of hand-rolled dough that are wrapped around cheese, potato or spinach.

Van Kahavaltı Evi can get quite busy on the weekends, when a line usually forms outside, so come early if you want to get a table. Or, better and easier yet, do like they do in Van and come later in the day have breakfast for dinner.

Address: Defterdar Yokuşu No: 52.A, Cihangir
Telephone: 212-293-6437

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11 Responses to “ Van Kahvaltı Evi: The Kurdish Breakfast Club ”
  1. Thank you so much for sharing with us, those who cannot travel to Turkey. I love Turkish food!!! I will be reading your whole blog!

    Check out my recent post on the famous dish, imam biyaldi:
    http://www.myhalalkitchen.com/2009/04/now-i-know-why-the-imam-fainted/

  2. This place is not The Kurdish Breakfast Club, this place is Van Breakfast Club, please!

  3. who minds whether Kurdish or Turkish, we mind the delicious breakfast ;)

  4. It is not a Kurdish place, you should correct this. Van breakfast is totaly Turkish.

  5. funda, levent; just don’t, please. tatlı yiyelim tatlı konuşalım.

  6. You had the use the K word, didn’t you? Enjoy the stupid backslash now.

  7. The only thing wrong with your review of this great little place is that one plate is not quite enough to feed a whole family – three of us tried that and ended up having to order two extra portions of kaymak and honey, so see what you did! The gozleme with spicy sausage was very good as well.

  8. Ne kürdişi türkiş kahvaltı.Hangi memlekette yaşıyorsunuz yazan arkadaş.

  9. Kurdish breakfast? you can name it so but same things you can see on the table every home in all around the Turkey no matter what is your cultural background. Some items are special to city Van but you can even not find the same in another city where a lot of Kurdish people are living. Try to not twist things while you are interpreting or explaining. Other than that you have a good website.

  10. Tony Michuel

    Jun 9, 2010
    Reply

    Its a goodwork to tell the enviromental culture of Turkey, but be carefull about your headlines , because you re directed people learn about the Turkish culture in wrong way with the wrong names , and you have to be carefull about the headlines you have choosen; not like ‘ The Kurdish Breakfast Club’. Because its not a Kurdish place or their culture …
    If you want to translate the words its enough for saying like ‘Breakfast Club Of Van’ …

    Good Luck Boys …


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