Wednesday
Van Kahvaltı Evi: The Kurdish Breakfast Club
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 salonları – 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 salonları now open in Istanbul. Our favorite, by far, is Van Kahvaltı Evi (“Van Breakfast House”) in Beyoğlu’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.
Read the rest of the review at Culinary Backstreets.
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