Turkish Breakfast

For about three weeks now I've been consistently eating a Turkish breakfast for breakfast.  By that I mean cukes, tomato, olives, feta type cheese, and toast with honey or butter, sometimes a boiled egg.  When I first came to Turkey I remember breakfast being a big dilemma for me.  My whole life I was a breakfast person, meaning that the first thing I looked forward to each morning was eating breakfast which usually consisted of a bowl of cereal.  My favorite cereals were Life, Honey Bunches of Oats, Cheerios, granola.  The problem I was having in Turkey was that the only cereals I could get here were Honey Nut Cheerios (my first option), cornflakes, or Cocoa Puffs.  The latter two don't appeal to me much.  To add to that was the shelf milk, our main option for milk.  Instead of 2% milk that you buy cold by the 1/2 gallon or full gallon we mostly have access to this "shelf" milk that you buy off the shelf, luke warm, with a long shelf life.  I think they radiate it or something cause it lasts forever.  The taste is different.  I don't ever drink a full cold glass of milk anymore. I guess somethings are hard to get used to.  Our kids have gotten used to it, but not being a huge milk drinker in the first place, I haven't gotten used to it.  So, after about a half a year here I basically woke up disappointed.  I wanted to eat breakfast put would literally putz around the kitchen thinking, "oatmeal? . . . . nope. . . . cornflakes with shelf milk? . . . . nah. . . . Turkish breakfast? . . . . too much work. . . . toast?. . . . maybe."  And for the last two years I've basically become a cup of coffee slice of toast breakfaster.  Pathetic!

Now here is where it gets interesting.  This last summer when we were back in the States I arrived ready and excited for breakfast.  I was so anxious to eat all my favorite cereals and I did just that . . . . . for about the first month.  Then strangely I felt the same way I felt my first few months in Turkey--disappointed.  They weren't satisfying like that had been before and I stopped eating.  I was literally turning down Life cereal for a piece of toast!  I would have thought that unbelievable a few months previously.  Somewhere in Turkey, without my normal breakfast options my tastes had changed.

Now, mainly because I believe I need something more substantial than toast and coffee, I've started eating like the Turks.  It takes a bit of work, which was one of the reasons I never stuck to it before, but I peel and slice a cucumber, a tomato, add some olives to my plate and my white cheese and all those flavors together have made a home with my taste buds I guess.  It really hasn't been long enough to see if this will indeed become my new breakfast of choice but it certainly is one of the most balanced breakfasts of the world.  The main thing I've noticed is that once again I'm waking up looking forward to breakfast.  That feels good!