Breakfast in a Grocery Store

Saturday, 6 October (Part I)

Parking in İzmir is a problem.  Most apartment buildings don’t have dedicated parking, so people park on sidewalks (where available), on the street, or in medians-turned-into parking strips, school yards converted to parking lots during off hours, or any other place that allows parking in exchange for a fee.  There are some parking structures, but they are usually quite expensive, and they may not necessarily be near by.

(I marked up the above map, downloaded from the website of the Doğal Yaşam Parkı (wildlife park), to show the approximate locations of mom’s apartment and where we had breakfast.)

So, our day this morning started with a 15-minute walk to pick-up the car from where Murat had parked it on a street in another neighborhood the night before.  We had a two pronged plan — breakfast first ... which is what this post is going to focus on.

One of the really neat things in Turkey is eateries that specialize in serving breakfast.  I love them.  Some of them are quite simple places, but many of them serve what I can only describe as a feast.  We were on our way to a different eatery when Murat and Aylin remembered a place in Mavişehir (Blue City), a suburb of Karşıyaka (literally, the other side … across the bay).  This residential area didn’t exist when I was growing up.  In recent years, highrise apartment buildings and single family residences, as well as shopping malls have mushroomed to form a popular city in its own rights.

Anyway, Tereci Yöresel Bakkal (website in Turkish), is a regional grocer-cum-breakfast place.  The patio overlooks the parking lot and is lacking in charm, but inside is another story.

On one side you’ll find refrigerated glass cases, shelves, barrels, and assorted other containers filled with, cheeses and meats; variety upon variety of butter, olives, jams and jellies; every kind of nuts and dried fruits you can imagine; soaps, and therapeutic oils and lotions; breads and naans; and bottled and canned goods.  And much, much more.  It’s a shopper’s mecca.

Terecİ Yöresel Bakkal (Regional Grocer) — Mavİṣehİr, Karṣıyaka — İzmİr.
[screenshot from the website]

You want cheese ... they've got cheese.

This is where we were introduced to tahonez — think spreadable tahini the consistency of peanut butter …. ohhh so goood!  (I didn’t take a picture — frankly, it wasn’t picturesque; but you can be sure we bought some to take home.)

On the other side of the building is a quaintly decorated area with tables and benches where one can feast on everything that is sold here.  The nice thing about having breakfast at Tereci is that you can go to the various glass cases with your server and just pick what you want from there to create your own feast.  By the time we were done, in addition to the clotted cream and honey, crumbled cheese and blueberry jam, cooked-to-order eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers, we had two different kinds of butter, and maybe four or five different kinds of cheeses.  And of course, the ubiquitous Turkish tea.

The girl in the top left photo is making Turkish coffee by placing the cezve
(Turkish-style coffee pot) in hot ashes.  And if you’re curious about the picture
in the bottom right corner, check out the teaser where I featured it during my trip.

Good thing our next destination afforded us an opportunity to walk off some of the goodies we had for breakfast.