Turkish Breakfast in Alanya: How the Table Works

A Turkish breakfast is not eggs with a side of toast. It is a table covered edge to edge in small plates, eaten slowly, usually shared, and in this country it is treated as a meal worth two hours of a Sunday rather than something to rush before work.

Most visitors meet it at a hotel buffet, which is a shame. The buffet version has the components but not the point.

What actually arrives

Order *serpme kahvaltı* — the "scattered" breakfast, for two people minimum — and expect something close to this:

• Cheeses. At least white *beyaz peynir*, often aged *eski kaşar* and a stringy *çeçil* alongside.
• Olives, green and black, usually two bowls.
• Tomato and cucumber, sliced, unadorned, and better than they have any right to be in season.
• Butter and honey, often honeycomb in the comb, plus two or three jams.
• Eggs, either *menemen* scrambled with tomato and pepper, or *sucuklu yumurta* fried with spiced sausage.
• Bread, warm, refilled without asking, and *börek* or *gözleme* on the better tables.
• Tea. Endless. See below.

There is no main course. The plates are the meal, and you graze across them.

The rules nobody explains

Three things confuse first-timers, and all three are simple once you know.

Tea comes in a tulip glass and keeps coming. You are not being charged per glass at most breakfast places, and stopping the flow means putting your spoon across the top of the glass rather than saying no twice.

Nothing is ordered as a course. If you want more of one thing, ask for that one thing; kitchens are happy to bring a second bowl of anything.

And breakfast is served late. Nine to eleven is normal, many places run it until noon, and the family tables fill after ten on a weekend.

Where to eat a Turkish breakfast in Alanya

Three settings, three different mornings:

• The seafront and harbour cafés. Convenient, decent, priced for the view. Best if you want a coffee-and-eggs version rather than the full spread.
• The town-centre breakfast houses on the streets behind Atatürk Caddesi. This is where locals go, the *serpme* is enormous, and it is the best value in the city.
• The mountain villages above town, at Dim Çayı or on the road to Sapadere. Tables over the water, trout on the same menu, and a drive of thirty to sixty minutes. Ideal before a Dim Cave and Dim river half-day.

Practical notes

• Two people minimum for a *serpme*. Solo travellers order eggs plus a cheese plate.
• Say if you do not eat meat. *Sucuk* is the only pork-free spiced sausage here, but a vegetarian breakfast is completely normal and nobody blinks.
• Menemen is worth ordering separately even if the spread includes eggs. It arrives in its own pan and it is the best thing on most tables.
• Prices are far below the equivalent dinner. A full breakfast for two costs less than two main courses on the harbour.
• Skip the hotel buffet once. Even a good buffet cannot do bread that arrives warm.

If you do one food thing in this town that is not a fish dinner, make it this. And if you want the rest of the day's eating, we covered it in the Alanya food guide.