Updated October 17, 2026 at 5:00 AM CDT
A Turkish breakfast is less a quick morning meal and more an elaborate, social ritual centered around sharing and conversation.
Kahvalticilar Sokak, or "Breakfast Street," in the eastern Turkish city of Van is dedicated to the most important meal of the day.
The street is lined with restaurants on one side, and diners enjoy their breakfasts on plastic tables and chairs in the middle of the street, a tarp overhead for shade.
Van is known countrywide as the Turkish breakfast capital. In 2014, the city broke the Guinness World Record for the largest breakfast on Earth, with nearly 52,000 people attending.
Located on a high plateau surrounded by pasture-rich mountains, Van's cold winters demanded calorie-dense morning meals. So, herders and farmers developed preserved dairy and grain-based food that could withstand harsh weather.
In the mid-20th century, Van's milk parlors evolved into specialized Kahvalti Salonlari, or Breakfast Salons. Rather than serving full meals throughout the day, these salons focused on early-morning to mid-afternoon breakfast.
Sabri Bezir, who has worked at an 80-year-old restaurant on Kahvalticilar Sokak for 45 years, says that "people who do heavy work need a good breakfast."
At Bezir's restaurant, milk boils and brews on the stove daily. After brewing, the milk sits overnight, and restaurant staff arrives at 4:30 the next morning to cut and skim the cream layer off.
Eaten with bread and honey, the cream is a staple of the Turkish breakfast — but it's only one of a dozen plates on the spread. Some other staples: tzatziki with butter, black olives, apricot jam, herby cheese, pure honey, white cheese and cheddar cheese. There are also potatoes, sausages, eggs, and breakfast isn't complete without black tea in a traditional tulip glass.
Yemen Demir is a native of Van who now lives in Ankara. He and 10 other men sit at a long table — it's their annual high school reunion.
For Demir, a Turkish breakfast isn't just about the food.
"The way they present it is very beautiful," he says.
A Van breakfast reminds him of home — and it has another special meaning: It's how Demir wooed his wife.
For many in Turkey, nothing says romance like a good breakfast.
Dhanika Pineda adapted this story for the web. You click the blue play button up top to listen to the story.
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