Yet another Turkish-American hybrid breakfast

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while:

Two boiled eggs, a kiwi/banana smoothie (homemade), and a simit with cheese. Now, the simit thing— every morning in every Turkish neighbourhood across the land, a couple of kids come around with huge trays of simit balanced on their heads. Think bagel-meets-croissant and you’ll be vaguely in the right ballpark. They also sell these little spreadable cheese triangles, which are particularly popular in Turkey, but I think you can get them in other countries, too (don’t Laughing Cow make them?). Anyway, the kids come around two or three times every morning, once about seven, and again about nine, and maybe once more at tennish. They walk through the streets shouting “simitçi!” at the top of their lungs, and if you want some simit you just go out on your balcony and shout or whistle to get their attention.

Now, many people have a bucket on a string that they lower down from the balcony… when the simit boy gets to your building you shout what you want, he shouts the price, you lower the money down in the bucket, he puts your order in the bucket, and you haul it back up. We need to get a bucket, because I feel really bad that every time we order from our simit kid, he has to come all the way up to the ninth floor with that huge tray. Granted, we do have an elevator, but it would just be easier for everyone if we got a bucket like normal people.

Not sure why, but the buckets always seem to be either red or blue.

Anyway, you’re either a with-cheese person or not, and I am definitely a with-cheese person. Also, sometimes when Emirhan’s not looking I’ll do a very American thing and toast mine and put butter on it, or strawberry jam. I only do it when he’s not here, though, because it’s sort of un-Turkish to eat it any other way than plain or with cheese, and he gets panicky when his heritage is challenged and I blaze through with total disregard.

So that was breakfast this morning.