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The Van Breakfast and Herb Cheese

In Van, breakfast is more than a meal. This table, known by the city's name, is famous throughout Türkiye and has now taken its place in official records as well.

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The Van Breakfast and Herb Cheese

In Van, breakfast is more than a meal. This table, known by the city's name, is famous throughout Türkiye and has now taken its place in official records as well. The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has added the Van Breakfast as a whole to its list of geographical indications; Van herb cheese, the best known taste on the table, is registered separately. Drawing on the registration documents and the provincial culture directorate, this article explains what is on the table and why, how herb cheese is made, and how to enjoy a Van breakfast.

Registering a table

A geographical indication is a quality mark showing the origin of a product and the characteristics tied to that origin. According to the definition quoted by the Van Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, geographical indications are registered either as designations of origin or as geographical signs. For a designation of origin, all production, processing and other stages must take place within the defined geographical area. For a geographical sign, it is enough for at least one of these stages to take place in that area.

The Van Breakfast was registered as a geographical sign on 16 July 2020. The registering institution is Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and the geographical boundary is the province of Van. The document lists one by one the products the breakfast must include: Van herb cheese, murtuğa, Van kavut, clotted cream, butter, honey, rose jam, cacık and dishes made with eggs. Tea, milk, other jams and cheeses, olives, tahini, grape molasses, çörek, bread, plain pide and lavash may also appear on the table. The document is equally clear about what may not: french fries, salami, sausages, ham and börek pastries are not part of the Van Breakfast.

The registration document also gives some history. According to it, the tradition arose when the bazaar tradesmen set out to work early in the morning and ate breakfast in town rather than at home. The first breakfast shop opened in 1947 under the name süt evi, or milk house, and over time breakfast halls replaced the milk houses. The registration document for murtuğa describes these establishments as usually set in Van's back streets, opening at first light, closing before sunset and serving only breakfast. The same documents record that an open air breakfast held in Van in June 2014, with 51,793 participants, entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most crowded table.

The breakfast is recorded not only as a brand but also as a culture. According to the list of the Van Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Van breakfast culture is among the elements registered in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Türkiye. Traditional cheese making appears on the same list.

Herb cheese, a flavour that ripens underground

The star of the table is herb cheese. Van herb cheese was registered as a designation of origin on 31 December 2018; the registrant is the Van Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the geographical boundary covers the provinces of Van and Hakkari. According to the registration document, the cheese has been produced in these two provinces for more than two hundred years. It is made mainly from sheep's milk, or from cow's or goat's milk or a mixture of these, and flavoured with about twenty herbs that grow in the region. Its colour varies from white to yellowish depending on the milk and herbs used; it is semi hard and salty, and garlic and thyme dominate its aroma.

The document names six herbs whose use is compulsory: sirmo, mendo, heliz, wild mint, thyme and siyabo. Thirteen optional herbs are listed besides these, among them cress, dill, pennyroyal, basil and sorrel. Sirmo is also known as wild garlic and is chopped into millimetre sized pieces and kept in salted water. Heliz is a harder, woody plant that also gives colour; after chopping it is softened slightly in boiling water. Thyme, by contrast, is used without blanching. According to the document, the share of herbs should not exceed two per cent of the cheese's weight, because more spoils its appearance. The even spread of herbs across the cut surface is a distinctive feature of this cheese.

The production calendar depends on nature. According to the registration document, the rise in sheep's milk in April, May and June and the growth of the herbs in the same months make it necessary to make the cheese in spring. Because the herbs can be kept in brine, production can be extended into the summer months. In cheese season, producers gather the herbs from the mountains and various fields and bring the surplus to the centre of Van to sell. The document also notes that Evliya Çelebi, writing about Van in his Book of Travels, mentions a cheese made with herbs.

What really sets it apart from white cheese is the way it ripens. In the dry salting method the curdled milk is transferred to cloth bags in alternating layers of curd and herbs, and the drained curd is cut into small slices and salted. After washing, the slices are pressed firmly into earthenware jars or plastic containers, with the gaps filled with a curd cheese called cacık. The container is buried in the ground with its mouth facing down and, according to the document, ripened for at least four and at most seven months. For cheese to be eaten fresh, the milk is heat treated and the slices are kept in brine for one to two months. The document states that dry salting is the more widely preferred method in the region.

Murtuğa and kavut, the hot dishes of the table

Alongside the cold plates, a Van breakfast always has hot dishes. Two of these are registered separately. Murtuğa was recorded as a geographical sign in 2017 and Van kavut in 2018; both were registered by the Van Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The murtuğa registration document defines the dish as one made with flour, eggs, butter and salt. First the butter is melted over a low flame, flour is added and it is roasted while being stirred constantly with a wooden spoon. Beaten egg is added little by little to this mixture, known locally as çörek içi, and it is stirred until it puffs up and cooks, then served hot. It can be eaten plain or served with honey or jam. The document links the dish's origin to the local people's need to make a filling food from scarce ingredients in hard times.

Kavut, meanwhile, is presented as one of the region's oldest dishes. The registration document reports that the Urartians grew wheat, lentils and chickpeas in Van, built storerooms in the lower parts of their fortresses, and that excavations have brought to light a three thousand year old trace of kavut. Evliya Çelebi also wrote that he ate this dish on his journey to Van and Bitlis and that it was often offered to him in the houses he visited. Van kavut is made from Tir wheat, a local variety grown in the region. The wheat is soaked in milk without being hulled, dried in the shade and ground in a basalt hand mill. This flour is roasted in hot butter until it reaches a thick, porridge like consistency. The recipe on Kültür Portalı also reports that kavut is eaten at breakfast with honey or rose jam poured over it.

Clotted cream, honey and rose jam

The registration document requires the clotted cream, butter, rose jam and honey to be produced in Van. The clotted cream is made from cow's or buffalo milk. The milk is boiled, transferred to large, shallow pans called lenger locally and kept over a low flame for one to two hours, then cooled and rested overnight, after which the cream that forms on the surface is lifted off without breaking it. The honey must be produced locally, and the document states that honeycomb honey from traditional log hives is preferably served.

For rose jam, the petals of the strongly scented Rosa damascena rose and of the variety known as the everblooming rose are used. Because the quality of the petals depends on processing them right after picking, both the sourcing of the roses and the making of the jam are required to take place in Van. Van rose jam also appears as a separate geographically registered product on the provincial directorate's list.

Cacık here is not the cacık most people know. According to the document, its main ingredient is çökelek, a dairy product obtained by boiling the buttermilk left over from butter making and draining it in cloth bags. The çökelek is mixed with dill, green peppers, coriander and, if desired, spring onions. The egg dishes range from boiled or fried eggs to menemen, and eggs with roasted meat or with beef sucuk.

Suggestions for enjoying a Van breakfast

A Van breakfast cannot be rushed. The table is made up of many small plates, and tasting each one takes time. Plan your breakfast for the early morning and arrange the rest of the day around it. When you taste herb cheese, look at the cut surface; the even spread of herbs and the dominant smell of garlic and thyme are the features described in the registration document. Murtuğa and kavut are eaten hot, so do not let them wait once they reach the table.

Those who want to buy herb cheese may keep the details of the document in mind. The cheese has a long ripening period, so spring production reaches the table in the later months of the year. The way to recognise the geographically registered product is to look for the registration information and the geographical indication emblem on the packaging. The registration document of the Van Breakfast also requires any establishment using the name to display the wording and the geographical sign emblem where they can easily be seen.

After breakfast, a walk into the city's history is a good complement. Climbing the rock of Van Fortress or strolling along the shore of Lake Van is the easiest way to see the landscape on which the heritage tasted at the table rests.

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