Where and how to have breakfast in Istanbul.

In Turkey breakfast is not a meal but a ceremony. In Istanbul it has two extremes: the simit and tea eaten standing up in two minutes, and the 'spread' breakfast that covers the whole table and takes two hours. Both are ways of understanding the city. The spread breakfast is a table of small plates: white cheese, kaşar, tulum, assorted olives, honey with clotted cream, jams, tomato and cucumber, eggs with sucuk or menemen, cigarette-shaped cheese pastries, butter and unlimited tea. It is priced per person and getting up from the table takes skill. Beşiktaş market was made for this on weekend mornings; the breakfast halls open at 8 and queues form after 10. In Kadıköy the streets of Moda and the cafés of Yeldeğirmeni do the same job with a younger crowd. If you want breakfast on the Bosphorus, there are cafés with views along the Bebek and Arnavutköy shore and the Yellow Pavilion in Emirgan Park; the price is proportional to the view. In the north of the Asian side, Polonezköy and the Khedive's Palace in Beykoz are the places for a village breakfast. Van breakfast is a genre of its own: herbed cheese, murtuğa (flour fried in butter), kavut and cacık, the table of the East. Breakfast halls run by families from Van in Kadıköy and Fatih serve it from 7 a.m. On the fast side there is simit. The sesame ring is bought from street carts and bakeries; a triangle of cheese or a glass of tea is enough alongside. Eating simit on the ferry and throwing pieces to the gulls is an everyday Istanbul ritual. Poğaça and açma are the bakeries' morning products; the historic bakeries of Karaköy and Eminönü have them hot at 6 a.m. Su böreği, layers of pastry with cheese or minced meat, fills the gap between breakfast and lunch. Sarıyer börek is famous too, bought from the börek shops on the waterfront. A few rules: breakfast is eaten between 9 and 12 at weekends, earlier on weekdays. The debate over onions in menemen is serious, so ask. Tea comes in a tulip-shaped glass and a fresh one appears unasked when it is finished; if you want no more, lay the spoon across the glass. Turkish coffee is drunk after breakfast, not with it. And however full the table, bread never runs out.