Börek

Forget Wheaties. Forget Cream of Wheat. Forget a Proper English Fry-up. Forget croissant. The breakfast of the future is here. Now.

Börek.


You may know it only as some form of "spinach pie" obtained at your local Greek deli, but there is a wide spectrum of savory pastry ruling the post Ottoman world known as börek. Börek is the Breakfast Food That God Eats. Börek is transcendant. Börek is cheap. Börek is good for you.

Thıs was breakfast: potato börek and su börek, about US$1 each, with a pogça pastry (about 30 US cents.) Glass of tea, ayran yoghurt drink.


To make börek, you take sheets of yufka (AKA philo dough, although yufka is usually bought fresh from a Yufkaci, a "yufka provider" shop in the neighborhood) and fill it with ground lamb meat, spinach, cheese, or potatoes. Su Börek, or "water borek" is wet börek, in which the sheets of yufka have first been soaked in water. The result is something like lasagna without the tomato sause, served either salty (cheese) or sweet (cheese dusted with sugar.)

Today I found the Börek Shop Run by Women. This is a rare first. Börek is usually "manly shop food" served by moustached guys from Kurdistan. It was located next to a börek shop run by men in a hardcore working market district. Of course, the Men's börek shop was sold out by 11 AM. The Woman's börek shop was packed with fresh börek. . Tommorow I will see if this is because the Men's börek shop had better börek. This was breakfast