Türkiye Begins with Impressions: A Culinary Morning on the Aegean Coast
Türkiye Begins with Impressions: A Culinary Morning on the Aegean Coast After an eventful first day on Türkiye’s Aegean coast, we finally reached the Allia hotel. Flights, the charming Valley of Dreams and the Adatepe Olive Oil Museum were behind us. We checked in, rested for a while and gathered for dinner. The following morning, a new programme awaited us.
Our press trip for journalists from Turkmenistan was organised with the participation of the Culture and Tourism Office at the Embassy of the Republic of Türkiye, the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), and Turkish Airlines. With each passing day, we better understood the organisers’ broader idea of travel: discovering a country not only through monuments and spectacular landscapes, but also through its everyday culture, cuisine and hospitality.
A morning worth photographing
I got up early and made a point of visiting the restaurant before the rest of our group arrived. I wanted to photograph the full splendour of a Turkish breakfast while the buffet was still untouched. There seemed to be everything: different cheeses, green and black olives, fresh fruit and vegetables, herbs, fragrant soups with spices, jams and desserts. And of course, the famous menemen, a hot dish of eggs, tomatoes and peppers. It was hard to know where to begin. First I wanted to photograph everything, and only then decide what to eat. But the real surprise awaited outside, beside the swimming pool.
The flying omelette
A young chef was preparing omelettes in front of the guests. You could choose cheese, sucuk — the traditional Turkish sausage — vegetables or fresh herbs. Yet the appeal was not just the flavour. A skilful flick of the pan sent a golden omelette soaring into the air, turning over before landing neatly where it started. I could not help smiling: a genuine “flying omelette”!
It was a pleasure to watch an ordinary breakfast become a little performance. After the home-cooked meal served by Emine, whom I described in the first part of this journey, we had discovered another face of Turkish hospitality: hotel service where attention to detail and culinary skill set the mood for the day.
This is also what familiarisation trips involving TGA help us appreciate. A destination is made up of countless impressions. What stays with us is not just the names of cities and landmarks, but also a welcoming smile, a local flavour, an unexpected meeting or a simple trick in the kitchen.
We could not linger over breakfast, however. Two powerful off-road vehicles were waiting outside: our jeep safari through the Kazdağları mountains was about to begin. The clatter of crockery had barely died away when it gave way to the roar of engines. But that is another story.
