Culture
Before Istanbul has properly woken up, the simit carts are already out. Glass cases on red carts, stacked with golden rings of sesame-crusted bread, molasses-glazed and baked until the crust sings. A simit and a glass of çay — hot, strong, poured into that famous tulip glass — is the breakfast of ferry commuters, shopkeepers and schoolchildren alike. Two everyday miracles, for pocket change.
The pairing is no accident. Simit is honest fuel: crisp outside, soft within, nutty with toasted sesame. Çay — brewed double-strength in the çaydanlık and softened with hot water to each drinker’s taste — cuts the richness and slows the morning down. Together they turn a commute into a ritual. Istanbul runs on this; by some counts the city eats millions of simits a day.
We keep the ritual alive at our table in Kampong Gelam. Our çay comes the proper way — tulip glass, saucer, endless refills — and our sesame breads come out of the same oven as our pide. If you have only ever had “breakfast tea”, come taste what the word really means on Beach Road. The glass will be refilled before you ask. That, too, is tradition.
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Everything we write about, we cook daily — 10:00am to 1:00am at 257 Beach Road, Kampong Gelam. Charcoal-fired, family-owned, five minutes from Bugis MRT.