Breakfast / Brunch Archives

One of my favorite breakfast dishes of all time is çılbır—known in English simply as “Turkish eggs”. The first time I had this was not anywhere in Turkey, but in London, and I was in awe over how bold it was to combine three such indulgent things: creamy garlicky yogurt, runny poached eggs, spicy melted butter. I love all of those things individually, but together they were something else entirely—unapologetically, mindblowingly good.

When I started working with Spice Tribe, one of the products I was most excited to receive was their Maras Chile Flakes, which are the same pepper variety but sourced right from Turkey. I knew I had to use it in some sort of riff on Turkish eggs.

To be clear, çılbır does not need riffing. Its beauty comes from its simplicity, so I love that it’s a dish born from what people always had on hand. But I wanted to show off Spice Tribe’s Maras Chile Flakes while contributing some ideas that went beyond the basic recipes that were already out there, and in a way that continued to celebrate the beauty of simple ingredients without a whole lot of effort.

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