Lumina PhotographyThe Breakfast EditGünaydın · Dubai

TheBreakfast

Edit

Fifteen plates · One table

A morning at Günaydın, Dubai, photographed plate by plate and then all at once.

A Lumina food edit

A Turkish breakfast is never one plate. The table fills slowly: something sweet, bread from the oven, cold plates, then pans straight from the stove, and it is meant to be shared.

We photographed fifteen dishes from the Günaydın menu, each one on its own, and then the whole spread from above. The edit follows the order the meal is eaten in.

ISweet first02–04
IIFrom the oven05–08
IIICold plates09–10
IVIn the pan11–15

Detail of the breakfast table: white cheese plate, çılbır, menemen, sahanda eggs and a pan of sucuk — 01Detail. The centre of the table, cropped from the cover.

I

Sweet first

Kaymak under crushed pistachio, and a slab of raw honeycomb beside it. Two plates that are almost always ordered together.

Kaymak with pistachio and a plate of honeycomb on dark marble — 02Kaymak and honeycomb. The pair.

Kaymak clotted cream dusted with crushed pistachio on a blue-grey plate — 03Kaymak. Thick clotted cream, crushed pistachio.

Spread the cream first, then the honey on top.

A slab of raw honeycomb on a blue-grey plate — 04Honeycomb. Cut from the frame, served whole.

Simit and poğaça on a wooden board on dark marble — 05Simit and poğaça

Close-up of a simit broken open, showing the sesame crust — 05Detail. Simit, broken open.

Simit, crisp with sesame. Poğaça, soft and still warm. And su böreği, where the pastry sheets are boiled before baking so the centre stays tender.

Squares of su böreği on a patterned plate — 06Su böreği. Layered, boiled, baked.

Golden pastry parcels with salad and a bowl of herb yogurt — 07Pastry parcels. Golden and blistered, with salad and herb yogurt.

Close-up of herb yogurt in a patterned bowl between pastry parcels — 08Detail. Herb yogurt, for dipping.

Second plate, same parcels — shot closer, at table height.

III

Cold plates

Wedges of white cheese on a wooden board with walnuts, dried apricots, tomatoes and basil — 09The cheese board. White cheeses, walnuts, dried apricot, basil.

Close-up of white cheese wedges and a basil leaf — 09Detail. Cut to stand upright.

The quiet part of the table. Cheese, tomato, cucumber, long green peppers — the plates that balance everything warm around them.

Sliced tomatoes, cucumber, green peppers, rocket and parsley on a patterned platter — 10Garden plate. Tomato, cucumber, green pepper, rocket, parsley.

IV

Everything here arrives in the pan it was cooked in, and is eaten from it.

In the pan

Menemen in a copper pan with brass handles, topped with parsley — 11Menemen. Eggs cooked into tomato and pepper.

Bread goes in before the fork does.

Three fried eggs in a copper pan, sahanda yumurta — 12Sahanda yumurta. Three eggs, butter, copper.

Sucuk slices and grilled hellim cheese with peppers and tomato in a cast-iron pan — 13Sucuk and hellim. Grilled, with peppers and tomato.

Çılbır: poached eggs on garlic yogurt with chilli butter in a cast-iron pan — 14Çılbır. Poached eggs, garlic yogurt, chilli butter.

Close-up of poached eggs, chilli butter and herbs on yogurt — 14Detail. Where the butter meets the yogurt.

The last pan on the table, and usually the first one finished.

Sausages in tomato sauce with parsley in a pan on a blue patterned plate — 15Sausages in tomato sauce. Parsley, brass handles.

Günaydın.

Good morning

The Turkish greeting, and the name of the restaurant where this edit was photographed. Fifteen plates, in the order they appear.