Where to Have the Best Village Breakfast on Küçükkuyu Ayvacık Assos Road? Tıka Basa Restaurant, Çanakkale

September 22, 2024 GastroTurfer

Those who know us know. We are not big breakfast lovers. The number of breakfast places we have written about on GastroTurfing.com has stayed within two or three in 2 years. Because we think that breakfast, even though it is a meal we love as a nation (Turkiye), is overrated. Breakfast is overrated in Turkiye. Inedible plates, jam covering every corner of the table, pointless sausages and salami, appetizers, hot dishes… It’s all a waste. But this place we are writing about is extraordinary. Its name is “Tıka Basa“. But its meaning is a hundred times more than whatever you understand and perceive. (P.S. Tika Basa can be hardly translated as “full to the throat”)

As soon as you step inside, Tıka Basa transports you to a completely different time, almost a fairy tale. Inside are Ayşe Teyze and Hasan Amca. These two are like two movie characters ready to laugh and laugh at any moment. They are cute, sweet, pleasant, and chatty, and all the breakfast food they prepare there is from their own garden and hands. They even make their cheese.

Ayşe Teyze says, “I don’t eat cheese. If I didn’t make it myself, I don’t like other cheeses!” She curdles the milk and makes basket cheese. She serves it for breakfast. All the jams are from the fruits of their garden and Ayşe Teyze’s hands…

There is a pepper jam. She calls it “Love Jam.” “Because it is lovely but bitter to eat!” says Ayşe Teyze. There could not be a more accurate definition of love. Hasan Amca laughs with his twinkling eyes and approves of his wife. They don’t serve a mixed and colossal breakfast. They only have their version of a village breakfast. Ayşe Teyze makes pişi and sigara börek, which are mind-blowing. When you eat a fried eggplant, you want to give your life to the eggplant. Both green and black olives are from their olive groves. Ayşe Teyze pickles them all.

You get a menemen, but with its tomatoes, peppers, and eggs, it makes you question if the menemen we eat in metropolitan cities is menemen; what is this? They made Tıka Basa Restaurant from scratch to finish with their own hands. Ayşe Teyze named the place. She is usually the one who gives names.

There is a sign at the entrance to the place. It says, “Olive Oil from Köylü Amca. (village guy) ” We asked Ayşe Teyze if she came up with this name, too.

“Oh, it was my idea,” she chuckles. “Hasan Amca, are you ‘Köylü amca’?” we ask her. She nods with a smile. They are very, very cute. You should see them. If you see them, you will not want to eat breakfast; you will want to eat Ayşe Teyze and Hasan Amca.

“Don’t you have any influence on these names, Hasan Amca?” we ask. “I can’t help it. She will nag me until the morning if she doesn’t do what she says.”

In this economic crisis, these people are like medicine for the soul and heart. Whatever they say is ointment; wherever they look, they are healing. The beauty of their hearts is also reflected in their food. They have a stove right towards the sea. This is the barbecue area. Dolmas and main dishes are here in casseroles. Breakfast is available at all hours, but you have to try their food; it is all cooked, too.

And the prices are good.

“Since we produce and sell everything ourselves, our prices are reasonable,” says Aunt Ayşe. She is determined to live with Hasan Amca until she is 150. We are only 75, but there is still so much more to go, says Ayşe Teyze. She is trying to drag Hasan Amca into his hundred and fifties. She can’t do without him either. They have been married for fifty-odd years. Hey mashallah!

Go here for breakfast, eat their food, sit and drink tea and coffee, chat, and buy their dried tarhana, figs, pickled olives, and cheese. Go to look at the view. In other words, go no matter what. Because the main thing you will get from Tıka Basa Restaurant is “peace.” They also have a pension next to them. It has only three rooms.

If we were to leave the world and travel alone, we would escape for three days and come here.