What's the Cost of Morning Pleasure?

We had an evening feast the other night, you know, dinner with sautéed liver, with our national drink, ayran.

Yesterday, the lady said that we had run out of breakfast food, she said, if you want, go and buy some breakfast food.

Breakfast, our morning pleasure.

In the old days, before the morning cup of coffee, one used to eat something for breakfast, that's where the term breakfast comes from, under the coffee. 

It's not a sultan's table like today's mixed breakfast, it's a snack to break the hunger a little bit.

This is also a rich thing, for people with a taste for pleasure.

Anatolian people used to heat the leftover soup on the stove and drink it in the morning.

Now breakfast has become one of our daily meals.

I still like to have soup in the morning sometimes.

***

When I asked the lady what to buy, she got a little angry, asking if I should tell her that too.

Nevertheless, she handed me a list, saying, "If you think of anything else, you add it. 

* A kilo of white cheese

* One packet of cress oil

* One kilo of olives

* A jar of honey

* 10 eggs

* One coil of sausage 

* One tea packet

This time he reminded me not to forget to buy bread on the way out of the door.

***

I wonder how many days this much food is enough for breakfast.

After all, two of us have a little snack in the morning.

If we eat a hundred grams of feta cheese each day, maybe a kilo of cheese would be enough for five days.

One hundred grams of feta cheese is a tiny slice, it should be enough.

The packet of butter is also small, 125 grams. 

(In Russia, the standard was 200 grams until yesterday, but now they have reduced the weight, now there are often packs of 180 or 160 grams!) 

I wonder if the tiny 125 gram pack will last for five days?

We don't eat a lot of olives anyway, I think a kilo of olives will last us ten days. Should I buy less? Yes, I should buy half a kilo or 400 gram saddle olives. It'll be cheaper.

Because 10 eggs are enough for five days, and if we cut the sausage sparingly, this list will last us for five days.

If I buy a small packet of tea, it will be suitable for five days.

No sugar on the list!

Yes, there is no sugar in the list, because we don't add sugar to tea.

I can't taste the flavour of the tea when I add sugar. My wife has the same habit as me, she stopped adding sugar a long time ago. Although occasionally she does add sugar when she makes herself a cup of tea for pleasure.

Mostly, sugar is used at home only if the wife makes a cake or something.

I recommend you to cut sugar too.

***

Anyway, let's see how much the prices have gone up at the supermarket.

We're in the supermarket!

* A kilo of Edirne white cheese, full fat, 195 lira.

* Ekici is 129 lira 90 kurus a kilo.

* I have İçim, 119 lira 90 kurus per kilo.

* There is also a kilo of 95 liras, but this cheese is like lime, it can't be eaten at all.

The best is Ekici again, 129 lira 90 kurus, throw it in the basket.

*

There is not much choice in butter in this market, we have to buy a 125 gram pack of butter, 32 lira 90 kurus.

*

And the olives are all different.

And of course they're all different prices.

The missus said to buy one kilo, but half a kilo is enough for us.

* Marmara unity extra half kilo 51 lira 50 kurus.

There are also stone crushed green olives, should I buy half a kilo of these for variety? 

It's 98 liras a kilo, if I buy half a kilo it'll be 49 liras.

Look, I need to slice a lemon and put it on the table with it. 

I need to buy lemon too.

I also need olive oil to go with it, my wife forgot the olive oil.

Anyway, let's continue with olives.

* Gemlik sele is expensive, 185 lira per kilo.

* Fora is a little salty, 120 lira per kilo.

Should I buy half a kilo of this?

* Natural brine is also expensive, 180 liras per kilo.

* Oh, look, there's also organic sele, 239 liras a kilo. They've been selling it by saying it's organic!

What should I do? 

* Marmara unity mega is also very expensive, a half kilo pack is 96 lira 50 kurus, that's 193 lira per kilo.

*

OK, I'd better buy half a kilo of this low-salt stuff, it costs 60 liras for half a kilo.

I have a craving, so I'd better buy half a kilo of crushed green olives, which costs 49 liras.

I think I have chilli flakes at home, if I slice a lemon and sprinkle some chilli flakes on the olive oil, it will be just to my taste.

Now that you've got the olives, I'll buy lemon and olive oil before I forget.

*

Lemons cost 18 lira 90 cents a kilo. I only need one. Wait, how much is it? A little over 100 grams, 2 lira!

*

Well, now that you've got the lemon, let's look at the olive oil.

Olive oil is also very expensive!

But what can we do, if we want flavour, we will put up with the price.

* They wrote "extra virgin, natural", the litre bottle is 248 lira 50 kurus. 

It's really expensive.

* Let me see, this one is 750 ml, this one says cold pressed, again extra virgin, 127 lira 90 kurus.

* Look, there's a discount on this one, 2 litres 259 lira 90 kurus.

Should I buy this one? 

It's on sale! 

Would you pay 259 lira 90 kurus for this for the taste?

But it doesn't say extra virgin or natural, I wonder how it tastes?

OK, I've found it. 

* The most economical is 105 lira 90 kurus, 750 ml. And this one says extra virgin.

I'd better buy this one. 

Put it in the basket.

*

What's left?

Let's look at the list, let's not miss anything.

Honey!

Again, the prices are quite high. 

* There's a jar for 267 liras, 

* There's even one for 423 liras.

But this small jar is enough for us.

* Highland flower honey, 225 grams, 79 liras 75 cents.

Put it in the basket.

*

Now for the eggs.

You can't have breakfast without eggs! We will cluck soon, but eggs are still the best source of protein.

You can either boil it, boil it soft-boiled, or crack it on the sausage.

* Medium sized pack of 10, 49 lira 90 kurus.

***

They haven't given up writing the prices 10 cents less!

It has a psychological effect on shopping!

I wonder who thought of it?

There are a lot of articles on this subject, but now I haven't seen the history of it. Maybe one day I will spare time and prepare a separate article on this subject.

***

Let's continue, we came to sausage.

There are various types of sausage from 615 to 850 liras per kilo.

There is also a discounted price of 465 liras per kilo.

I throw a coil of the one we always buy into the basket. 

* 690 liras per kilo, 

Half a kilo a kangal. A coil of sausage costs 345 liras! 

This is robbery!

We'll spread this kangal over a week, or we said five days, didn't we in our account.

*

What's left?

Tea! It's a must for breakfast.

My favourite is the last cup of tea we drink after breakfast.

I'll take a packet of buds and a packet of tiryaki.

* The bud is 125 grams, 37 lira 90 kurus.

* Tiryaki 500 grams, 58 lira 50 kurus.

***

I think we're done.

Let's go to the till.

No, no, I didn't forget the bread this time. 

I'll stop by the bakery after the market.

*

Here you are, sir. I'll pick you up from over there. 

Look, girl, how much did it cost?

Do you need a bag?

No, I came from home with a net this time.

OK, mister, you put what you bought on the tape and I'll read it at the till.

Cheese 129 lira 90 kurus, butter 32 lira 90 kurus, low-salt olives 60 lira, green olives 49 lira, lemon 2 lira, olive oil 105 lira 90 kurus, honey 79 lira 75 kurus, eggs 49 lira 90 kurus, sausage 345 lira, bud tea 37 lira 90 kurus, smoked tea 58 lira 50 kurus.

All 950 liras 75 cents.

Here you go, girl, one, two, three... Exactly five two-hundreds, exactly 1000 liras!

That's robbery! I had to give you exactly five of the biggest ones.

Do you have 75 cents, sir? If so, I'll give you 50 liras in change.

Let me see, I had a 1 lira in my pocket, I was keeping it as a souvenir. But since it's needed, I'll give it to you.

1 lira was once such a big money, wasn't it! It's worth nothing now.

OK, I found it, here you go.

Here you are sir, here's your change, 50 lira and here's the change of your 1 lira, 25 kurus.

***

If we include the price of bread from the bakery for five days, 1000 liras for an average of five days goes away just for breakfast.

There are no cold cuts of tomatoes or greens in it.

For two people, maybe a pensioner, not even a mixed breakfast, but a standard breakfast, 100 liras per person per day just for breakfast costs.

We can say that two people can barely afford a daily breakfast for 200 liras. 

That's 6000 liras in thirty days! 

Almost the minimum pension!

You can calculate the rest.

What can I say, may God give ease to those with low income. 

I hope this situation will improve one day.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow.