# "French breakfast radishes" -- do French people really eat them for breakfast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [April 28, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302 "2023-04-28T04:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Themenin0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@Themenin0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Themenin0)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/41 "2023-04-29T09:33:19Z")
Saw the thread title and thought - what fresh hell ? Now everybody knows that French breakfast consists of coffee and cigarettes, or at the most a tartine beurrée (buttered baguette) or a croissant… My credentials, I’ve lived most of my life in France. Breakfast isn’t really a thing here. OTOH, after seeing the various photographs in the thread, yes those are what we call ‘radis’ here - eaten raw in salads, slightly peppery earthy flavor. So “French radishes” is probably accurate. Also, I have a vague memory of seeing radishes on a table with a little bowl of butter sometime someplace… Not sure it was in France though - maybe a regional thing ? ---
**Author:** ![Blindmellowjelly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindmellowjelly/32/13920_2.png) [@Blindmellowjelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blindmellowjelly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/42 "2023-04-30T02:37:05Z")
I don’t have many problems with slugs in my growing environs and locale. Just not many. But I remember having a bumper crop and perhaps more root room growing them in my 90’s tree and bush landscaping “mound” or cedar and miscellany mulch that had made a smooth loamy soil so many years, on the eastside of the small dome. I just planted a few seedpacks on the mulch slopes a centi and covered this time of spring. Such great red radishes. ---
**Author:** ![Blindmellowjelly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindmellowjelly/32/13920_2.png) [@Blindmellowjelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blindmellowjelly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/43 "2023-04-30T04:29:59Z")
Oftmals (ofttimes), it gives also, next to the Radi, a thin sliced Emmenthaler or Swiss type Cheese white thin clone, with oil and salt and pepper all to be eaten with fresh bread, warm, Brezeln. Radi, Kaes, salz, pfeffer, essig and oel, Bier. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/44 "2023-04-30T20:14:32Z")
> [@Themenin0](#): > > Now everybody knows that French breakfast consists of coffee and cigarettes, or at the most a tartine beurrée (buttered baguette) or a croissant… Why do the French eat a small breakfast? Because one egg is an oeuf. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/45 "2023-04-30T21:29:50Z")
🧐 Ok, go to your room until breakfast time tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/46 "2023-05-01T19:50:39Z")
Could be worse, have you heard about the Welsh and leeks? ---
**Author:** ![Blindmellowjelly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindmellowjelly/32/13920_2.png) [@Blindmellowjelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blindmellowjelly)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/47 "2023-05-02T03:09:41Z")
About a week and a half ago, i bought some radishes, as accoutrement to mi breakfast, lonche’, and dinner Mex8can Tacos. They do have an affinity to cilantro and onion and lime. Cronche’ Fresca radish salsa. They are still ready in my refridge crisper… ---
**Author:** ![Blindmellowjelly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindmellowjelly/32/13920_2.png) [@Blindmellowjelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blindmellowjelly)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2023, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/48 "2023-05-02T03:40:45Z")
Jicama needs something to contrast against… ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/49 "2023-05-02T03:58:53Z")
I was raised that radishes are to turnips as brussels sprouts are to cabbages. Anything you can do to/with the larger will also work well with the smaller. So yes, we braised and stewed them often. Very good and sweet that way! ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/50 "2023-05-02T12:54:56Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Could be worse, have you heard about the Welsh and leeks? And laverbread > **[Laverbread](https://www.welshfoodanddrink.wales/laverbread/)** > > Laverbread Laver is a fine seaweed collected for consumption along the Welsh coastline. Welsh laverbread or 'bara lawr' has nothing to do with bread and ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/51 "2025-07-10T13:57:06Z")
_The French Breakfast is a new sort [of radish]._ –Boston Recorder, May 3, 1867 Whether or not the French actually eat radishes for breakfast, it was reported that they do. . . sorta: Numerous press (US) press accounts say that what an American considers breakfast time is just a cup of coffee for a Frenchman. “Breakfast” is the midday meal–again, according to press accounts–often includes radishes. And, not coincidentally, the descriptor “French Breakfast” was–previous to the radish cultivar–used as a brand of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/52 "2025-07-10T14:47:06Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > “Breakfast” is the midday meal–again, according to press accounts–often includes radishes. Sort of true, in the sense that _dejeuner_ is used for both (breakfast is _petit dejeuner_). ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/53 "2025-07-10T15:44:35Z")
I saw this video where a person is stopping people on the street, in France, and asking them what they have for breakfast, usually: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EAX8mc_ovDk/hqdefault.jpg "What Do The French Have For Breakfast? | Easy French 218") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAX8mc_ovDk) It’s pretty close to what am American would say, but slightly ritzier on the bread choices. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/54 "2025-07-10T15:51:56Z")
Missed the edit window, but it should have read something like: _Numerous **19th Century** (US) press accounts say that what an American considers breakfast time is just a cup of coffee for a Frenchman._ ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302/55 "2025-07-10T16:43:46Z")
Wow–my zombie lives! Come to Mama, _mon petit chou_! BTW, this YouTube channel Easy French is really great. If you ever studied French and remember _anything at all_, you will probably be able to understand. Put the captions on. 👍🏼 You’ll be amazed at how much you can follow along. Carry on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-breakfast-radishes-do-french-people-really-eat-them-for-breakfast/983302.md?page=2)