# International Breakfast Foods **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464 "2007-12-18T16:50:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/1 "2007-12-18T16:50:10Z")
Inspired by this [Chinese Breakfast](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=448191) thread. The best international breakfast foods I’ve encountered are: - in Brazil they always served us lots and lots of fruit for breakfast, usually melon and pineapple and banana, along with some fried cheese (yummmmm) and cous cous (which was corn based) and white bread. - in Trinidad they often eat doubles, which are little sandwiches of curried chick peas (they look like [this](http://static.flickr.com/68/188881783_36632cf96e_m.jpg) and taste divine) - in England I always loved the big weekend breakfast, which included sausages (always with a yummy veggie option) and baked beans (a combination I love), fried mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, and sometimes bacon. And of course sweet milky tea. Drool. Yummy, but not every day. Round here in Toronto almost all of the breakfast foods available are sweet pastries, which I really don’t like all that much. I’d kill for a doubles stand or even some fresh tropical fruit. (Is that too much to ask? Where are the Canadian pineapple plantations, I ask ya?) Mostly I get by with smoothies and the occasional bacon breakfast sandwich. So, what are other great breakfasts you’ve experienced around the world? ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/2 "2007-12-18T17:03:20Z")
My top three brekkies: _Cafe y churros_ in Spain: Traditionally it’s _chocolate y churros_, but I just couldn’t warm up to the Spanish version of hot chocolate (to me, it tasted and looked a hell of a lot like lukewarm chocolate pudding… blllaaaaargh), but the churros were excellent and much improved by dunking in hot sweet coffee. Mmmmm. _Pao de Queijo_ in Brazil: I don’t remember any couscous in Brazilian breakfasts, but that might be a regional thing (I stayed in and around Brazilia, the capital). What I do remember is \*pao de queijo \* - little fluffy buns with a crispy outside and a sharp cheese taste - and lots and lots of fresh mangoes. Camping breakfast: Eggs, pancakes (made from just-add-water mix), bacon and coffee. All burnt. Like all other camping food, ridiculously tasty and satisfying, despite the fact that it would be virtually inedible under any other circumstances. Washed down with random fruit-flavoured beverage made from drink crystals. Mmmmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/3 "2007-12-18T17:04:42Z")
Can’t beat a huge pile of American pancakes with maple syrup and bacon (do you get that in Canadia?) In Crete they serve tangy plain yoghurt with honey, and little madeira cakes. And until you’ve eaten fresh-out-of-the-oven croissants from a French boulangerie, you haven’t actually tasted croissants. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/4 "2007-12-18T17:07:31Z")
When I was in Israel, they always had what I believe to be cold, possibly pickled fish available for breakfast. I never ate any of it. I’m picky about fish at the best of times. It was also funny seeing some of my tourmates have fits because at breakfast coffee was served with cream–not nonfat, nondairy creamer. (At dinner, coffee was served with creamer, not cream. Yes, the restaurants we ate at all served Kosher food–or if they didn’t, it was non-obvious to me, the non-Jew tourist). I do enjoy breakfasting on fruit, cheeses, and bread products. Except when the fruit have seeds in them and I don’t realize it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/5 "2007-12-18T17:09:34Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Can’t beat a huge pile of American pancakes with maple syrup and bacon (do you get that in Canadia?) [/QUOTE] Yes, but in Canadia we have our pancakes with REAL bacon. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/6 "2007-12-18T17:14:47Z")
Give me a full British fry-up any day (but not **every** day!) eggs bacon toast sausage chips beans potatoes tomatoes mushrooms Yum! ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/7 "2007-12-18T17:15:26Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Can’t beat a huge pile of American pancakes with maple syrup and bacon (do you get that in Canadia?) [/quote] Of course we do! And I can’t believe I was 31 years old before I experienced the taste of bacon or sausage WITH maple syrup. I could do without the pancakes tho. Give me breakfast sausages alongside maple baked beans. Drool. Maybe this is a good place to note the trans-Atlantic contrast in diversity of breakfast sausage. In the UK there are dozens of types to be had in any grocery store. In contrast, I went to a huge grocery store in my Toronto neighbourhood, which in fact has no fewer than _four_ sausage sections (there are a lot of Italians and Portuguese in these parts) but only TWO varieties of breakfast sausage in the whole place: regular and maple. Two! UK dopers, when come back, bring breakfast sausage! (We’ve got your salami needs covered, tho.) > [@](#): > > And until you’ve eaten fresh-out-of-the-oven croissants from a French boulangerie, you haven’t actually tasted croissants. I had donuts fresh out of the oven on a beach in Sète, does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/8 "2007-12-18T17:39:16Z")
My Brazilian breakfasts are those little breads with salty butter, oily soft cheese, mango, papaya, that 40,000 amp spark right behind the eyeballs coffee. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/9 "2007-12-18T17:42:29Z")
SOS, aka Shit on a Shingle, aka biscuits with sausage gravy. I think it’s an acquired tasted…Ivylad’s cousin was visiting from England and she didn’t care for it…she spread jam on her biscuits instead. All that lovely white, milky, thick, sausage gravy gone to waste. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/10 "2007-12-18T17:43:40Z")
[QUOTE=Kuboydal] My Brazilian breakfasts are those little breads with salty butter, oily soft cheese, mango, papaya, that 40,000 amp spark right behind the eyeballs coffee. [/QUOTE] You know, that spark could have come from the shower. Pao de queijo ROCKS! Also, a little banana com ninho. Oh, and real juice. Made from polpa da fruta that you can either buy frozen in an emeergency or fresh in a batiladora. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/11 "2007-12-18T17:50:19Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Give me a full British fry-up any day (but not **every** day!) eggs bacon toast sausage chips beans potatoes tomatoes mushrooms Yum! [/QUOTE] 86 the mushrooms and toss in some white pudding and then we’re talking. Oh, and if there’s people around who don’t know any better than some black pudding too. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/12 "2007-12-18T18:30:33Z")
The only internationl style breakfast I have had is Mexican and it was at an IHOP so it may not be that authentic but it was damn good. Scrambled eggs with salsa refried beans and tortillas Who ever thought up having beans, any style, for breakfast deserves a medal ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/13 "2007-12-18T18:42:02Z")
[QUOTE=Tahssa] Who ever thought up having beans, any style, for breakfast deserves a medal [/QUOTE] As long as the medal presentation ceremony is held outside, and away from open flame I agree with you. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/14 "2007-12-18T18:47:18Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] SOS, aka Shit on a Shingle, aka biscuits with sausage gravy. [/QUOTE] “Shit on a shingle” is creamed chipped beef on toast. I’ve never heard “shit on a shingle” used for sausage gravy and biscuits. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/15 "2007-12-18T18:48:10Z")
[QUOTE=Tahssa] Who ever thought up having beans, any style, for breakfast deserves a medal [/QUOTE] I agree. The traditional breakfast in El Salvador typically includes refried beans, fried plantains and sour cream, with plenty of coffee to drink. I don’t have this very often because of my high cholesterol, but it’s delicious. In fact, my sis made this just this morning for her Christmas potluck at work, except she made rice and beans instead of just plain beans. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/16 "2007-12-18T18:51:50Z")
As I said in the other thread, pho (beef soup flavored with anise) in Vietnam. In Israel, a slab of whole-grain bread slathered with cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese and topped with ripe tomato slices. ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/17 "2007-12-18T19:46:14Z")
I’ve been eating spicy deer jerky with coffee and wasabi peas for breakfast of late. It’s a good way to start the day. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/18 "2007-12-18T19:47:55Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] “Shit on a shingle” is creamed chipped beef on toast. I’ve never heard “shit on a shingle” used for sausage gravy and biscuits. [/QUOTE] Well maybe some people build fluffy biscuit houses and have horrible bird poop looking bowel movements. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/19 "2007-12-18T20:07:32Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Give me a full British fry-up any day (but not **every** day!) eggs bacon toast sausage chips beans potatoes tomatoes mushrooms Yum! [/QUOTE] Minus the beans, that sounds like a good ol’ USA Denny’s Grand Slam. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464/20 "2007-12-18T20:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=Cluricaun] 86 the mushrooms and toss in some white pudding and then we’re talking. Oh, and if there’s people around who don’t know any better than some black pudding too. [/QUOTE] We don’t really get white pudding here - it’s an Irish thing. We do get the black stuff though. Mmm. ETA: a proper English fry will also include “fried slice” (white bread fried in lard) and copious pots of tea. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/international-breakfast-foods/430464.md?page=2)