International Breakfast Foods

[BaneSidhe]

@silenus

Give me a full British fry-up any day (but not every day!)

eggs
bacon
toast
sausage
chips
beans
potatoes
tomatoes
mushrooms

Yum!

Leave off the tomatoes and mushrooms and I’ll be right there!

[Celyn]

But also lacking the opportunity, in a busy household breakfast-time hurry, to drip egg yolk on your school uniform then have a quick panic … ah, all righty, I think I might just be able to see a point here.
(The girl in question reckoned that she was more likely to mash the egg up in a bowl or a cup, I think, but it was a very long time ago).
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[Edited to clarify that this was a reply to Hawksgirl ]
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[China_Guy]

In Tibet it’s usually Yak butter tea (very nice but an *acquired * taste) and ground roasted barley flour. Much to my pleasant surprise, you can now buy instant Yak Butter Tea in both the salted and sweet variety. I looked for a link but couldn’t find one. I’ve got a partial box on my desk at work following my last trip 6 weeks ago.

[madmonk28]

@Celyn

Oh yes, although I don’t know whether it still is. Kids probably eat some ghastly cereal with a silly name now. Nah, I’d think it must be, really, because apart from anything else, I suppose it’s a nifty way to be cutting the food into little manageable bits for the pickier sort of children. As Cunctator says, it would more likely be buttered toast fingers but I happen to think it’s good your way too.

Hmm, perhaps I should have that for brekkie tomorrow.

Re. boiled eggs. I once shared a flat with an American student who was entirely mystified by egg-cups. Is this normal?

Soft boiled eggs are less common in the US, people tend to have hard boiled eggs (and usually not for breakfast). As for being mystified by an egg cup, it would seem to be pretty easy to figure out, what with the name being ‘egg cup’ and all.

[WILLASS]

My father, who is British, used to have my mom make soft boiled eggs with “soldiers” – little strips of buttered bread – for dipping. Is this actually traditional? I haven’t heard it mentioned often but it was a childhood staple.

I think this is still very common, I eat this of occasion (I’m 27) and my friends who have children make it for them - the new way of eating them though is to ‘pimp’ your toast by putting Marmite on it first before cutting into soldiers. Eggs and Marmite are the BEST combination: poached eggs with Marmite on toast is the absolute bollocks.

[WILLASS]

My favourite international breakfast is baguettes with loads of lovely Normandy butter and jam dipped into hot chocolate or coffee - I eat this all the time when I’m at my Mum’s boyfriends house in Trouville - apparently it’s a very common breakfast for kids in France (minus the coffee, although knowing France the kids probably have an espresso and a Gauloise with it!) and is delicious.

[Walkabout]

When I visited Spain last year I never had the chocolate y churros - it looked too sweet for me. Instead, my usual breakfast was toasted bread with olive oil and a slice of ham on top, plus fresh-squeezed orange juice. A wonderful way to start a day of sightseeing!

[si_blakely]

To all the full English lists, add fried Haggis - yum

A Kiwi delicacy - dry Wheetbix with butter and Marmite. This is a shortcut for Wheetbix with creamy milk and Marmite on Vogels toast, but it is pretty good.

Si

[jjimm]

@WILLASS

I think this is still very common, I eat this of occasion (I’m 27) and my friends who have children make it for them - the new way of eating them though is to ‘pimp’ your toast by putting Marmite on it first before cutting into soldiers. Eggs and Marmite are the BEST combination: poached eggs with Marmite on toast is the absolute bollocks.

I must try that. For my wife’s birthday this year I got her a soft-boiled-egg-in-the-microwave machine, and a “perfect soldiers” stame that you roll over the bread to perforate the soldiers and their bayonettes before toasting.

[Wile_E]

@fluiddruid

My father, who is British, used to have my mom make soft boiled eggs with “soldiers” – little strips of buttered bread – for dipping. Is this actually traditional? I haven’t heard it mentioned often but it was a childhood staple.

I’m American and I remember seeing egg cups around for a long time but I’ve never known anyone who ate soft-boiled eggs. Sometimes in movies or TV shows you’d see someone being served one but I don’t think they ever actually ate them. To me the idea always seemed weird but that was probably because the name soft-boiled made it sound like the whites would be runny and that’s not very appealing.

After reading many Terry Pratchett books with the characters talking about cutting their toast into soldiers for dipping it occurred to me that soft-boiled was essentially a fried egg over easy but without all the grease or a poached egg without all the bother. I found an egg-cooker among my mother’s things and decided to give it a try. I bought myself an egg cup first, had to do it right. I liked it, it was easy to make because the egg cooker times it for me, easy to eat, not greasy, the whites are set but the yolks are just right for dipping.

So if you’re an American and you like eggs over easy, over medium or poached you’ll probably like soft-boiled eggs. Don’t forget the soldiers.

Oh and this was posted in a previous thread, Dippy Egg Set for cooking soft-boiled eggs in the microwave and it comes with a toast soldier cutter. You can also cook the eggs medium or hard-boiled.

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

@Sierra Indigo

His other favourite is a “Fry-up sandwich”. Now he’s from Leeds, so I don’t know how widespread this actually is in the UK, but here it goes.

You take your average english fry-up - bacon, pork sausages, baked beans, tomato (he likes tinned), fried eggs. Then you get a big bread roll. As large and as soft as you can find it. He tells of rolls that are the size of dinner plates.

Then you cut open the roll, and instead of eating your fry-up as is and mopping up various juices with the bread, you put your fry-up in the roll.

Then you wrap in foil (to stop explosions) and eat.

Yes, this is common. “Breakfast bap” or “breakfast barm cake” depending upon where you are from. They’re especially common with builders etc.

[Acsenray]

@Celyn

Re. boiled eggs. I once shared a flat with an American student who was entirely mystified by egg-cups. Is this normal?

I’m one of the rare Americans who eats soft-boiled eggs, but even I can’t understand the egg cup. It’s too much bother. I just break my egg into a small bowl. Why mess with the shell?

[stucco]

I stayed with a host family in Japan for a few weeks. They had great breakfasts like pizza toast, which was a thick slice of super-soft crustless bread toasted with tomato sauce, cheese, and onions on top. I also often got coffee-flavored jello with a little packet of sweet cream to pour on top. Maybe not traditional, but it sure was awesome.

In Germany, the grocery stores sold chocolate muslei which was also delicious.

[Judith_Prietht]

Now I want pain au chocolat and a nice coffee.

While it’s not necessarily international, McDonalds in Hawaii serves Spam, rice and eggs for breakfast. When I go back, I’m also fond of a kim chee omelet with rice.

[Wee_Bairn]

You can’t beat a dinner plate sizes pancake stuffed with apples with powdered sugar and syrup in Holland- yummy!

[jali]

My grandmother from the Phillipines would fry rice (leftover from dinner), tuna, onions and scrambled egg for breakfast. It was pretty good.
I was used to Poptarts and cold cereal before school and scrambled eggs, bacon and homefries on Saturday mornings.

My favorite breakfast ever: leftover spaghetti (mixed with the sauce) and buttered toast.

[Missy2U]

American. Love soft boiled eggs. Love egg cups. I used to have soft boiled eggs in egg cups downstairs with my Mormor (mother’s mother in swedish - she lived with us in an “apartment” my dad built in the lower level of the house when I was growing up). It was quite a “party” she’d do just for the two of us and a special treat. SHe also made coffee - she’d put water and grounds in a saucepan and boil them, then pour it through a strainer into the cup. And people wonder why I love my coffee strong…

When I had them with my regular family upstairs (mom and dad and brother) we’d just eat them in bowls with butter and salt mixed in.

Yum.

[Celyn]

@acsenray

I’m one of the rare Americans who eats soft-boiled eggs, but even I can’t understand the egg cup. It’s too much bother. I just break my egg into a small bowl. Why mess with the shell?

Well, I suppose 'cos you get to thump the shell, so if one is not a morning person, it’s nice to start the day with a bit of mindless violence. Oh, and you get to break up the shell afterwards so that witches cannot use them to go sailing and cause storms and kill sailors, or something like that.

Then there’s the whole Jonathan Swift big end/little end war thing …

[jjimm]

@Wile E

Oh and this was posted in a previous thread, Dippy Egg Set for cooking soft-boiled eggs in the microwave and it comes with a toast soldier cutter. You can also cook the eggs medium or hard-boiled.

Yay, that’s what I got her!

[Voyager]

@jjimm

In Hong Kong on my morning ferry I used to get a noodle soup with a fried egg dumped on top of it and some canned cocktail franks in it. All the Chinese guys used to eat it, and actually, once I got over the idea of it, it was pretty nice.

A couple of years ago I stayed in a hostel in Xi’an, China, where the staff did a lovely western-style porridge for breakfast… with a salad on top. Lettuce and tomato and some dressing. Of course, they had no idea of our arbitrary rules for what is or isn’t breakfast food, but it did make me laugh a lot.

I forgot that they served a salad with the American breakfast. But not on top, at least.
I’d hardly know where to find cocktail franks around here anymore.