Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican . . .
Don’t people in those countries ever eat breakfast out?
And even if they don’t in the home country, why not be open here?
I haven’t noticed many restaurants of any type that are open for breakfast. That’s what diners are for.
There are lots of Mexican places open for breakfast out here.
Dim Sum.
All around the DC area are Latin restaurants who advertise “Desalluno todo el día” (breakfast all day). It’s not just sit-down restaurants either, it’s all types of different places, like chicken joints, pupuserias, bakeries, even a pizzeria.
I think a lot do. I can name dozens of local ethnic eateries that are open for breakfast. They seem to be open as often as the non-ethnic ones are. But most places that are open for breakfast tend to be diner like.
Some simply serve an American breakfast (the same stuff you’ll find at Denny’s, bacon, eggs and pancakes etc). Others serve a ethnic version of the American breakfast (like breakfast burritos, which while inspired by Mexican food isn’t authentic). Both of these types of restaurants seem to be primarily catering to mainstream American consumers.
Then there are those ethnic places that serve primarily their immigrant communities. They not only frequently serve breakfast they tend to serve breakfast with no eggs or bacon in site. If you know where to look, you can easily find a piping hot bowl of Pho at 6am in most large American cities.
One reason might be that when you’re in a foreign country, what’s really freaking weird is the breakfast. Probably because you just haven’t been up long enough to face it.
When I was in Mexico the breakfast was definitely the most surprising, just because we never get Mexican breakfast here. (Seriously, where do you go that breakfast is served that isn’t a diner or IHOP or something? Brunch, maybe.) Chilaquiles, divorced eggs, bizarre fruits… Mexican breakfast is awesome.
I had a whole long reply typed before my browser crashed. The essence was that breakfast as a separate food category doesn’t exist in most other countries. It is essentially the same as the rest of the meals. Ethnic restaurants could serve their regular food during breakfast hours in the U.S. but they wouldn’t have enough customers to make it worthwhile.
One other factor is that many ethnic restaurants are mom-and-pop operations that are already working ridiculous hours. They have to close sometimes and breakfast is undoubtedly going to be the least profitable meal to be open. Americans tend to eat American for breakfast and that market is already crowded. Trying to compete with ethnic food would be futile and trying to compete with American food means bringing in a whole range of foods for one meal and needing to cook it with equal expertise. Have you tried eating the American foods that some ethnic restaurants carry on their menus? I know people who have, but I’ve never known any happy about the experience.
There are a ton of good Indian restaurants in Columbus, but I wish I could get a good breakfast. I love a lot of the Indian breakfast foods like Poha, Upma, and Iddlis.
Here, in Korea, my colleagues tell me that their breakfast consists of the same ingredients as their lunch and dinner - rice, meat, soup and kimchi. While I was in China I would often see locals eating a noodle dish for their breakfast. As Shagnasty quite correctly stated the ‘breakfast’ that you or I know is not a part of the diet in most other countries.
Wiki states about the traditional English breakfast (aka ‘Full English’ or ‘Fry Up’) “The style of breakfast has carried over to the United States and Canada as those countries have traditionally derived much of their culture from Britain” but, apart from America and Canada, I don’t see it as an option in many other countries; even Australia and New Zealand only started eating the ‘cardiac arrest on a plate’ in the 90s.
And congee. There are plenty of dim sum and congee restaurants in Toronto serving the Chinese community.
In the parts of China I’ve visited, it seemed fairly common to get breakfast at a diner-type restaurant, or to even get breakfast foods from street vendors.
Same here. Mexican breakfast may be just about the best damned breakfast I’ve ever had. Chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, huevos con chorizo, etc. Last time I had Mexican breakfast, it even came with a free serving/amuse bouche type of thing of chicharrones (pork skin/rinds) in a warm red salsa. Fantastic stuff.
Desayuno.
If you’re having Dim Sum, it’s juk.
Here in Korea, if I want to eat out for breakfast, I go to Paris Baguette. Those places are everywhere here.
Really?
Mostly yes. It varies by location of course but typical American/Canadian/British breakfasts foods are a pretty specialized thing. If you ask someone from one of those countries to imagine a large breakfast spread, they would have no trouble picturing bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, cereal, and maybe some fruit. However, there is no logical reason for that. It is just an inherited and partially manufactured tradition. Other cultures don’t have the same hard distinction between types of foods that are eaten almost exclusively at one time of the day.
Do you have any examples? I’m genuinely curious.
I’ve lived in America, Taiwan, and France, and all three places had more or less distinct breakfast ideas. Lunch and dinner were more similar, though dinner was usually more extravagant.
There is a good poll on it at Yahoo answers with people answering from many different countries. Lots of places make the distinction that breakfast is different from the other meals of the day but they differ widely on what it constituents and how different the basic ingredients are from the other meals. The original question is about ethnic breakfasts in restaurants. That is easy to do in the American style but harder to differentiate in others well enough to support a business especially with an American customer base.
If I were you, I’d mention that to the manager/owner next time you go for lunch or dinner. IME, lots of ethnic restaurant owners would be happy to have the feedback, and you might just find yourself invited to an Indian breakfast he’s already throwing for some of his friends from India.
I’ve never been much of a “breakfast foods” person - a habit developed from years of reheating leftover dinners to bolt down before school. I was delighted when visiting Bali to find that savory noodles with a bit of tofu, meat or scrambled egg (or sometimes all three) were the default breakfast-for-foreigners offering. The locals, I was told, don’t have particular breakfast food. The women will make a bunch of food - lots of ground meat satays and rice - and will set it on the kitchen table with a plate covering it. People will wander in as they get hungry and help themselves all day. They don’t do family breakfasts, and really only eat together socially on a temple festival day. (But they do have a lot of temple festival days!)
A whole lot of what I grew up thinking was universal about food just isn’t universal at all, I’m finding!