What's for Breakfast?

[imec]

I'm not sure we have a thread for this (I didn't have time to look through all eleven pages of threads and the search "function" barely functions).

Breakfast is considered by many to be an essential to good eating habits. I'm far more interested however in the wide variations in the way different cultures and indeed people within the same culture approach this meal. Use this thread to describe your breakfast whether your standard routine or something out of the ordinary.


I'll start with my Sunday breakfast of this morning....

We like to do bacon or sausage and eggs etc. on Sundays but today it turned out we had only 3 eggs and no bacon or sausage. So... I chopped up some leftover roast beef and mixed it with with leftover mashed potatoes, an egg, breadcrumbs, some leftover gravy, a little horseradish, steak spice and sea salt, then made patties which I then rolled in more breadcrumbs and sauteed in leftover bacon grease. I served them with the remaining 2 eggs (one each as the kids don't like eggs ) some fried tomatoes, toast and some sliced mango* and starfruit.


* The mango was possibly the best I have ever eaten - Phillipine mangos from a SE Asian market, hand selected by a Filipino lady who, after picking out the best ones in the pile for herself, decided she would buy a whole case instead. It had the texture of firm butter and was bursting with flavour perfectly balanced between sweet and tart - the mango of my dreams.

[bjd]

I guess my eating habits are not so good then. My breakfast is the same all year round: a cup of coffee and a slice or two of bread with marmelade. And a kiwi during kiwi season, which is soon going to end.

[spindrift]

My everyday breakfast is the same as bjd's....but I switch between marmalade, thick-set honey or cherry jam and coffee.
Occasionally I cook grilled bacon and tomatoes on toast.

[imec]

My "everyday" breakfast is rye toast with butter.

[fumobici]

I'm not usually a fan of cooked breakfasts, I generally prefer just some cold cereal, granola, muesli etc. with fresh fruit and milk or yogurt, then a cappuccino. Cooking with its sizzling, rattling of pans and spatulas etc. for me disturbs the serenity of the morning, though I don't mind the espresso machine steamer's descending hiss note. Once in a great while a big fried breakfast with eggs, fried potatoes and bacon and all that stuff is good. I've acquired a reputation for being good at cooking those up for a crew so even though they aren't really my thing I do end up making (and of course eating) them a few times a year.

[cristina]

My everyday breakfast is generally fruit and yogurt, or an english muffin with marmalade. Coffee first.

This morning however, I ate a tamale for breakfast.

[Don Cuevas]

This morning, breakfast was exceptional.
I sauteed some sliced onion in butter, scrambled eggs over them, and just before the eggs fully set, folded in strips of Smoked Northwest Salmon. Garnished with fresh dill, served with a toasted bagel, and a 1/4 avocado. Coffee, black, the Planchuela y caracolillo type from Veracruz state (I think), Mexico.

Yesterday's breakfast was a sardine, onion, jalapeño and mayo torta (sub sandwich, Mexican style) (made on a telera, a flattish, oblong, Mexican roll. This telera was baked in a wood fired oven and had some significant taste and texture.)

[imec]

Today's does sound exceptional DC!

[Deleted]

I had Cheerios -- actually not, because those are made by Nestlé here. I had the Kellogg's version which is called (wait while I go check) Miel Pops.

[auntieannie]

My weekday breakfast consists of a mix of various flakes from the healthfood shop (I make it and the mix is different each time I fill the tub it is contained in), usually some oat flakes with eithr rye/rice/wheat/malted wheat/etc etc flakes, bettered with somehome-dried strawberries and bathing in whole milk. I try and remember to make it the night before and leave in the fridge, but if I forget, I just make it in the morning and leave it to soak whilst I prepare lunch.

Sundays, I usually have two thick slices of wholegrain seeded bread, butter, and either a little jam/marmalade or honey. but it is mostly toasted bread and butter.

With either of these breakfasts, I will drink tea black or green.

[onlymark]

The thought I have though is how long after you get up do you have your breakfast?
And if you don't have anything for a couple of hours, even though you're up early, is it still breakfast?

The reason I ask is that as soon as I get up I'm no where near being hungry, usually at 6am. I have a cup of the worlds best coffee, Nescafe Gold instant, then do things and it's not until about 8am that I have anything to eat.

[Deleted]

I try to keep a healthy meal schedule, but if it were just up to me, most days I probably wouldn't eat a thing before about 2pm, even though I get up at 6:30am.

[lagatta]

Sometimes I make porridge - from steelcut oats, rye and other flakes as auntie annie uses for her müsli type breakfast (I can't soak in milk as I am somewhat lactose-intolerant; I can handle a bit of cow's-milk cheese but not drink cow's milk at all). Or perhaps just some good bread and some kind of protein. I'm not hungry in the morning either but really need some protein then - whether lean meat, fish, an egg, cheese etc or I get light-headed and headachy by mid-morning.

Odd that les jeunes imec don't like eggs - there are so many different ways to serve an egg. I have to remember to get more of my duck eggs - I really love them.

[fumobici]

May 3, 2010 11:03:31 GMT onlyMark said:

<snip> the worlds best coffee, Nescafe Gold instant</snip>

!!!!

[onlymark]

You don't agree?
Do you prefer the normal Nescafe then? I find the Gold a nice mild morning coffee.
Far better than that bitter Colombian or Ethiopian stuff.
I like in Egypt the fact that no matter which big name coffee shop you go in, Starbucks et al, you can always get Nescafe.
Just perfect.

[lagatta]

Nescafé actually makes a surprisingly decent instant espresso - it is a good thing to have in a pinch if you have no means of brewing a pot of real espresso. Though I have various sizes of "mochas" - the manual espresso pots one heats on a stove - and the smallest goes travelling with me.

Don't see the point of mild coffee, but it is true that some of the robusta-based coffees are too bitter, and I take coffee black.

[Deleted]

Start off with strong dark roast coffee.(Nescafe, :-XI am surprised at how many Europeans drink it.)
The last two mornings have had blackberry pie for breakfast.
Usually have a banana,small bowl of yogurt with honey.
I love to make French toast on the weekends for T. and I especially with leftover Challah bread from the baker I work for.

[lagatta]

French toast and bread puddings with Challah are wonderful. You could make either a savoury or sweet bread pudding with Challah.

I'm so looking forward to berry season. Berries are a wonderful breakfast...

Here is one ad for the nescafé espresso: www.nescafe.co.uk/CoffeeCupboard/super-premium/nescaf-espresso I am absolutely not an instant coffee drinker, but this is surprisingly decent. I'm thinking for example of bixa who had only a hotpot or immersible coil (forget which). Or anyone who has access to hot water but not a mocha espresso pot and stove or hotplate.

[Deleted]

One thing that always amazes me is the coffee aisle in Belgian supermarkets. It's about three times bigger than in a French supermarket and has its offerings divided into such categories as "morning coffee" "afternoon coffee" "evening coffee".

[bjd]

And French supermarkets have more and more packages of those little round coffee things for which you need a special machine. Talk of forced consumption. I buy packets of ground coffee and there is less and less available.

[Deleted]

I've never seen the capsules in my supermarkets. For the Nespresso models, people have to go to special Nespresso stores to get them (or order them over the internet). I know that Casino is coming out with a compatible version, but I simply do not pay attention. I don't drink coffee at home and only have it on hand for guests (at which time I will drink it with them).

[bjd]

I don't mean the Nespresso capsules, although those might exist. I mean that there are things like round, prepacked coffee containers, "dosettes" or whatever they are called.

[Don Cuevas]

May 4, 2010 10:01:52 GMT bjd said:

And French supermarkets have more and more packages of those little round coffee things for which you need a special machine. Talk of forced consumption. I buy packets of ground coffee and there is less and less available.

When we were living in Little Rock, I'd shop at a store in an affluent area that sold whole bean coffee in bulk. They also did pretty good espresso drinks. There was free wi-fi. It was pretty nice, for a while.

However, I grew very disenchanted with them when one Christmas season, they started offering their coffee only prebagged. I expressed (deliberate pun) a preference for the bulk coffee, and a supercilious-aired young clerk gave me a lecture on the superiority of the packaged coffee. The effing bins of bulk coffee were right behind him! He spent more time lecturing me than it would have taken to scoop, bag and weigh the coffee I wanted. That was the beginning of the end of my shopping there. (Yes, the snotty lecture was more annoying than the denial of purchasing options.)

I fiigured that they'd resume the bulk sales after the holdays. But no. It was all prepackaged. On top of that, the prices were marked for pounds but the packages held only 12 ounces. I should have called the Consumer Affairs Department, but I was so disgusted with the place, I just wanted to be done with it.

Hee in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, we are fortunate to have very good coffee, in a variety of types, whole or ground, bagged to order, at the low price of around $80 MXN a kilo, at La Surtidora on the Plaza Grande. (Yes, I know that some of you may pay less in your neck of the woods.) Right now, I'm drinking sme very good Planchuela y Caracolillo from Veracruz. And I'm buzzed. ;D

[Deleted]

May 4, 2010 11:20:32 GMT bjd said:

I don't mean the Nespresso capsules, although those might exist. I mean that there are things like round, prepacked coffee containers, "dosettes" or whatever they are called.

Oh, those filter paper things! Those are dumb, too. Not as much of a ecological disaster as the capsules though.

[lagatta]

The capsules are not only an ecological disaster, they are UTTERLY unneccessary. How much of a brain does it take to spoon some coffee into your coffee maker?

As for breakfast, I was hoping to hear from hwinpp or some other person in Asia about breakfasts where there are.

Breakfast is very "personal". I've worked for groups at a residential institute welcoming people, most but not all young, from all continents. If the Asians don't have rice they are very unhappy.

[Deleted]

I prefer to not eat too early in the morning. Just coffee first thing and maybe mid morning I might have something.

[Deleted]

When I stayed at one of the YMCA hotels in Hong Kong (these are 3-star places so please remove your visual image), the breakfast buffet was fascinating. I would go for the shrimp porridge with chives, won ton, and other strange items, while the Asians would go for the croissants, pancakes and other bizarre things for them. But then they would cover them with black bean sauce or chutney and I would think OMG.

[hwinpp]

I think I can safely say that I have three kinds of breakfasts here.

Most often I have rice with BBQ'd pork. A plate with rice topped with the meat, a fried duck's egg and some slices of cucumber and green tomatoes. It's served with a hot bowl of pork broth that will contain some pieces of overcooked carrot and white radish, a more or less meaty bone and a little block or two of congealed pork blood. There will also be a small bowl with a mixture of pickled cucumber, ginger and radish. The shop is just 50m down the road and only opens for breakfast. The second kind of food available there is flavoured rice porridge, either pork or fish. You can get tea and coffee and its variations and also Chinese doughnuts.

Slightly less often I have Vietnamese pho, a rice noodle soup with a distinct taste in the broth and lots of fresh veggies and herbs which you put in yourself. K2 has posted pics. The reason it's less frequent is that I don't live anywhere near 'Vietnam town'.

Occasionally I have a full English or American breakfast, usually only on the weekend. My girlfriend always has it, the full monty, sausages, ham, beans, eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes, gamon steaks, black pudding, whatever. Sometimes I'll cross the streat and order a pho which I can eat in the restaurant serving the Western breakfast.

Seldom, maybe once a month, I have brunch with friends at one of the big hotels, usually buffets.

Pics coming ;D

[Don Cuevas]

This morning, "footlong" Kirkland brand hot dogs from Costco. Good texture, nice garlicky taste. Topped with heated saurkraut and medium-spicy German mustard, on a Wonder bread, "footlong" bun.

[hwinpp]

Here it is, freshly eaten this morning ;D