Breakfast taboos

[prasantrin]

The teacher was fine with my plates for lunch and dinner, but she told me my breakfast plate was WRONG.  I even heard her commenting to someone that she couldn't believe I had put shrimp on my breakfast plate, who had ever heard of that?!  Not only did I feel really stupid and embarrassed, but I also was confused.  I really had no idea what I did wrong.

I look back on that episode and I actually feel rather incensed.  I would hope these days the teacher would be required to go through cultural awareness training or something.

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I remember similar things happening to me that made me ashamed not to be "white". It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I got over that idea...

These days, at least in Canada, most teaching programmes require some sort of class in cross-cultural awareness. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much good, and incidents similar to yours still occur

Luc Cagadoc is a Canadian resident, born circa 1999. When he was 7 years old, he became the centre of a controversy in his home town of Roxboro, Quebec, Canada. In April 2006, he was disciplined at his primary school, allegedly for "disgusting" and "piggish" eating habits appropriate to his Filipino ethnicity: using a fork to push his food onto a spoon before eating it. Commentators saw it as a regrettable example of prejudice and culture clash between minority and nativist elements, what is referred to in the local press as testing the limits of reasonable accommodation.

Back to breakfast, I ate this....

Somewhat unusual...a hamburger for breakfast. Some people would look at my hamburger and react in a similar manner to how your teacher reacted to your shrimp. But now that I'm older, I don't care. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

If my bread hadn't been a bit stale, I would have added an egg (making it more breakfast-y), so that yummy yolk could drip down the sides. But the slightly tough bread made it difficult to eat, anyway, and I didn't want to add to the difficulty.

Edited May 3, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[SuzySushi]

The teacher was fine with my plates for lunch and dinner, but she told me my breakfast plate was WRONG.  I even heard her commenting to someone that she couldn't believe I had put shrimp on my breakfast plate, who had ever heard of that?!  Not only did I feel really stupid and embarrassed, but I also was confused.  I really had no idea what I did wrong.

I look back on that episode and I actually feel rather incensed.  I would hope these days the teacher would be required to go through cultural awareness training or something.

←

I remember similar things happening to me that made me ashamed not to be "white". It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I got over that idea...

These days, at least in Canada, most teaching programmes require some sort of class in cross-cultural awareness. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much good, and incidents similar to yours still occur

Luc Cagadoc is a Canadian resident, born circa 1999. When he was 7 years old, he became the centre of a controversy in his home town of Roxboro, Quebec, Canada. In April 2006, he was disciplined at his primary school, allegedly for "disgusting" and "piggish" eating habits appropriate to his Filipino ethnicity: using a fork to push his food onto a spoon before eating it. Commentators saw it as a regrettable example of prejudice and culture clash between minority and nativist elements, what is referred to in the local press as testing the limits of reasonable accommodation.

Back to breakfast, I ate this....

Somewhat unusual...a hamburger for breakfast. Some people would look at my hamburger and react in a similar manner to how your teacher reacted to your shrimp. But now that I'm older, I don't care. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

If my bread hadn't been a bit stale, I would have added an egg (making it more breakfast-y), so that yummy yolk could drip down the sides. But the slightly tough bread made it difficult to eat, anyway, and I didn't want to add to the difficulty.

←

Then I must be a weird white American, because Asian breakfasts are just fine to me! I love dim sum, soba or udon topped with shrimp, fried rice, or even sushi for breakfast, and if in Japan there were a choice between an "American" breakfast and a Japanese breakfast, I'd most likely go Japanese.

(It's amusing how the Japanese have interpreted Western full-course breakfasts, substituting salad for the pickles that are customary in a Japanese meal, and often cream-of-corn soup for the miso soup!)

And I think a hamburger for breakfast is a great idea!

[sazji]

Breakfast (kahvaltı) in Turkey is interesting. I think it's my favorite meal of the day here. The most basic Turkish breakfast is bread, tea, cheese (white cheese/feta, kashar, fried hellim/haloumi, etc), olives, cucumbers, tomatoes and some jam/preserves. In some areas there will always be some yogurt, or kaymak (clotted cream). Some like an actual salad at breakfast, others like a plate of parsley with lemon squeezed over it. It could also include boiled eggs, an omelet or "menemen" (beaten eggs poured into a sauce made from tomatoes), fried peppers, and various spreads made with red peppers, walnuts, cheese, herbs... And then there are different sorts of buns/rolls like poğaça, çörek and açma that might show up, as well as börek and, if your hosts are from some Sivas or Erzincan, a bread/bun called kete, which has layers of dough filled with a thin layer of butter-enriched lightly toasted flour. Sounds weird, but it's good! Plus any number of other local specialties. The more variety the better.

Actually you could almost say the word "kahvaltı" refers to a type of meal more than a particular time of day. If you go to someone's house and they want to make a meal on the fly, it will very often be "kahvaltı," because it's composed of staples that are always around. Or it could be a "stretcher" on top of some other dish that they had but wasn't enough for everyone.

I don't know if there is a taboo per se but at a morning breakfast, actual sweets (as in dessert type things) would probably be seen as odd. My friends all loved American pancakes with maple syrup, but really felt the need for something savory alongside them to cut the sweet. And bona fide "dinner dishes" (meat, vegetarian) would probably not appear. What almost never shows up is fresh fruit. Several times I've had friends over for breakfast and I almost always cut up an orange or some other fruit; it almost always remains untouched.

[hummingbirdkiss]

all this talk about breakfast is making me want something good today ..like a meal!

I have no breakfast taboo ..and will eat just about anything from cake to udon ....from cold pizza to fried chicken ..leftovers from dinner are usually what I like ..my favorite breakfast is leftover enchiladas with a fried egg on top..

there are a few things I can not look at, do not want, will not eat in the morning.. tossed green or other type of cold salad including things like tuna or egg salad (I dont know why other times of day they are fine) although I will eat potato salad in the morning and milk No milk in the morning for me ..cream in my coffee is fine ..hot chocolate is fine...but put a glass of milk down before noon and I feel my throat close

Edited May 3, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Pouncy]

Growing up, I usually had cereal, of a relatively unsweetened variety, oatmeal, or cream of wheat. Treats were pancakes, French toast, and bacon. My mom stopped cooking when I was in high school, so I started fending for myself and got more eclectic.

Now my only limitations are these:

1. I usually can't bring myself to eat right after waking up. It takes me an hour or so to think of food as appealing.

2. I can't cope with the unidentifiable or unknown for breakfast. It can be weird, exotic, and what have you, but if I don't already know or can't tell what the basic components are, it's not going in my mouth first thing. Experimentation can wait until lunch and dinner.

3. I tend to shy away from too sweet first thing in the morning, and I've never been a ig doughnut fan. Apple croissants, though? Gimme!

I generally have Diet Coke as my caffeine, and a non-sweet cereal on a work day for convenience, but leftover whatever is fine with me (leftover curry is one of my favorite things about visiting my family), unlike my husband, who has (to me) very rigid ideas of what is and isn't breakfast.