Breakfast around the world

[Kerry Beal]

In Vietnam it was pho for breakfast. And congee - but I prefer the pho.

[rooftop1000]

Breakfast in Iceland was fun, thankfully I had just seen an episode of Taste on TVFN...way back in 1999.

David Rosengarten had described the openfaced sandwiches eaten in Scandinavian countries and the ingrediants for those sandwiches were what we found on the breakfast buffet.

We started by choosing some breads and hit the toaster line we then buttered the breads (there where cheese spreads also) and layed on our choice of assorted cold cuts, cheeses, thin sliced veggies, and boiled eggs. Eat with knife and fork and be very happy I "Had A Clue"

There was also cereals, yogurt(skyr)and fruit

tracey

[Boy R D]

I'm not a big fan of sweet breakfasts so I've been playing around with savory oatmeal.

My favorite so far has been butter, marmite, chopped green onions and topped with a little shredded sharp cheese. mmm mmm.

I usually eat this with one or two fried eggs.

[varway]

I gotta chime in with the typical San Antonio breakfast....tacos!!! Love em. My favorite: refried beans, bacon and cheese, with plenty of hot, hot, hot green sauce. Other favorites: carne guisada, potato/egg and cheese, chorizo and beans, huevos mexicano, patas mexicano, I could go on and on. The salsas are important. I love a really hot green sauce, the roasted sauces are good, there's an orange sauce available at some places that is nice and hot and I can't get anyone to give me a recipe for that orange stuff. Good on flour tortillas and if you can get a really good restaurant made corn tortilla, they are heaven. Other options are chilaquiles. Around here that's a dish made with scrambled eggs with corn tortilla chips mixed in along with lots of hot peppers, tomatoes, onions and topped with cheese.

[rlibkind]

Breakfast in Iceland was fun...We started by choosing some breads and hit the toaster line we then buttered the breads (there where cheese spreads also) and layed on our choice of assorted cold cuts, cheeses, thin sliced veggies, and boiled eggs.

What, no cured or otherwise preserved fish? That's what I look forward to when I'm in a Scandinavian country. In the words that fictional Swede of The Producers fame, Ulla: "From eight to nine Ulla eat big Swedish breakfast. Many different herrings."

Toast! We don't need no stinkin' toast! The traditional breakfast would be accompanied by flatbread, not bread to toast. The French bread and bread slices at hotel breakfast buffets in Scandinavia are primarily there for outlanders...or those who take advantage of the buffet to pack a lunch (it's acceptable if you check and, usually, pay a bit extra).

The hotel breakfasts in Israel aren't that much different from those in Norway. The preserved fishes might be a bit different, and you won't get cold cuts; you will get a whole lot more in the way of very fresh and good fruits and vegetables, particularly tomatoes, and there will be Middle Eastern and Eastern European style dairy (cheeses and yogurts) rather than Northern European

[nonblonde007]

Pho, Definately PHO!

[marcelcat]

Hi all,

These breakfasts sound great! Can anyone list some menus that you might find in different countries for breakfast?

marcelcat

[CKatCook]

I love a good sweet breakfast, I am a big breakfast no lunch person. I love a traditional southern breakfast. Give me the biscuits, pancakes, ham or steak and eggs. Surprisingly enough I am not big on grits. I need to try them again. When I don't have time for that I do the pastry and coffee thing.

I would love to try congee though. Anyone have a good recipe for it?

[nakji]

I would love to try congee though. Anyone have a good recipe for it?

Our congee topic to the rescue!

No morning in Suzhou would be complete without the long queues outside our local dumpling and baozi purveyors. They're nothing more than a room full of giant steam baskets with a grandpa at the window taking your order and making change - although correct change is always appreciated. The steam is so much that next to the window at my favourite place, there's a bamboo grove twice the size of all the other stands on the street - the heat keeps it warm all winter.

I usually get a giant meat baozi which has a mix of pork and beef and succulent gravy. Most people in line with me are people on their way to work buying whole bags of standard baozi for their co-workers. It's the Chinese equivalent of a donut run, I guess.

[Blether]

... No morning in Suzhou would be complete without the long queues outside our local dumpling and baozi purveyors...

How does it come about that these are known as (o-)manju in Japan, given the obvious word resemblance for shumai, gyouza (?) & others ?

[CKatCook]

I would love to try congee though. Anyone have a good recipe for it?

Our congee topic to the rescue!

No morning in Suzhou would be complete without the long queues outside our local dumpling and baozi purveyors. They're nothing more than a room full of giant steam baskets with a grandpa at the window taking your order and making change - although correct change is always appreciated. The steam is so much that next to the window at my favourite place, there's a bamboo grove twice the size of all the other stands on the street - the heat keeps it warm all winter.

I usually get a giant meat baozi which has a mix of pork and beef and succulent gravy. Most people in line with me are people on their way to work buying whole bags of standard baozi for their co-workers. It's the Chinese equivalent of a donut run, I guess.

Oh Yea!!! and 7 pages to boot!! I better get reading! I know what I am having for breakfast!!!

[helenjp]

manju=baozi

Quite a few Japanese/Chinese words have this "m or b, take your pick" thing. I did know why once...something about the region and/or period at which the word entered Japan and was preserved, while in China the word evolved or another region became more powerful and their pronunciation took precedence.

ju = ji = zi...that's not such a stretch.

However, I often wonder what manju were like when they first came to Japan, given the Kansai style of manju with yam rather than yeast to make the dough soft and springy...can't help wondering if the "old-dough" fermented dough is the original, which Japan replaced with the yam dough, or whether the yam dough is the original style and the fermented dough a later development that was also imported to Japan later.

But manju becoming a major breakfast food in Japan? I can't see it...any more than my son's Weetbix stash is having much impact on his dorm-mates' breakfast habits "oop north" in Sendai!

[Hiroyuki]

I had a lot of difficulty understanding what Blether and helenjp meant, and I had to browse through the whole thread!

When I hear the Japanese word manju, I can also associate it with sweet Japanese confections, many of which contain sweet fillings.

What Blether and helenjp meant was Chinese manju, which is called "chuka man" in Japanese, right?

I can't speak for younger Japanese people, but as for me, chuka man can only be snacks.

[Blether]

... What Blether and helenjp meant was Chinese manju, which is called "chuka man" in Japanese, right?

In practice they're probably most often called niku man or piza man or similar, but that 'man' is originally, and formally, manju, isn't it ? Are you saying that's not so ?

[Hiroyuki]

... What Blether and helenjp meant was Chinese manju, which is called "chuka man" in Japanese, right?

In practice they're probably most often called niku man or piza man or similar, but that 'man' is originally, and formally, manju, isn't it ? Are you saying that's not so ?

Sorry, in my post above, I was meant to write:

"When I hear the Japanese word manju, I can only (not also) associate it with sweet Japanese confections."

(I don't know why I make such silly mistakes when I'm drunk!)

Chuka man is short for chuka manju, as you suggest, but in both spoken and written Japanese, we usually use such terms as chuka man, niku man (in Kanto), buta man (in Kansai), an man, and pizza man.

You can find some info in Wikipedia.

[anzu]

... No morning in Suzhou would be complete without the long queues outside our local dumpling and baozi purveyors...

How does it come about that these are known as (o-)manju in Japan, given the obvious word resemblance for shumai, gyouza (?) & others ?

(o-)manju comes from the Chinese word mantou. （饅頭）

In China, the meaning changed at some point so that mantou now means only unfilled steamed buns.

Baozi （包子）(bao means "to fill") now refer to the filled buns.

It's actually quite an interesting issue, as there are lots of related words on other languages which would seem to indicate when the food and/or the word was borrowed from China. Manti In Turkish and Mandu in Korean, for example, but words using bao or pao in Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand.

[sherrid]

In Australia, we eat similar to USA or UK for breakfast - however, we have this wonderful salty yeast extract spread that is very common to have on buttered toast. It's very salty, so it's usually spread thinly.

[Jenni]

^^^

Cue violent fights over marmite versus vegemite....

*ahem*go marmite!*ahem*

[annachan]

When I die and go to heaven, as I surely will, there will be dim sum carts wheeling up to my bed every morning.

←

Be careful what you wish for. I stayed with friends for a while in Hong Kong who ate dim sum for breakfast every day, and though it was great for the first few days, it actually got to be a bit too much (something I had never imagined possible with dim sum up until that moment). I started longing for something plainer, like a nice bowl of rice porridge...

Dim sum everyday for breakfast? That's way too much. I have a feeling it's because you're a visitor and your host just wanted to spoil you. My family owned a few dim sum places when we're kids in Hong Kong. Even we didn't have dim sum for breakfast everyday....just every Sunday.

As a kid, I remember we actually had bread quite a lot for breakfast. Toast or some sort of filled buns (i.e. hot dog buns) or sandwich (egg was a popular filling). It was convenient as we rush off to school, along with a box of Vitasoy.

When we go back to Hong Kong now, we actually have the time to enjoy breakfast. I'm partial to congee and macaroni in soup. Fried dough, rice roll and soy sauce fried noodles are great as well. Pineapple bun with butter and various toasts are also popular items, though I like them more for snacks.