Favorite Breakfast Dishes

[ExtraMSG]

I'm always looking for cool dishes and I've had some tasty breakfast items in Latin America. I'm not sure I liked breakfast until I ate it in Latin America. Interested in anything from your favorite pan dulces to chilaquiles to cachapas. Whatever. If you want to include a recipe, that's cool. But if you just want to give a brief description I'll try to find a recipe that matches.

Thanks.

[stellabella]

the best breakfasts are those served at fine hotels [sorry-but true]: cafe con leche, pan tostada [a beautiful assortment of rolls and pastries if you're lucky], mantequilla, frutas con yoghurt y granola, huevos.

i know it sounds like a typical american style full breakfast, but the difference is in the quality and freshness of the actual components--a fruit platter, for example, consists of slabs of ripe papaya, mango, banana, watermelon, pineapple--which almost make a meal in itself. i like eggs served with tortillas, great combination, or, in ecuador, eggs scrambled with hominy.

while honeymooning in guatemala, my husband and i stayed with a relative whose housekeeper fed us the most gorgeous breakfasts every morning, starting with thick slices of crusty whole grain bread, crema and fruit jam--the crema bore no resemblance to the stuff sold in bottles in ethnic groceries--it was thick and held its shape on a spoon. to be honest, i don't know if there's an equivalent available here--it's not sour cream, it's not clotted cream--it's unique. and of course guatemalan coffee.....

had very good coffee in mexico, too, as well as hot chocolate [some mornings i'd have both ]. some people really develop a taste for mexican breads and pasties but i have never liked them--for me it's tortillas all the way.

[Basilgirl]

Interested in anything from your favorite pan dulces to chilaquiles to cachapas.

Mmmmmmm...cachapas. Had them on the side of a mountain road in Venezuela, cooked over an open flame by a woman with a monkey on her back. Literally. With queso blanco.

My Venezuelan ex used to like to dip queso blanco in hot chocolate for breakfast.

He also made a mean arepa.

[LJC]

I was just in Colombia and had an arepa stuffed with egg and cheese and then deep fried and served with picante. This was very different from the griddle style arepas I am used and I don't typically go deep fried for breakfast but it was good.

The other great item I had although not breakfast was traditional jalaco (I hope this is how it is spelled) a flavorful chicken soup like Venezuelan Chupe but thicker and served with condiments like sliced avocado, sour cream, picante and scallions.

[ExtraMSG]

What do people eat for breakfast in Brazil, Peru, and Argentina? They've all got significant culinary traditions.

[anil]

What do people eat for breakfast in Brazil, Peru, and Argentina?  They've all got significant culinary traditions.

Breakfast is not a big thing down there - I'll give you my experiences.

Brazil is a big country - I doubt Cariocas care too much about b/fast - However meat pies, fried shrimp with coffee. In Copacabana beach during summer (i.e January,Feb) Coconuts milk (drink) with a concoction of scrambled egg,shrimps and sausage. The stalls by the beaches will sell you anything at anytime - so If you feel like Frango-de-Passariano (sp?) - Go for it :)

Argentina - Buenos Aires: It is very similar to any modern european city - Coffee, toast with jam, small crossant and cookies/biscuits.

Chile: Santiago: Eggs with seafood (Omlets with shrimp ) ? bread (toast), small empanadas (general purpose all time snack)

Peru, Lima: My friends eat sandwich with coffee for mid-breakfasr; I found all hotels served elarorate continental buffet breakfast so therewas no opportunity to explore.

BTW: In every hotel I stayed in SA, they serve fresh fruits+ continental buffet breakfast which we tourist types supposedly fill up on and then go out the whole day sight-seeing

[Alex Botero-Lowry]

[...] crema and fruit jam--the crema bore no resemblance to the stuff sold in bottles in ethnic groceries--it was thick and held its shape on a spoon. to be honest, i don't know if there's an equivalent available here--it's not sour cream, it's not clotted cream--it's unique. [...]

I suspect you were served: Nestle table cream, http://www.mexgrocer.com/2571.html It's basically light cream thickened with carrageen to make it hold its shape, and probably some preservatives. In Chile they'll often serve it with canned peaches in syrup to make it look like a fried egg.

[ChickenStu]

Chorizo con huevos...ftw

If it wasnt so unhealthy I would eat it all the time.

[Lilija]

My Brazilian guy's favorite home-cooked breakfast, the one that really brings him back consists of leftover feijoada, or black beans (the porkier the better), and white rice, with a few fried eggs on top, scoop of potato salad off to the side. Mixed fruits, sliced up, not quite a salad, but bites of orange, banana, and mango, or something.

His other favorite is mashed avocado, with cinnamon and sugar, eaten out of the bowl.

Good hard crusty bread, loads of butter or olive oil, and dark sweet coffee.

He moved to the US in his late teens, so his memories are pretty vivid. He used to live in Rio de Janeiro.

[Alex Botero-Lowry]

Colombian fried eggs. I've had them prepared in two different ways in Colombia and both are unlike any fried egg I've had in the US (except my mom's) and totally delicious.

The first way is basically an egg in a special pit with two handles, the surface of the pot has little holes in it, but it's two layers of metal, and the holes are only in the first layer. It gets filled with butter and the egg goes in and is basically slow basted in the butter. Served in the pot sunny side up with an arepa (would be _so_ much better with toast instead).

The second is the way eggs are fried for serving with beans and rice, which is basically an egg cracked into a pot of hot lard. It's crunchy and delicious and will reduce your life significantly.

My mother, and thanks to years of watching, now myself prepare fried eggs that bring the two methods together. Basically butter is heated on high until it gets to the brown butter point, at which point an egg is cracked in, and flipped once it sets and then served on a plate. You get some of the crispy aspect of the second preparation, as well as it being over-easy, while getting the glorious wonders of the butter from the first prep.