WARNING: contains bacon. also possibly hipsters.

October 12, 2011 6:01 PM

Ever wonder what breakfast in Pakistan looks like? How about Uganda? According to some hostellers, breakfast in Pakistan typically involves Aloo Paratha, perhaps with a side of salty buttered tea to dip it in. In Uganda, it's katogo, this particular example being green (non-sweet) cooking bananas, mixed with cow organs.

You'll also see four variations of the Full English Breakfast, as well as things like "minty spicy fish" (Thailand) and haggis (no more need be said about haggis).

found on the Hostelbookers site, [previously]; via the hipmunk blog; [previously], and linked due to the excellent pictures of delicious food.

Disclaimer: thar be a few pictures of innards on the main link. tasty, tasty innards. also, haggis.

posted by lonefrontranger (91 comments total)

I actually spend a lot of time on wikipedia reading about breakfast in other countries, so this post is pretty much my best friend.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 6:07 PM on October 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

I love this post.

Was surprised to see pancakes given as a breakfast food for Sweden, though. My husband's family is Swedish, and when we've visited there, and in his childhood memories, pannkakor are more a lunch or supper thing (with pea soup). Breakfast tends to be bread, cheese, fish, and/or yogurt. He said he thinks of pancakes for breakfast as really American.

But maybe his family is weird.
posted by lollusc at 6:12 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

How I miss the traditional fry-up. My aorta does not have the same recollection.
posted by datawrangler at 6:15 PM on October 12, 2011

Well, even though I have Ukrainian roots this Canadian would not really consider perogies as part of my traditional breakfast.
posted by smcniven at 6:16 PM on October 12, 2011

Yeah, who the heck eats perogies for breakfast? They're great, but breakfast? no way.
posted by GuyZero at 6:17 PM on October 12, 2011

They eat cow organs for breakfast in Uganda? It is so gross that people eat internal organs for their meals. Now leave me alone while I finish this baloney sandwich (corn dogs for lunch!)
posted by eye of newt at 6:18 PM on October 12, 2011

Anything I enjoy eating I'd enjoy it just as much having it for breakfast.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 6:19 PM on October 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Also, my all time fave breakfast was at the Stakis St Ermine's in London, a once Scottish chain.

The eggs seemed fried, but were, in fact, deep fried. And the toast was also deep-fried.

It was amazing.
posted by GuyZero at 6:19 PM on October 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Turns out there isn't a breakfast on earth I wouldn't eat. I'm not sure so much meat is strictly required, all the time, every morning, but still, yum yum. Also Vegemite is superior to Marmite, Marmite is like lolly-dip.
posted by tumid dahlia at 6:20 PM on October 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Missing- Mexican breakfast: Posole.

Cures what ails ya.

Also, who the fuck in Canada eats perogies for breakfast? I think they may be mispronouncing "peameal sandwich."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:21 PM on October 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

All of these would be good doused with The Rooster.
posted by ronofthedead at 6:21 PM on October 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

thanks lollusc!, I kind of wondered at some of these myself, having traveled a bit. I have to suspect that some maybe extremely region-specific. Ferinstance the "Danish" breakfast pictured far more closely resembled the German breakfasts (rolls, fruit, cheese, Nutella) that I ate daily in Hamburg (northern Germany) when I lived there than the wursts they pictured as "typical", but then maybe wurst is more popular in Bavaria. I'd suspect so actually, having just returned from rural Switzerland where sausage and cheese with "gipfeli" (a croissant) was much more common breakfast food.
posted by lonefrontranger at 6:22 PM on October 12, 2011

oh holy mother of god yes, posole! as a whitebread midwesterner that was one of the joys of moving to Colorado and marrying a New Mexican fella; learning posole and chile verde and, and and...
posted by lonefrontranger at 6:25 PM on October 12, 2011

According to some hostellers, breakfast in Pakistan typically involves Aloo Paratha, perhaps with a side of salty buttered tea to dip it in.

I have NEVER heard of a salty buttered tea. And saying that about breakfast in pakistan is like saying Americans typically eat donuts dipped in coffee for breakfast.

Traditional pakistani breakfast...

You got your nihari.

And you got your paya.
posted by hal_c_on at 6:26 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a lot of yummy yummy yummy looking stuff there.

I want to go on an international breakfast exchange excursion. I will trade my breakfast. I will make you eggs with basil, tomato and feta, homemade hash browns, crepes with a maple cream sauce, and fruit. Bison or elk sausage, or maybe even some bacon, if you're into that morning meat sort of thing.

And you, world, will show me the ways of your breakfast. I love breakfast, and with sufficient jet-lag, I might even be up in the morning to make it.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:27 PM on October 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

I have to suspect that some maybe extremely region-specific.

The American ones definitely were. Even the one that wasn't state specific was blueberry pancakes which, while you can order them lots of places, scream New England to me. As a Southerner, I was disappointed to see the lack of representation of grits (as an American food) or biscuits and gravy. Biscuits and gravy, that's the way to clog your arteries before church.

That said, I love regional breakfast variations because they always seem so unexpected. I wake up expecting eggs and toast and I get beans or olives and random cold cuts. For some reason it always catches me off guard in a way that dinner doesn't.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:30 PM on October 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

All of these would be good doused with The Rooster.

The Rooster lives on our table.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:32 PM on October 12, 2011

...also possibly hipsters

Wait, where do they eat hipsters for breakfast?
posted by louche mustachio at 6:34 PM on October 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Was surprised to see pancakes given as a breakfast food for Sweden, though.

Growing up in Sweden, I don't think I ever had pannkakor (pancakes) for breakfast. You are right that it's definitely more of a lunch/dinner thing. Breakfast is generally filmjölk or milk and cereal, or perhaps a porridge of some kind, plus an open-faced sandwich, maybe some orange juice, and coffee.

Even if that list isn't 100% accurate, though, I still want to try almost all of them. Yum!
posted by gemmy at 6:40 PM on October 12, 2011

hal_c_on, it could be regional Northern Pakistani. I learned about salt buttered tea from a former next-door neighbour's mother, who is first-generation Baltistani (from near the Karakoram), and she did make Aloo Paratha frequently for breakfast, with salty tea, and we dipped. It's quite tasty.
posted by lonefrontranger at 6:40 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Great post. A few things aren't quite right though. The Scottish breakfast claims haggis as its "USP" but there's none in the photo. The Aussie breakfast claims to be all about the Vegemite yet the photo clearly shows a scene where sunlight has been allowed to shine through the Vegemite jar onto the toast when instead the Vegemite should be a quarter of an inch thick.

Most telling of all, I don't see huevos rancheros anywhere.
posted by GeckoDundee at 6:42 PM on October 12, 2011

According to some hostellers, breakfast in Pakistan typically involves Aloo Paratha, perhaps with a side of salty buttered tea to dip it in.

Dipped in WHAT? Salty butter tea? It could be a regional thing, because aloo parathas are commonly served with some form of raita and/or achaar.
posted by vidur at 6:43 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the salty buttered tea thing threw me too.
posted by goethean at 6:50 PM on October 12, 2011

31 Million Americans Skip Breakfast Each Day. So if you're in that 10%, the best breakfast is... nothing.

Yum. Nothing. Tasty scrumptious nothing.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:52 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

26. A Canadian breakfast – that eggy looking section is actually perogies.

No, that's scrambled egg, which perogies resemble not at all.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:54 PM on October 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

The best breakfast has some meat or high protein substitute, something to make you poop, and not many carbs. Work that out in whatever ethnic food you choose.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 6:55 PM on October 12, 2011

No Hawaiian I know eats fruit and bagel. Musubi - spam, egg, rice wrapped in seaweed.
posted by jimmythefish at 6:55 PM on October 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I want all of this and I want it right now. And I ate at the best Thai restaurant in Manhattan (and highly arguably in all five boroughs) two hours ago. Damn you and your amazing make-me-want-to-trek-back-into-the-city-and-get-drunk-enough-to-wake-up-to-one-of-these-meals post!
posted by digitalprimate at 6:57 PM on October 12, 2011

Hmmm. The Chinese breakfast entry ( it's just like lunch or dinner) seems inaccurate. And what, no Burmese mohinga?
posted by Bwithh at 6:57 PM on October 12, 2011

I agree with jimmythefish. A real Hawaiian breakfast consists of fried Spam and eggs over rice with a splash of soy sauce for the eggs. Fruit and bagel? Don't kid yourself; that's for the tourists, man.

I'm also detecting a marked lack of natto in the Japanese breakfast. Tofu? I guess maybe, but in my experience, it's almost always been miso soup, natto, grilled fish, and, of course, rice.
posted by Diagonalize at 7:03 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

That Polish breakfast looks awesome, but I've stayed in Poland twice now and never saw anything like it. Toast and/or ham sandwiches, more like.

Also, listen very carefully: PIEROGI IS ALREADY PLURAL. If you only had one, although I can't imagine why, it is a pierog. The -i ending makes it plural. STOP SAYING 'DUMPLINGSES'.
posted by echo target at 7:03 PM on October 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

31 Million Americans Skip Breakfast Each Day. So if you're in that 10%, the best breakfast is... nothing.

Yum. Nothing. Tasty scrumptious nothing.

And they are so proud of it! My brother was just telling me this weekend how awesome he is for not eating breakfast. For me, I hate waking up, and I'm all sleepy and warm and grumbly about getting out of bed, and then it hits me -- I WILL HAVE COFFEE AND FOOD. BREAKFAST FOOD. And everything is ok.
posted by sweetkid at 7:06 PM on October 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I think by definition "hostellers" == "tourists" and this is what they're seeing at the hostels (hence my "possibly contains hipsters" snark. I did wonder about the lack of Spam in the Hawaii entry myself, having also been there :)
posted by lonefrontranger at 7:07 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

> it's almost always been miso soup,

Man, now you having missing miso soup with mussels, which is what I had just about every morning when I was in Japan.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 7:07 PM on October 12, 2011

sigh. WHERE'S MY TEMPORARY EDIT WINDOW. I accidentally a close paren. the world shall end in fire and segfaults indeed...
posted by lonefrontranger at 7:08 PM on October 12, 2011

STOP SAYING 'DUMPLINGSES'.

What if I use my Gollum voice?
posted by sysinfo at 7:11 PM on October 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

Want tattie scones.
posted by schwa at 7:12 PM on October 12, 2011

yay! They have Peru! Although a traditional breakfast is more tamales with bread and butter, or avocado sandwich with tea (in the coast); not really ceviche. but yay anyway!
posted by Tarumba at 7:20 PM on October 12, 2011

Also with some of those breakfast I would have to run a marathon every day to keep the pounds from climbing....


WHY IS FOOD SO DELICIOUSLY EVIL?
posted by Tarumba at 7:21 PM on October 12, 2011

Nasi Lemak is another quintessential Malaysian breakfast - Rice cooked in coconut milk, with sides of hard-boiled egg, peanuts, slices of cucumber, fried dried anchovies and a dollop of chili paste.
posted by BinGregory at 7:25 PM on October 12, 2011

STOP SAYING 'DUMPLINGSES'.

What if I use my Gollum voice?


Also, where is the blog for second breakfast? Elevenses? Luncheon?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:26 PM on October 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

The best breakfast has some meat or high protein substitute, something to make you poop, and not many carbs.

Coffee is already two out of three.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:29 PM on October 12, 2011

Automatically disqualified for not including New Zealand - eggs bene and a flat white is the best breakfast invented by man.
posted by supercrayon at 7:50 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't know what those are supercrayon what are they share now please k thanks yum.
posted by sweetkid at 7:58 PM on October 12, 2011

(rad post!)
posted by supercrayon at 7:58 PM on October 12, 2011

....this Canadian would not really consider perogies as part of my traditional breakfast.
Except when you have a crushing, 10 megaton hangover, when perogies are just the best breakfast you could imagine.

But re the Swedish example, I know from my summers working outside of Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario that similar pancakes (melt in your mouth, thin pancakes served with raspberries and whipped cream) are a Finnish breakfast thing. I'd go all the way back there just to eat a few more of those pancakes.
posted by Flashman at 7:59 PM on October 12, 2011

Oh yes, supercrayon. That's what I order at cafes when I'm home too.

(Eggs benedict and a coffee with milk, for the uninitiated.)
posted by lollusc at 8:17 PM on October 12, 2011

Oh, and bubur ayam (chicken porridge) is pretty tops.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 8:23 PM on October 12, 2011

(Eggs benedict and a coffee with milk, for the uninitiated.)

Oh man I had an eggs benny last week with barbecue pulled pork instead of ham. It was awesome.
posted by jimmythefish at 8:25 PM on October 12, 2011

who the fuck in Canada eats perogies for breakfast?

There are a ton of folks in Canada of Polish and Ukrainian ancestry, and perogies might be just the thing on a Winnipeg winter morning.
posted by zadcat at 8:25 PM on October 12, 2011

Also, listen very carefully: PIEROGI IS ALREADY PLURAL. If you only had one, although I can't imagine why, it is a pierog. The -i ending makes it plural. STOP SAYING 'DUMPLINGSES'.

We speak English here, dear.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:27 PM on October 12, 2011

Sometimes when I'm out of bread, I just like to fix myself a big old bowl of butter.
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:27 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can confirm that perogies, sausage and eggs exists as a breakfast in Alberta.

....this Canadian would not really consider perogies as part of my traditional breakfast.

This Canadian has had the exact breakfast pictured in the article more than a few times at Nellie's in Calgary. (Before the health-code violations thing).

Except when you have a crushing, 10 megaton hangover, when perogies are just the best breakfast you could imagine.

That would be the correct time to eat the abovementioned breakfast.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:33 PM on October 12, 2011

A few thoughts. No one in Japan eats just tofu for breakfast. Definitely a common side dish for any meal, with soy sauce and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), but a traditional Japanese breakfast is usually miso soup and plain white rice, often with natto, Japan's I-double-dog-dare-you food. Or an onigiri (rice ball). Or even broiled fish like sanma. But the Western eggs and toast and sausage is just as common.

The English breakfast is pretty much what is eaten in America, with some exceptions. Like the beans. For lunch or dinner in the U.S., a side of baked or barbecue beans is commonplace, just not for breakfast for some reason. And whatever the hell "pudding" is; in Murka that means a sweet, creamy dessert.
posted by zardoz at 8:38 PM on October 12, 2011

Breakfast in India – here we have rosemary roasted potatoes, Indian tofu scramble, lentils, veggie sausage and banana pepper toast. Breakfast cuisine in India varies hugely depending on the region but if you think of your Indian breakfast somewhere along these lines, you would be correct.

India's a very big and diverse country, but pretty much every item on that plate is something I never saw anywhere in India, and there are several ingredients - rosemary, tofu, veggie sausage, whatever the hell banana pepper toast is - that are all but unknown on the subcontinent.

Parantha, which are being treated on this list as uniquely Pakistani, are common across the Ganges plain (and wildly addictive). Dosas are sometimes a breakfast food in the south. Many roadside stalls and trains serve "cutlet" - a potato croquette, more or less - and the Indian take on the omelette is quite common. You'll find banana pancakes and other backpacker staples in tourist enclaves.

But rosemary roasted potatoes? Come on. Indians don't cook much with rosemary, and they don't roast their potatoes. And much as I love a good roast potato, I've never met one as good as the masala-spiced, pan-fried ones you often find tucked inside a perfectly cooked dosa.

(Also, their "Vietnamese" breakfast is a bowl of congee - a Chinese import, as far as I know, and nowhere near as common as noodle soup at breakfast, at least in Hanoi.)
posted by gompa at 8:38 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I remember the little yellow croissant things being called Medialunas in Argentina. Also people had them with espresso, and then drank Mate throughout the day.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:42 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's all good.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:45 PM on October 12, 2011

Oh man, I love this post!

As a vegetarian, learning about other countries breakfasts was a total game changer for me! Eggs and toast? Only so many times you can do it. I love fruit and cheese and yogurt too. But when I started eating miso soup, spicy beans, and tomato porridges was when things started getting fun. Fuhl? Shakshuka? Fried tomatoes and mushrooms? Hell to the yes! I can't wait to try even more of these!
posted by troublewithwolves at 8:49 PM on October 12, 2011

troublewithwolves: Have you fixed yourself a good tofu scramble yet? They're amazing, hop to it.
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:56 PM on October 12, 2011

flapjax at midnite: It's all good.
Eponylicious.
posted by coriolisdave at 9:24 PM on October 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Big mistake to read this post at 5 in the morning when I can't sleep and I've had dinner early the evening before.

I think breakfast tastes are more culturally specific than, say main courses of dinners (though maybe less so than deserts). A lot of examples given I could imagine eating later in the day and loving them, but not for breakfast.

I'll add my voice to those saying the list is arbitrary - nobody in Ireland/England/Scotland has the aforementioned assorted fried pig parts fry every day (well, maybe Scotland).

My breakfast growing up in Waterford/Ireland was porridge with warm milk (winter)/cereal with cold milk (summer) plus maybe a blaa (bread roll) and some fruit juice. We had a fry (rashers, sausages, black and white pudding) on Sundays. I was a freak, though, as I was the only person I knew at the time that didn't drink tea, not even at breakfast. It's funny that Irish people are associated with alcoholic drink, when tea (strong, black, lots of milk, sugar optional) has the higher mindshare, for want of a better word.
posted by kersplunk at 9:33 PM on October 12, 2011

Glad to see that eggs were a worldwide favorite.
posted by grog at 9:38 PM on October 12, 2011

Come to Louisiana and I'll feed you Grits and Grillades.
posted by ColdChef at 10:04 PM on October 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I always enjoyed goatfish soup for breakfast in Palau, and Spam-fried rice with finadine sauce for breakfast in Guam. The Denny's in Guam picked up on this and serves something called a "Spam Grand Slam". "Called that presumably because your arteries slam shut as you eat it.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 10:27 PM on October 12, 2011

Hell, you can get an actual Spam McMuffin in Hawaii. Spam gets a bad rap, methinks. Honestly, there are worse foods out there, and really good Spam musubi is absolutely worth the years it takes off your life.
posted by Diagonalize at 11:37 PM on October 12, 2011

oh this is awesome. The favourite breakfast made by my german parents is a slice of rye bread spread with mayonaise, a slice of black forest ham, topped with a sunny side up egg. Delicious - My mom calls it Strammer Max. Since I wasn't sure how to spell it, I looked it up, and I can't wait to tell her what it means!!!

The term Strammer Max (literally "stiff Max" or "tight Max") originated in the 1920s in Saxon slang, where it initially referred to an erection, the male name "Max" being often used as a slang word for penis (similar to the English "Dick" or "Willy"). The term was adopted into Berlin street slang and applied to a dish that was supposed to be especially strengthening to the sexual prowess of the person eating it.

Though, come to think of it, she might know this already, and just not have mentioned it to me as a kid. She's wily that way.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:46 PM on October 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

hal_c_on and lonefrontranger:

The salty butter tea described is likely what is otherwise known as "Kashmiri chai" or "pyaazi chai", meaning "pink tea". Kashmiri chai can be imbibed, sweet or salty, depending upon the preference of the drinker, and is popular in the winter.
posted by Azaadistani at 11:48 PM on October 12, 2011

I'll admit it: The sausage mcmuffin is almost a perfect breakfast food, especially when you find a clone being made by a real restaurant or roadside breakfast place where they take some care producing it. Yum.
posted by maxwelton at 11:54 PM on October 12, 2011

The absolute best breakfast thing, though, is something we made up ourselves - I'll share it with you because I like you guys. It's kinda like custom-making devilled eggs.

Eggs Benoit

hard boil a bunch of eggs
peel your egg, then slice it in half. Much family debate has centered around whether it should be cut crosswise or lengthwise. I prefer crosswise - it gives a deeper cup.

carefully pop out the yolk - save that for later

into the hollow in the white, drizzle a dash of oil, a dash of vinegar, curry powder, paprika salt, pepper, and hot german mustard, preferably Löwensenf. optional fillings are mayonnaise and tabasco.

the trick is to add the spices to your own taste - just a little for a mild egg, lots for awesome spice insanity eggs.

return the yolk to it's place, and pop the entire half-egg into your mouth at once.

revel in the flavours mixing on your tongue.
repeat.

best paired with a mimosa
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:06 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

who the fuck in Canada eats perogies for breakfast?

When I worked in a bilingual logging camp in the woods of North Ontario, which was so excruciatingly Canadian a scenario that any TV producer setting a program in Canada would reject it in treatment as being "too stereotypical", the camp cooks had perogies hot and ready for us at 5:00 each morning, data point.
posted by metaman livingblog at 12:16 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Scottish specific thing they did not mention is Butteries (or maybe this is specific to the north east of Scotland). They are like croissants but with more lard rather than butter and very salty.
Eaten with butter slathered on.
posted by dprs75 at 2:07 AM on October 13, 2011

So hungry now. SO hungry.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:24 AM on October 13, 2011

Just got back from Ghent, Belgium, where breakfast was usually a million kinds of salamis, cold cuts, and cured meats. And some cheese. And it was good.
posted by moonmilk at 3:34 AM on October 13, 2011

Native North Dakotan with Ukrainian roots here. It's common in the Ukrainian population of ND to serve leftover perogies for breakfast, fried up in a little butter until crispy and served with a little sour cream on top. You want to use the potato and cheese version, nothing starts your day like a giant lump of starch and fat and cheese!
posted by TungstenChef at 4:47 AM on October 13, 2011

Brazilian breakfast is spot-on, but this is fancy hotel stuff. Also, he forgot the fruit, just picture the Hawaiian breakfast standing next to it. Papayas and/or fruit salad are a must.

Now a regular street breakfast in São Paulo would involve going to a bakery and ordering um pão na chapa e um pingado — a roll of bread cut in half and fried with a bit of butter, and milk with coffee served in a small glass.
posted by Tom-B at 4:51 AM on October 13, 2011

The Chinese entry of noodles for breakfast is really uncommon. It depends on the region you are from. In Shanghai in Taiwan, it's popular to have sweet or salty soymilk, fried donut stick, maybe some breads, rice roll... other parts (like mainland and Hong Kong) may have congee (porridge).
posted by xtine at 5:55 AM on October 13, 2011

heh GeckoDundee, I agree. There's a local joint here in Lafayette (and trust me it is a joint, complete with sticky vinyl tablecloths) that serves huevos rancheros smothered in green chile (you can specify pork or veggie green chile and that's their only concession to being fairly close to Boulder) that I swear is food of the gods. Also the best hangover cure this side of the Mississippi.

huevos (similar to grits in the southeast) seem to be one of those foods that is semi-ubiquitous in the desert Southwest, however (also like grits) there is quite a bit of variation in themes and presentations.

One of the things I absolutely loved about recently being in the middle of BFE Switzerland (Mühledorf, to be exact) was that the Swiss take being locavores very, very seriously. They probably don't even have a term for it, because it's expected. I am told imports are heavily taxed there. We were staying with friends whose house is surrounded by farms. You could walk 50 metres in any direction and take your choice of fresh produce, cheese, apples, etc. from one of 3 or 4 different roadside stands. It was all on an honesty system, so you'd walk up, read the pricetags on the shelves or on the fridge in the little hut, drop your 3 or 5 CHF in a little lockbox and walk out with a full bag of the most amazing stuff. One of these places, you could just pick your own lettuce, kale, artichokes, berries, and likely a bunch of other things that probably weren't in season in mid-September. For CHF 1.50, I picked a head of lettuce that would have won first prize at any county fair in Ohio growing up, and it made salads for four people for 2 days.

There should be (and probably is) a blog devoted purely to pictures and stories from international travellers going on about the amazing and different chow they've encountered on their expeditions.
posted by lonefrontranger at 6:00 AM on October 13, 2011

They're doing a dis-service to the bog-standard Thai breakfast too - rice soup. Spicy rice soup is one of the great hangover breakfasts; lots of liquid, lots of carbs and preferably spicy enough to re-animate the living dead. Amazing stuff
posted by fatfrank at 6:04 AM on October 13, 2011

This Canadian has had the exact breakfast pictured in the article more than a few times at Nellie's in Calgary. (Before the health-code violations thing).

I'll defer to my Western brethren on this point of canuck-breakfast. Lord knows that I love my perogies but I've never considered them as a breakfast item. That might change now though!
posted by smcniven at 6:22 AM on October 13, 2011

OMG I WANT TO PUT THEM ALL IN MY MOUTH.
posted by Theta States at 6:40 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wonderful post. I don't eat breakfast (save for the occasional Sunday lumberjack breakfast with the family), but it's 9:45 in the morning and I'm full-on ravenous now.
posted by kryptondog at 7:47 AM on October 13, 2011

I'll defer to my Western brethren on this point of canuck-breakfast. Lord knows that I love my perogies but I've never considered them as a breakfast item. That might change now though!

One more data point on this: perogies are a mainstay of the all-day breakfast menu at the Blackfoot Truck Stop in Southeast Calgary, which is the most thoroughly Western Canadian landscape you'll find this side of a field of canola.
posted by gompa at 8:39 AM on October 13, 2011

From Azaadistani's link:

there are two types of kashmiri tea; one we call kehwa, which is 'green tea' and is drank either flavoured with cinnamon or sugar, or both. The other we call 'nun chai' (which means 'salty tea'), its also called 'sheer chai' (sheer means 'milk' in koshur) which is the 'pink tea' and is prepared with salt.

That explains it! I've had Kahwah before; while I love it's soothing flavours after a heavy Kashmiri dinner, it not having milk is a bummer for me. My Deccani palate can't appreciate any drink that doesn't boil milk at least twice before serving. After all, as a nameless shair once boasted:

Rehni ki yahaan har kisi ki aukaad nahin hooti,
Bina irani chai ke din ki shuruvaat nahi hooti

(Not everybody is fortunate to live [in Hyderabad],
A day doesn't start here without Irani Chai)

Being in the center of the country and all that, I, of course, swing multiple ways. If Irani chai with samosa or roti is not available, I wouldn't mind South Indian filter coffee with Upma, Pesarattu or its uniquely Hyderabadi take on these southie "tiffins", a combination of both called MLA pesarattu.

The best possible breakfast experience I've ever had, though, wasn't in the sub-continent; it was in Indo-Chine, baguettes with Asian-y condiments and thick fresh Vietnamese coffee sold from roadside stalls in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Skoun, Vientiane and Luang Prabhang. Don't want to pick favourites between the cities here, but man: wake up early, say hi to the monks, walk along the Mekong to the stalls at Th. Sisavong (?), have coffee and baguettes, take on the world, fame, fortune etc., discover something really cool. Bliss.
posted by the cydonian at 9:06 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Isn't that bibimbap in the Korean one? I'm pretty mad at my parents right now for not being Korean.

Oh, and lonefrontranger, I imported my guy from Ohio to Colorado, and he too is pretty thoroughly enamored of the green chile culture.

My current favorite breakfast is a couple of eggs poached in green chili, served over a slab of sauteed polenta.
posted by ernielundquist at 10:27 AM on October 13, 2011

I'm half-Vietnamese and have had that rice porridge/congee maybe twice in my entire life (always on occasions when I or a family member was sick or had trouble chewing). When that side of the family gets together we usually have some form of rice dumpling/pancake: bánh cuốn, bánh bột lọc lá, bánh tẻ, occasionally bánh xèo or bánh bèo ... mmmm, delicious starchy goodness.
posted by bettafish at 1:59 PM on October 13, 2011

Oh, I forgot to note that most of the above can be a pain in the ass to prepare and congee is easy and simple to mass-produce, making it the superior option for hostels, etc.
posted by bettafish at 2:00 PM on October 13, 2011

India's a very big and diverse country, but pretty much every item on that plate is something I never saw anywhere in India, and there are several ingredients - rosemary, tofu, veggie sausage, whatever the hell banana pepper toast is - that are all but unknown on the subcontinent.

This is what I came here to say. I imagine someone ate this at a backpacker hostel in Goa or Pushkar. Which is ok, but it's not really Indian food. It would be like going to Thailand and saying that everyone there eats banana pancakes for breakfast.

Re: congee - interestingly, this seemed to be a pretty popular breakfast choice where I lived in Thailand.

The best breakfast I've ever had in my travels doesn't seem to be represented here but is similar to the Costa Rica breakfast (#48). Black beans and rice, maybe with an egg and/or fried plantains in Nicaragua. Oh dear lord, so good.
posted by lunasol at 12:20 PM on October 14, 2011

hah! update! I read out the wikipedia etymology of the term Strammer Max to my parents, and they had not heard it before. They thought it was hilarious!! also, I think their breakfasts are going to be a bit more fiun for a while.

it was so awesome to see my mom so amused by the meaning of a name that she had been using all her life. When I supposed that she must have known it and not told me, I was wrong, but it's very likely that her mom knew, and didn't tell her!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 9:55 PM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

19. The famous American breakfast - home made thick pancakes with syrup and blueberries, topped off with a few rashers of bacon. Anyone not wishing for a coronary usually opts for a bowl of muesli, so I’m told. Pancakes all the way for me! Thanks JenCooks.

What? No, no, no. You have been told wrong. The only people who eat muesli are trying to act all European.

Pancakes, sure okay. I can definitely see some people eating that for breakfast in the US, but that's hardly the famous American breakfast.

The famous American breakfast is two eggs, cooked your style (very American!), grits, hash browns or home fies, bacon OR sausage (patties in some regions, links elsewhere), toast (or bagel!), OJ, and coffee.

I'd also make a strong argument for the "Jewish breakfast" - bagel, cream cheese, lox, and other fixings.

But really, the American breakfast isn't a dish. It's a mealtime: brunch. What could be more American than eating two meals at once?
posted by Deathalicious at 7:05 AM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

echo target: "PIEROGI IS ALREADY PLURAL"

Don't worry, the Polish get their revenge every time they call American pants "Jeansi".
posted by idiopath at 1:15 AM on October 17, 2011

BREAKFAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSTTTTTTT

I've just been told to put more protein and veges into my breakfast. This gives some good ideas.

Interesting that they went for an apparently Indigenous "thank you" rather than Malay for the Malaysian breakfast.
posted by divabat at 7:57 PM on October 18, 2011