Traditional Singaporean breakfast includes kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs and coffee. Kaya is a jam made from coconut, egg, and sugar. Photo / 123rf
Traditional Singaporean breakfast includes kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs and coffee. Kaya is a jam made from coconut, egg, and sugar. Photo / 123rf
Travel writer Ewan McDonald shares his top ten breakfasts from across the world.
Q. What’s the biggest “foodie” mistake that people make when travelling?
A. Easy. Our mothers insisted that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, but so many travellers chow down on bland, cookie-cutter buffets in their hotel when most cultures have sensational local offerings in the street outside the front door. Get up, get out, kick off the day like a local, and you’ll get a head start on your sight-seeing.
It’s well known the French, Spanish and Italians aren’t morning people – most are happy with a coffee, possibly with a croissant at a Paris café, cornetto in Rome, or toast with tomato and olive oil in Barcelona. Croissants and cornetti (close relatives) are usually served plain, though you might find jam, honey or Nutella (in France) and chocolate or pistachio spread (in Italy). Spain’s rich churros con chocolate, sweet pastry filled with gloopy chocolate and washed down with milky coffee (breakfast, not dessert) is a variation on the theme.
There’s not one American breakfast – depends on which region of the empire you’re in – but in most places, head to an old-school Edward Hopper diner to kick-start the day with eggs, streaky bacon, hash browns, toast and, because enough is never enough, pancakes or waffles and maple syrup. Give the bottomless “coffee” a swerve – orange juice is the go.
In France, croissants might be accompanied with jams, honey, or even Nutella, whereas in Italy, you might find them with chocolate or pistachio spread. Photo / Unsplash
Its more illustrious ancestor is the rib-sticking, heart-attack-on-a-plate full English breakfast, beloved in genteel B&B dining rooms or working-class greasy spoon cafés. The classic menu is eggs, sausage, thick bacon, beans, mushrooms, toast, cooked tomato, and a slice of bloody (literally) black pudding, with a pot of tea. In Scotland you may be lucky enough to be served a spot of haggis; in Ireland, it’ll be white pudding (like black with liver, not blood) and soda bread or boxty (potato pancake). Be warned: a fry-up contains up to 1300 calories.
Heart-attack-on-a-plate: the full English breakfast, beloved in genteel B&B dining rooms or working-class greasy spoon café. Photo / Melissa Walker Horn; Unsplash
Across Scandinavia, it’s wondrous open sandwiches on any one of dozens of different breads. They’re slathered with a smorgasbord of spreads from soft cheeses to mayonnaises to jams, then loaded up with cured fish, charcuterie, cheeses, vegetables, hard-boiled eggs. Swedes like to add fresh berries, unfamiliar to most Kiwis, like cloudberries or lingonberries.
India has more than a fair claim to the planet’s best street food. In southern states, look for idlis (soft cakes of fermented rice and steamed lentils) and dosas (rice pancakes) filled with sambar (vegetable stew) and chutney. In the north, the go-to starter is aloo puri – warm but not hot spiced potato curry with crisp fried flatbread.
Singapore goes to work on kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and coffee, best chowed down at one of the fabled hawker centres. Try to find a stall where they make it in the traditional way – white sliced bread, toasted on a charcoal fire, piled with butter and kaya, a coconut, egg and sugar jam. Add a side of soft-boiled eggs spiked with soy sauce and white pepper; wash it all down with thick, bitter, sock-filtered coffee. You think I’m joking about the sock.
China’s dim sum has to feature highly. There are now more than 1000 dishes in the canon, dumplings, steamed buns, rice noodle rolls, soups, sticky chicken and more, er, unusual offerings. The art began in Guangzhou and aficianados reckon you’ll still find the best in the south, although Hong Kong and Macau – where it’s known as yum cha, morning tea – run pretty close. Dim sum is always enjoyed with tea, black, no sugar please.
There are many reasons to visit Japan and a traditional breakfast is certainly one of them. Known as wafuu, it’s also made up of many little dishes, such as miso soup, steamed white rice, pickled vegetables, fish or tofu, sticky fermented soybeans, nori seaweed, accompanied by green tea.
A traditional breakfast in Japan, known as wafuu, is composed of various dishes including miso soup, steamed white rice, pickled vegetables, and fish or tofu. Photo / 123rf
Yes, you can find pho at any time of the day or night in Vietnam, but it’s best – and traditional – to hit the rice noodle and meat soup first thing in the morning, preferably from a stall where they’ve boiled the bone broth overnight. Other early-day street treats are that Southeast Asian staple congee and op-la, fried eggs and pork with the country’s famous baguettes.
Number 1? Kahvalti, the traditional breakfast across Türkiye, an incredible spread of breads, creamy cheeses, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, spicy sausages, dishes of jams (apricot, rose petal) and honeys. There will likely be pastries like borek (filo pies) and menemen, spicy eggs and tomato. Tip: Kahvalti means ‘before coffee’ so the drink du jour is çay, strong black tea in tiny glasses.
Can’t leave without an honourable mention for that Aussie classic, avo on toast, which – sorry, millennials – has been a Brizzy fave since 1929. Don’t think they knew about sourdough or feta then, though.
