International Breakfasts

Vegemite on toast (Photo:  Wikimedia Commons)

From hostelbookers.com comes an amusing article describing "50 of the World's Best Breakfasts." Judging by the photographs and descriptions, what the author seemed to have been going for is the breakfasts that made for the most entertaining copy, but the breakfasts chosen seem at least to be representative of the types of things people who live in the various countries represented in the list might eat for breakfast, at least sometimes (for example, the American example was pancakes and bacon).  The article is beautifully illustrated with colorful, food-porn quality photographs and fun to read.   It can be found here.

Of the breakfasts featured, I favor ful medames (which I wrote about at length here); meat pies similar to empanadas (a favorite in Bolivia and Venezuela, according to the article); and assortments of breads with cheeses and/or cold meats (popular in places such as Turkey, and Denmark).  Another breakfast I enjoy is hot oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts, the Icelandic entry, but think it's best saved for a cold winter day on which one can't face a large meal.  Don't get me wrong; I like eggs and meat too, a combination which is the backbone of the standard breakfast in England, the United States, and other English-speaking countries, but such breakfasts also tend to have large amounts of potatoes and beans, and I'd rather avoid both potatoes and beans early in the morning.

The strangest entry in the list comes from Uganda: katago.  Katago  is a stew made from green cooking bananas that includes meat or vegetables.  The example illustrated in the hostelbookers.com article featured cow organs as the meat, and made me want to scroll back up the page for a tasty mix of breads or meats in a tearing hurry.  However, it would certainly be a filling meal, and I can see how it would be a good breakfast if one was accustomed to banana and meat stew.  And I think I would prefer katago to Vegemite (or Marmite!) on toast, the Australian entry.

In short, I found the article both educational and entertaining, and recommend it as a starting point for learning about different countries' preferred breakfast foods.