Do Brits make the best breakfasts in the world?

tom pr

Well-known member
The one time I had black pudding my flatmate of a couple of years ago had bought some. I got back from a night out completely trolleyed and decided to have some - problem was I didn't know you had to cook it. I haven't been able to look at it since.
 

STN

sou'wester
Fucking Lipton. This thread could turn into the great british tea whinge. I swear by Sainsbury's own Assam myself.

Matt b - yeah that's it, green-covered seating and frosty, prohibitive signage. I just googled it and it is indeed called St Giles Cafe. Didn't know the one in the Covered Market was called Giles Cafe. Cafe Excelsior, Cowley Road is great too.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
yes! the italian cafe. only ever had coffee in there.

btw, i was bought a second book solely on the cowley road for christmas (first was a poor phd type affair). it too is somewhat rubbish, as is the cowley rd nowadays.

i used to go to giles cafe a lot with my dad, that and the place upstairs in the centre of the market (mortons?) with friends. covered market rules!

i drink twinings earl grey at home, but will happily drink any old toss out of the domestic environment (apart from 'bargain' teas made from dust).

that makes me 'middle class with sympathy for the workers' using my newly developed class/tea triangulation theorum.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
most black pudding that you can buy in regular shops and supermarkets here is utterly repulsive. I know of one place on merseyside that makes its own, however (i'm led to believe that there are a few places in yorkshire and cumbria that also do), and that's a different story altogether. if it has a plastic skin on it, do not touch it with a bargepole. the real deal is kind of sweet, quite fragrant, not gooey and nasty, but crumbly and full of barley, with just enough lumps of pork fat fat to moisten it. it should also come in little sausages, not the walloping great pornographic jumbo intruder versions you often see. it's extraordinarily good with mashed potatoes with braised leeks stirred into them, red cabbage with apples and a cider gravy.
You get good stuff in a lot of small butchers in the east mids. Not normally made on site but generally coming from local suppliers.

Good in spanish bean dishes like Dan says (there's a thing with black pud, broad beans, white wine and pernod - drool) or on its own.

Speaking of sauce, the name to look out for is Tiptree, esp the brown sauce and the tomato sauce.
 

luka

Well-known member
if you don't like your fried slice yu are bascially scum. melbourne and auckland do breakfasts that, by all objective criteria, destroy yer average english fry-up. but, who cares about that, gimmie, tea, beans and fried bread....
 

martin

----
Can't understand the fried bread hate on here, we wouldn't have beaten Hitler without it. Black pudding is lush, try it with some bacon and brie in a roll, or with a fried egg on top. Tea should either be PG Tips, Tetleys or Yorkshire - only treacherous pan-europeans drink perfumed brews. All that Earl Grey stuff is really bad for your kidneys too, and causes cowardice and hesitation.

Incidentally, can you still buy PG Tips in leaf format anymore, or is it all teabags?
 

STN

sou'wester
I don't know, I think you can get PG leaves, yeah. I'm telling you Sainsbury's own Assam leaf tea is where it's at...

My tea chart runs thus:

1. the aforementioned Sainsbury's
2. Yorkshire
3. PG Tips
4. Tetley
5. Twinings English Breakfast

Morrison's own looseleaf isn't half bad either...
 

STN

sou'wester
No it is not.

By the way, your inbox is full so I couldn't thank you for the Oi tips. I have it on good authority that Colin McFaull likes nothing better than reclining with a cup of Lapsang Souchong and tucking in to the latest issue of Country Life.
 
D

droid

Guest
English Fry ups are definitely bottom of the bunch. Irish or Scottish trump them, with the Ulster Fry possibly beating them all. Its he quality of pork produce that makes the difference... had some amazing black pudding last week down in Kerry - sweet, soft and crumbly.

Only tea for a fry-up is a cup of Lyons. English tea is far too effete!

http://www.rashersandeggs.com/
 

martin

----
English Fry ups are definitely bottom of the bunch. Irish or Scottish trump them, with the Ulster Fry possibly beating them all. Its he quality of pork produce that makes the difference... had some amazing black pudding last week down in Kerry - sweet, soft and crumbly.

Yeah, Irish black pudding is incredible, if it's not been made by a man with ginger tufts of hair sprouting from his ears I'm not interested. But the Ulster fry??? I saw one once and my arteries turned to concrete. Not sure about those potato farls, but that's the Ulster people for you.
 

martin

----
No it is not.

By the way, your inbox is full so I couldn't thank you for the Oi tips. I have it on good authority that Colin McFaull likes nothing better than reclining with a cup of Lapsang Souchong and tucking in to the latest issue of Country Life.

Sorry, it was filled with highly analytical 'off-forum' debates about Islamic poetry and postmodern appropriations of Harry Potter
 

Pestario

tell your friends
well i look forward to visiting your parts as ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN GERMAN BREAKFAST!!!!

pieces of cold cheese and processed meat, and bread? what am I? at an art opening???

sorry but if there is no art to scoff at, no wine, and it's not free, I'm not eating it.

That sounds like a Norwegian breakfast - WHICH I LOVE. Great bread, great cheese, great cold meats like salmon, prawns, salami etc, jam and copious amounts of black coffee. Their national specialty brown cheese is great too. It's a soft, smooth cheese that has a strong caramel flavour. Best cheese in the world.

But due to my mother's Filipino heritage, for most of my childhood big weekend breakfasts consisted of huge amounts of fried rice - strange? yes, but so good.
 
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droid

Guest
Yeah, Irish black pudding is incredible, if it's not been made by a man with ginger tufts of hair sprouting from his ears I'm not interested. But the Ulster fry??? I saw one once and my arteries turned to concrete. Not sure about those potato farls, but that's the Ulster people for you.

It may well be different in the 6 counties, but the best fry I ever had was in a Donegal B+B. The Ban an Ti was a terrifying witch who refused to speak English, but her breakfast was amazing.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
English Fry ups are definitely bottom of the bunch. Irish or Scottish trump them, with the Ulster Fry possibly beating them all


My mate was telling me about Ulster Fry - they sound lethal, less a breakfast than an endurance contest.

Best brekkie round E London is Hackney City Farm, if you can stand all the kids running around.
 

STN

sou'wester
I don't think there's chips in the standard one. I think we had a deluxe one, ormaybe it was HP, I can't remember. 'Slithery' is the adjective that springs to mind...
 
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