Do Brits make the best breakfasts in the world?

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
A weekend doesn't seem right without a fry-up. Wouldn't want one everyday of course but there is something so celebratory, uplifting and gently patriotic about a full English. Or is that just me?
 
Last edited:

Pestario

tell your friends
Hangovers, weekends, 'mornings' - all social constructions invented to enhance the experience of a fry-up :p

I love a good fry up.
 

mos dan

fact music
A weekend doesn't seem right without a fry-up. Wouldn't want one everyday of course but there is something so celebratory, uplifting and gently patriotic about a full English. Or is that just me?

'gently patriotic' - love that. i've just been in america for six weeks, which has perhaps irreversibly altered my attitude to breakfast.

while gentle patriotism would normally incline me to agree with the question of the thread title, i've gotta say.. any country where you can get an 8oz steak with scrambled eggs and homemade hash browns, as well as coffee refills for $12 (£6) ... woah.

either way, british or american, please don't bother me with that continental breakfast nonsense. i'm going to go out on a limb here and say jam is redundant in 21st century western society - no-one needs to preserve fruit anymore - and at least 90% of the croissants i've eaten in my life have been dessicated disappointments.
 

STN

sou'wester
I have no truck with bacon and maple syrup though.

Sometimes in America I try to manufacture a full English using a combination of Denny's side orders. Maybe next time I should take my own teabags...

My personal favourite English breakfast spots (who cares? I don't know!):

Rainbow Cafe, Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park
Cafe Z Bar, Stoke Newington High Street
York Cafe, Twickenham
E Pellici's, Bethnal Green (only joking, never been there)
That one in the covered market in Oxford
St Giles Cafe, Oxford
The Bristolian, Montpelier, Bristol
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I have no truck with bacon and maple syrup though."
I dunno, when I was in America a couple of weeks ago I had bacon, sausages and maple syrup every day, probably just because it's weird and I won't have it again for about ten years. I figured I could burn off the calories when I got back but so far no luck.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I've recently started getting into black pudding. Not necessarily as a breakfast thing, it can make a nice meaty sandwich for lunch or a light dinner. Great stuff.
 

mos dan

fact music
I've recently started getting into black pudding. Not necessarily as a breakfast thing, it can make a nice meaty sandwich for lunch or a light dinner. Great stuff.

what else is going in the sandwich? i tried to get myself into it last year, as a breakfast component - also good for making spanish bean dishes: their blood sausage ('morcilla'?) is used in loads of spanish dishes. i normally couldn't happily eat more than a slice though, it was okay, just not.. great.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It goes well with either a sweet jam-like relish or preserve, such as cranberry sauce or mango chutney, or some nice sharp English mustard. GET IN!
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
It goes well with either a sweet jam-like relish or preserve, such as cranberry sauce or mango chutney, or some nice sharp English mustard. GET IN!

After such exhaustive te/asting, you're quite right to be happy with your conclusions.
 

ripley

Well-known member
I always found the beans-on-toast aspect particularly comforting aspect of British breakfasts after staying out all night. Sweet, sweet pap! But the fried bread is nasty, sorry.

but I'm fond of the Berlin "breakfast" - the all-you-can-eat, unhurried meal on weekends from 11-2 with a vast array of breads, cheeses, jams (HURRAY!), nutella, yogurt, muesli, bowls of milchkaffee, cakes (and meats if you are into that)
 

zhao

there are no accidents
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.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
That's without going into the whole German Tea Problem. Worst cup of tea I've ever had was in Berlin on NYD, 2007, after a night's speed-and-booze-fuelled clubbing. It was AWFUL - a glass cup full of warm water, a teabag of some crazy shit like Darjeeling or Lapsang Soushong or something (which has its time and place, of course, but this was not it) still in its little paper wrapper, and a little pot of that vile coffee creamer stuff that's made from vegetable fat. I could have cried.

There's a German woman in the research group here who makes tea by placing teabag then milk (about a 1/3 of the total volume) then water in the cup. I mean, WTF? How hard is it to make a cup of tea? *despairs*
 
Last edited:

matt b

Indexing all opinion
That one in the covered market in Oxford
St Giles Cafe, Oxford

the one in covered market is 'giles cafe'. the cafe on st giles (near the oxfam bookshop and eagle and child) is good too- but is it called 'st giles cafe'?


leeds house in otley is pretty special (good vege breakfast), as are numerous establishments in birmingham- we used to walk up to king's heath and sample the establishments there after a heavy friday night frequently
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
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. british breakfasts i always find good in theory, but i made myself one this morning, just because i had the time and was working from home, and, as usual, it was a much better idea than a reality. i threw most of it away, so i've had to resign myself to the fact that i actually prefer maybe two or three components - eggs, bacon and toast, sausages and tomatoes etc - rather than the whole lot in one go. fried bread i absolutely cannot stomach any more, though i used to love it as a kid. and just as a side issue, why would anyone order tea in europe and expect it to be anything other than disgusting?
 
Last edited:

matt b

Indexing all opinion
There's a German woman in the research group here who makes tea by placing teabag then milk (about a 1/3 of the total volume) then water in the cup. I mean, WTF? How hard is it to make a cup of tea? *despairs*

you only get good tea (at least tea you'd put milk in) in GB. 'tis our birthright. fact.
 
Top