Latest features Top 10 - Breakfasts around the world

Date Published:

12/11/2007

America

Breakfast in America is synonymous with highly caloried, carbohydrate-heavy dishes such as blueberry pancakes drowned in maple syrup, bacon, fried egg, hash browns, grits and potato waffles. All of them can be served together for a gut-busting and extravagant feast. America's other great breakfast contribution is cereal. James Jackson is credited with its invention after he developed 'granola', a granulated wheat dough, at his New York sanatorium in 1863 as a way of introducing more fibre into the meat heavy American diet.

Turkey

The Turkish breakfast is usually eaten very early in the day (between 6am and 7am) and consists of beyaz peynir (feta cheese), bread, black coffee and sometimes menemen, a dish made up of egg, tomato, onion and green peppers. However, there is a large amount of variation, and the popularity of meat means that sujuk (spicy sausage) is often found gracing the early-morning table.

Greece

Greek breakfast is a simple but immensely satisfying blend of yoghurt, honey, grapes, nuts and occasionally calamari and eggs as well. Black coffee is the drink of choice, occasionally spiked with a shot of ouzo to form 'Greek coffee', which is served in several different ways, ranging from sketos (without sugar) to the sickly glykys vastros.

France

The comedian Dylan Moran once said, "of course the French are a decadent people - they eat chocolate bread for breakfast." The French specialities of pain au chocolate, pain aux raisins and croissants, washed down with a generous swig of black coffee, are iconic. However, perhaps surprisingly for such a carnivorous nation, meat is largely absent from their breakfasts, normally only found on platters in hotels.

England

The iconic 'full English' breakfast should contain any or all of the following: bacon, eggs (fried, poached or scrambled), sausage, tomato, fried bread or toast, black pudding, mushrooms and baked beans. The resulting mixture should be accompanied by several cups of strong milky tea or black coffee for the hardy or hung-over. For those who like booze with their breakfast, the Bloody Mary is the acceptable face of breakfast drinking.