annhig -- what a deal but two kinds of tomatoes and nothing sweet? I think I'd pass.

At my favourite breakfast place in the states they take a frosted cinnamon roll, slice it in half, dunk it in eggy mixture and turn it into French toast. Drizzled with syrup and dusted with icing sugar it's definitely a once in a while treat!

hetis -- just saw your breakfast -- all that protein!

On holiday on the continent, I really enjoy hotel breakfast buffets. For a day of site seeing, a breakfast a cold meats and cheeses, yogurt and a croissant with jam is perfect. Plenty of protein to fill my tummy but enough sugary carbs to get me moving.

I love a big American breakfast but not on days where I have a lot to do!

I'm an Anglophile but I stop at the British breakfast-continental all the way. Coffee/tea, orange juice and a croissant. Though I did fall in love with the Turkish breakfast in Istanbul and Turkey-the fresh, unsweetened yogurt, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and simit bread capped off. Yum.

I'll always remember my first visit to the UK with my father. He wanted to be nice and pick up breakfast for me so while I was getting ready he went and bought us some bacon, egg and tomato breakfast sandwiches at the local cafe. But you should have seen the look on his face when he realized the bacon was Canadian bacon not rashers.

Another thing I find interesting is that in the UK, french toast is eaten at lunch or dinner w/o syrup. My friend called it eggy bread. But what good is French Toast w/o maple syrup?!

annhig -- what a deal but two kinds of tomatoes and nothing sweet? I think I'd pass. >>

there's someone who's never had british style baked beans which are actually quite sweet.

emily - we always eat french toast for breakfast, and with maple syrup too.

"For all the British that replied -- next time you're in the states find a good diner and order a stack of buttermilk pancakes. We may convert you yet."

I did, you didn't

Neither did the US version of bacon - cremated strips of heavens knows what that disintegrate like shrapnel when you prod them with a fork! :-)

I've mentioned before, I am sure we will get consensus among Brits/Americans over privatised healthcare and gun control before we are able to agree on breakfast.

You're right that I've never had baked beans for breakfast. I actually associate them with burgers and BBQ so eating them in the morning seems a bit off. I should try them, I know. Do you think it will be a requirement for citizenship??

My South African friend eats Eggy Bread (French toast) with tomato sauce (catsup)!

Ah willit -- give us another chance! Did you have any maple syrup to soften the bacon? Use the last bit of sausage to mop up any extra syrup?

I gave up my right to guns and private health care but you'll have to pry my pancakes out of my cold, dead hands (which will still be sticky from the syrup).

"you'll have to pry my pancakes out of my cold, dead hands (which will still be sticky from the syrup)."

:-)

You're right that I've never had baked beans for breakfast. I actually associate them with burgers and BBQ so eating them in the morning seems a bit off. I should try them, I know. Do you think it will be a requirement for citizenship??>>

BKP - I wouldn't normally consider it, and have never much liked baked beans to be honest, but they provide the sweetness that all those pork products [sausages, bacon, black pudding] and fat require.

I do like pork with a bit of sweet! The Sensible English add a bit of brown sugar to the beans. The Americans create this:

http://www.voodoodoughnut.com/index.php

The top doughnut is a maple bar with strips of bacon. It's terrible and wonderful all at once.

The top doughnut is a maple bar with strips of bacon. It's terrible and wonderful all at once.>>

sounds a bit like deep-fried mars bars.

Emily71, it was not Canadian bacon on your breakfast sandwich. Canadian bacon is peameal bacon while British bacon is simply back bacon cut from another part of the pig.
http://www.thepauperedchef.com/2010/...h-rashers.html

For everyone else, now you can start on bread. I always remember a young girl in a hotel dining room responding to my request for brown toast with, 'all toast is brown'.

In Canada unbleached bread (whole wheat, 7 grain et al) are referred to as brown bread and you make brown toast using brown bread. In the USA, they generally refer to wheat toast. But white bread toasted is not called brown toast anywhere that I am aware of.

@Improviser-thank you for the clarification-to the untrained eye, it looked like the bacon used on an Egg McMuffin here in the States.

@annhig-So they finally imported maple syrup to Britain? Just kidding, though it seems American expats are always moaning about not finding real maple syrup.

As long as we are taking baked beans, beans on toast are one of my favorite comfort foods. I first tried them in college after a roommate came back from a semester in Manchester. I was leery at first but she had brought back Heinz Baked Beans(the airport people must have thought she was nuts) and with toasted bread and melted cheese on top..Yum! And very, very cheap. I still make it every once in a while though I can't convert anyone.

The first time we visited England (1972) we stayed at a hostel where among other things they served beans on toast and spaghetti (think it must have been Chef BoyRDee or something else out of a can) on toast. We've never forgotten it but we've never eaten it again, either!

<<As for English breakfast - sorry I can;t eat so much fat early in the AM But half cooked eggs, strange rubbery bacon and hard cold toast served in special silver toast chillers (toat is supposed to be soft, warm and buttery) besides grilled vegetables - is just weird.>>:

I find it strange that people would find eggs, bacon, sausage & tomatoes for breakfast as weird. I'm pretty sure I've seen all these items in every mid to high end chain hotel no matter where I've been in the world, I guess there must be plenty of weird people around or they wouldn't serve it.

At home a Full English is not something the vast majority of people would have everyday, as with most posters it would be coffee / tea / cereal / toast.

For us, pancakes or French toast with maple syrup are considered a treat, usually on a Sunday around 10:30 with no need/desire for lunch.

My Brit husband isn't a huge fan but will eat them occasionally. He's more a Shrove Tuesday pancake kind of guy.

Agree, beakfast is almost always cereal, coffee, fresh fruit or juice. Full English for us is hotel fare and after the 2nd morning it's time to back away.

BKP, I have never heard of some of those concoctions but believe they exist. Disbetes Type 2, here we come.

Beans on toast in the UK is like Kraft dinner in the US. Student fare, cheap and filling.


Even in countries where 'bacon and eggs' is a norm there are major differences. In the UK, the norm is to order a 'full English breakfast'. That's it, that's all they generally say and all the waiter/waitress wants to know. Generally, I am not saying it is an absolute.

In the US and Canada, they go through half a dozen decision making choices before the order is complete. How do you want your eggs, (boiled, scrambled, poached, over easy, sunny side up, well done) how do you want your bacon (what kind and crisp or not), what kind of toast would you like (white, wheat/brown, sourdough, multigrain,etc.) How about 'texas toast' who knows that one? Then, homefries? Yes/no?

For a N. American who first encounters a waiter/waitress in the UK and orders bacon and eggs and then have the server immediately walk away before they can tell them how they want the eggs, what kind of toast, crisp bacon or not, it can be very surpising indeed. You sit there thinking, but they don't know what I want yet!!!

Most annoying of all though in the years I lived in the UK was the hard eggs. I used to sing 'hard eggs, hard eggs, all I get for breakfast is hard eggs', to the tune of 'Heartaches'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f4FAny0d1c

I am coming out in defence of Little Chef. If you want a "full English", the Early Starter is a fine example. Sausage, bacon, fried egg, hash brown, baked beans and toast or fried bread, cooked to order. Absolutely don't have scrambled eggs - they're done in the microwave. But then scrambled eggs have no place in a full English anyway - fried, or at a push, poached. You need the runny yolk for the bacon and fried bread, mmm, the taste of heaven.

@annhig-So they finally imported maple syrup to Britain? Just kidding, though it seems American expats are always moaning about not finding real maple syrup.>>

then they can't be trying very hard, emily. we've been eating it for at least 24 years. I know that as we ate it for the first time when we visited Canada with DD who was then one. she's 25 now and we've always had some in the fridge since the day we came back from that trip.

<<I find it strange that people would find eggs, bacon, sausage & tomatoes for breakfast as weird. I'm pretty sure I've seen all these items in every mid to high end chain hotel no matter where I've been in the world, I guess there must be plenty of weird people around or they wouldn't serve it.>>

@geordie - how true. We had some of the best eggs and bacon ever in Sri Lanka last year. How they got bacon of that quality in the middle of a Sri Lankan tea plantation at 6000 feet I'll never know.

<<In the US and Canada, they go through half a dozen decision making choices before the order is complete. How do you want your eggs, (boiled, scrambled, poached, over easy, sunny side up, well done) how do you want your bacon (what kind and crisp or not), what kind of toast would you like (white, wheat/brown, sourdough, multigrain,etc.) How about 'texas toast' who knows that one? Then, homefries? Yes/no?>>

@improvisor - life's just to short for all of that. the only choice you get at the rugby club is toast or fried bread and that's fine by me. BTW I've never been asked how I want my bacon in the US - IME it always comes burnt to a crisp whether I want it that way or not.

@anicecupoftea - I didn't want a full english, just scrambled eggs on toast. that's eggs scrambled gently with some butter, salt and pepper served ON the toast. make it in the microwave if you like but make it properly. How hard can it be?
and i have absolutely no idea what you mean by "hard eggs". boiled, fried, poached? the one time they DO ask you how you want your egg/s is when you ask for a boiled egg.

Crisp bacon may be another regional thing. I like mine really crisp - just short of black - and here in the US south they like to serve it limp. Getting it crisp AND arriving at the same time as my omelet doesn't always work out, despite a very clear request....