You would be served laverbread at breakfast at home by my father in Wales, for sure. He has always eaten it. I grew up on bubble and squeak, porridge with golden syrup, black pudding and the like. But all I ever really wanted was a bowl of Lucky Charms.

When I lived in the UK, it was difficult to find a place to go out to brekkie. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS go out to breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. It's an integral part of the weekend... to see & be seen. When I lived in Cardiff, the only place I could find for brekkie was a local builder's cafe or the Waitrose in the nearby town. And, on Sunday, the Tesco with the good croissants didn't even open until 9:30 or 10:00 a.m.

All said, I did love the bacon!

This has been to me a BIG plus point of the ban on smoking in indoors public spaces in Scotland. We celebrated the day it came in by going to the pub for Sunday breakfast ! With a nice Bloody Mary :-)

Fairfax, I'm guessing Cardiff may have changed quite a bit since you lived there ? Nowadays I'm sure there are lots of trendy cafe-bars offering eggs benedict etc (my favourite !). And Weatherspoons is sure to do the standard fry-up.

Wetherspoons breakfast: Pint of stella, 10 bensons, bacon butty and a lottery scratchcard all served with an air of regret and the smell of wet dog.

Caroline... I lived in Cardiff until December 2005! The good hotels had brekkie, but there were just not lots of places open Sundays for a good sit and read and drink coffee breakfasts.

Oddly, the Australian habit of lamb chops for breakfast hasn't spread.

Digressing slightly from the topic but... I've never had a lamb chop or seen it offered in Australia. Maybe a hundred years ago on an isolated farm when everything else had run out...

nona - if you think those things don't go into sausage - well i won't enlighten you as to what does.

I thought the traditional Aussie breakfast was steak and eggs?

Well I suppose it depends what sausages you buy...

Anywhere that smoking is not on the menu would be fine with me.

Nona, I thought the whole point of sausages was to use up the bits that wouldn't otherwise be eaten - 'everything but the squeal' in the case of pork sausages. I suppose you could make your own, though.

Decent sausages are made with proper meat not random bits and pieces! Cheap sausages are another matter though...

Maybe in another lifetime Aussies ate steak and eggs for breakfast but nowadays most people eat cereal or toast. The choice of breakfasts in cafes in Australia is wonderful compared to the (lack of) choices in the UK.
Kay

I thought steak for breakfast was a US thing ? That's the only place I've ever seen it. Though I haven't been to Oz.

Fairfax, I'd have thought all the trendy cafe-bars around Mill Lane and Mermaid Quay would do breakfast/brunch, at least at the weekend - no ?

Mermaid Quay, yes... but was more looking for a hang-out kind of place for breakfast. Not a trendy, touristy place.

I have a place in the states that is sort of a "diner" in the real sense. We kid and say it's where the elite meet to eat, because it's most certainly not.

It's the "Cheers" bar of breakfast places. You always know someone there, you can read the papers, stay for hours, drink gallons of coffee and at the end, the bill is about $5.00. Good cheap filling food.

I think that steak for breakfast is not too common... or else it's a Texas/Western states sort of thing. When I was in New Mexico, everyone at green chile with their eggs and biscuits.

Haggis is rarely served in a Scottish breakfast outside of hotels. The main difference between Scottish and English breakfast as served in most homes or cafes is the addition of potato scones, lorne(square)sausage and frequently black pudding. Most butchers and supermarkets in Scotland will also sell fruit pudding which is sliced and then fried. Basically a good Scottish breakfast means you shouldn't have to do lunch and will probably only want a light supper lol!

It also goes some way to explaining our shocking rates of heart disease.

Seome places will provide a Welsh Breakfast. The main difference being the welsh ingredients plus the addition of laverbread, which for your information Flanner is seaweed. I have it quite frequently, delicious with fried bacon. It is readily available from supermarkets and Cardiff Central Market too.

Places that serve breakfast such as cafe's probably won't serve laverbread as it is outside the price they can reasonably charge.
However I suspect hotels will serve it.

Anyway try it it is delicious.

Muck

Thanks for your responses.

This will be quite a challenge for me as I am used to a typical New York breakfast of bagels with cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon). If I get homesick, any chance this is available in Edinburgh or York?

I'll probably get roasted for this, but I guess being from Seattle, people will just have to deal.

When we were in London, we discovered a Starbucks not 3 blocks from our hotel. We bought lattes, a pastry of some kind, and walked up to Buckingham Palace to start our day, where we enjoyed our breakfast.

Oddly enough, I'd never do that in Paris, where I think it's the law that you sit down with your cafe au lait & an omelette or croissant. ;)

Jules

<<I am used to a typical New York breakfast of bagels with cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon).>>

For breakfast, Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs are fairly common in upmarket cafes', but your best bet for bagels with Smoked Salmon & cream cheese in the morning, is probably Marks & Spencer which are dotted around most cities.

Incidently, Scotland is often considered to be the finest producer of smoked salmon.

Geordie

chiming in here.

Purely because we have a Irish bar here who provides an 'Irish' breakfast.

We must spend too much time in this bar since when I ordered the breakfast the waitesss looked at me and said "no pudding?' :-D

They use Walls sausages, real irish bacon and heinz baked beans.

I would love a breakfast that provided kippers. Although I would have to eat them with brown bread and buttter