Breakfast Around the World

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm a sucker for breakfast.  Maybe it's biological, maybe it's because I'm from diner-laden New Jersey, maybe it's how the planets were aligned on April 27, 1982.  Who knows.  But whatever the reason, I absolutely adore breakfast food.  

From cold cereal with milk, to pancakes, to omelets, to oatmeal, to hash browns, to yogurt, to waffles - any of it, all of it - I LOVE it.  I could eat breakfast for three meals a day.  As a graduate student living alone, I sometimes came close.

Five years ago, I visited Singapore for the first time and realized that what I actually love is AMERICAN breakfast food.  Back then, I thought Singaporeans ate the strangest, spiciest, savoriest things for breakfast.  Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good huevos rancheros as much as the next fake-Mexican-loving-gal.  But curry?  Whooo-weee.  On that first visit, it was all I could do to stomach a few bites of roti prata (an Indian dish).

Roti prata: Fried flat dough (top), quite plain - dipped in curry (bottom).

Now, I must confess, I've come to love roti prata.  It is *possible* that, ust a few weeks ago, my mother-in-law ordered this for breakfast, and I ate about one third of her portion.  Ooops...I still can't quite do curry puffs (think apple turnovers but with curry inside), but I'm working on it.  

So I was cautiously optimistic when we headed downstairs yesterday morning for a traditional Japanese breakfast at the ryokan (Japanese inn; more on this in another post).  Without much ado, this tray was placed before me:

At the top, you can see a gas burner where we warmed our miso soup.  On the right (not shown) was a small grill for heating the fish.  Let's take a look at what's on this plate (as best as we could identify it), starting at 12 o'clock with the little yellow dish, and moving clockwise.

12 o'clock Square yellow dish: pickled cabbage. Just below it (mostly hidden) is a circular white dish with teeny tiny fried fishes in it.   Below that is a very small glass of clear, sweet liquid.  Juice?  No idea.  We also had tea, of course (not shown).

1 o'clock Bowl with red lid: Rice porridge, but much plainer than the Chinese version.

2 o'clock Clear bowl with orange inside: The only sweet food on the entire platter - fruit cocktail out of a can with some very soft, mashed up, jello-like bits floating around in the liquid.

3 o'clock Striped bowl with chopsticks on top: Custard-y concoction on top, with mushrooms and some seafood underneath.  To the right is a plate with the un-warmed fish.

6 o'clock Shallow white dish with brown ring on rim: Not sure.  Probably some pickled veggies.

7 o'clock Soy sauce dish.  To the left is my rice bowl with some warmed fish sitting on top.

9 o'clock Empty white bowl that contained some lettuce with soy sauce-citrus dressing.  [Clearly, I was in need of some familiar looking veggies!]  To the far left is a bowl of miso soup and a hot springs egg (apparently cooked in the hot springs).

11 o'clock My early-morning piece de resistance.  Cold, pickled veggies, mostly.  There was also a piece of bamboo and some tamago. (Ok, that was sweet.  But cooked, cold, sweet eggs kinda weird me out.)

This was a full Japanese breakfast at quite a nice ryokan.  Although the dishes themselves may look a bit mis-matched, they are actually chosen to complement each plate of food.  This is just one example of the measured, precise, aesthetically-sensitive Japanese style.

As for the average Japanese person, on an average day - I'm not sure how many eat this - or some portion of it - for breakfast.  But for me?  This would require some adjustment.  

The miso soup and fish were very tasty - although they still felt like lunch/dinner food.  The hot springs egg was...a well-executed egg that was somewhere between soft and hard boiled.  It was also good, although I was wishing for some salt & pepper (rather than the soy sauce that Asia uses on their soft cooked eggs).  The fruit salad...left something to be desired, although as it is winter in Japan, this portion of breakfast may be tastier in the spring/summer.  The pickled veggies?  Although I love the crunchy varieties for lunch and dinner, I find the mushy ones rather gross - particularly at breakfast.  It's not polite, but I left a few on my plate...

In short, I'm extremely glad we had this breakfasting experience, although I'm not quite ready to turn in my American breakfasts quite yet.  Given the choice, on another day, I would probably still opt for what we enjoyed on the first few days of our trip:

Also? I think I'm going to like breakfast in Europe. :)

More on the sites, and plenty of food, to come!!