What's for breakfast?
The sun is up and you scramble down to breakfast. What'll it be? Fried eggs? Cereal? Somewhere in China a boy wakes to the smell of his congee (rice porridge) and a girl in the Netherlands is hungry for some groene haring ("green" herring, or small pickled fish). When it comes to breakfast around the world, one child's fish eggs is another's peanut butter.
Every hour of the day, children around the world wake up and ask, "What's for breakfast?" Let's follow the sun to see what kind of food the world starts its day with.
For Aussies, "brekkie" might be as fancy as a traditional "fry-up" of "snags" (sausages), bacon, hash browns, and tomatoes. (That's right - fried tomatoes.) Or breakfast might be as basic as buttered toast spread thinly with Vegemite. This strong-smelling spread is made of brewer's yeast and malt extracts (from beermaking). It looks like shiny chocolate spread, but beware: It's like nothing you've ever tasted before. It's very salty and smells like soy sauce - though some would say that's putting it politely. Imagine sucking on a beef bouillon cube and you'll get the idea. Invented in 1923, Vegemite is Australia's favorite spread.
A 1940s ad campaign for Vegemite featured healthy, happy children singing a catchy jingle that included the line "We're happy little Vegemites!" Australian kids are still sometimes called "happy little Vegemites."
Vegemite may sound awful to us, but remember: Many people around the globe are disgusted at the thought of peanut butter and jelly.
Most Japanese - at least those in cities - eat quick Western-style breakfasts of eggs, toast, and juice. But in traditional families, children have green tea and a bowl of steamy miso soup. Miso soup is based on dissolved miso paste (fermented soybeans), but the recipe varies from province to province and even from family to family. Common ingredients include abura age (fried bean curd), wakame (seaweed), niboshi (dried baby sardines), and scallions. Some cooks add slivers of eggplant or noodles that swirl and hide at the bottom of the bowl.
A family quiz show on Japanese TV once tested how well a group of children could identify their own mother's miso soup. Blindfolded, five children sipped from bowls of soup. Could they single out which one was their mother's recipe? Amazingly (and to the relief of their mothers) each child identified mama's miso soup correctly. (Do you think you could pick out your mom's meatloaf?)
Today, though, more and more Japanese eat store-bought miso soup or make it from a mix. This is a far cry from the days when a young bride would give up her own childhood miso soup recipe to learn the recipe of her new husband's family.
It's a good thing that Chinese children like rice, since many of them eat it three times a day. For them, breakfast is a warm bowl of congee, a watery rice porridge or soup. Chinese children may eat it plain or with bits of meat, fish, or eggs.
Congee, also called juk, is made of about one part rice to 12 parts water or stock. An ancient Chinese legend says that congee was first made when a stingy man, who was forced to entertain many guests, asked his cook to water down the rice.
In Egypt, you'd be foolish not to try some ful (pronounced "fool"). Ful medames, a brown bean stew, is a traditional early-morning meal. The ancient recipe uses dried ful beans that have been soaked and cooked. The dish is flavored with lemon juice, olive oil, coriander, cumin, and other spices.
Egyptian street vendors also sell ful as fast food. Another popular breakfast item is bread wrapped around different fried vegetables. In fact, the ancient Egyptians were the first to make yeast bread 8,000 years ago. Bakers used to mix the ingredients with their feet! Workers who built the pyramids were paid in bread.
Breakfast in Bulgaria may consist of sesame bread, cheese made of sheep's milk, honey, olives, tomatoes, boiled eggs, and - most important - yogurt.
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