Supertramp, presumably fresh from a tour across the US of A, and no doubt enchanted by a nation filled with gleaming Dennys and HoJos that would gladly serve them waffles and syrup at four in the afternoon, entitled their sixth album Breakfast in America. (Incidentally, this album also has one of the best covers in the history of rock..)
As someone who has spent considerable time on both sides of the atlantic, there are indeed significant differences between the way Brits and Americans go about breakfasting.
The very term "full English breakfast" was invented by European hoteliers who were originally puzzled by guests demanding oatmeal, fried eggs and pork products, with copious streams of toast, at an hour when most Frenchmen were interested in little more than a Gaulois and a trip to the pissoir.
The Brits are the only people I know who eat fish for breakfast: kippers, which is a type of smoked (and then grilled) herring. They are also known to put fried tomatos and mushrooms alongside the eggs and bacon. And, for reasons best known to themselves, they often include baked beans on the breakfast menu, which must make for memorable staff meetings later in the day.
North Americans, finding themselves blessed with forests full of trees yielding delicious sugary sap, spent the next four hundred years developing breakfast foods designed to take advantage of the situation. Thus giving us waffles, french toast, and pancakes of a type totally alien to the delicate crepes eaten by their European forebearers. North America is also, as noted above, one of the few places where you can regularly order yourself breakfast at literally any hour of the day. Whether this is the result of our hardworking, three-shift, mass production economy, or simply our "give me what I want, when I want it - and a lot of it!" American culture - I just can't tell.
America also gave us the concept of ordering your eggs fried to order, in increasing levels of doneness from sunny side up all the way to over well. I usually tell British visitors to specify the restful-sounding over easy, which is considerably more appetizing than the Japanese term medamayaki (literally "fried eye") - used to describe an egg cooked on one side only.
America's other blessed contribution to breakfast culture was the idea of the "bottomless" coffee cup. Order coffee or tea in a British restuarant, and "a cup" is literally what you'll get. Requests for more are met with rolled eyes and a discrete addition to the bill. American waitresses, on the other hand, use the refill as a chance to flirt with the customer in the hopes of increasing their tip. A better metaphor for the differences between US and British commercial culture I cannot imagine.
Sadly, these days breakfast seems to be a meal fewer and fewer people in either country seem to take seriously. More than once I've stayed at a friend's house, only to awaken the next morning to find their kitchen devoid of anything suitable for breakfast - not even a package of fossilized Capn' Crunch. The same people who tell me they are "too busy" to eat breakfast are the same ones who complain of their digestive woes and struggles to lose weight. (Tip: Maybe if you ate something before leaving the house you wouldn't need to eat that double Whopper with cheese at lunch..)
As someone who has spent considerable time on both sides of the atlantic, there are indeed significant differences between the way Brits and Americans go about breakfasting.
The very term "full English breakfast" was invented by European hoteliers who were originally puzzled by guests demanding oatmeal, fried eggs and pork products, with copious streams of toast, at an hour when most Frenchmen were interested in little more than a Gaulois and a trip to the pissoir.
The Brits are the only people I know who eat fish for breakfast: kippers, which is a type of smoked (and then grilled) herring. They are also known to put fried tomatos and mushrooms alongside the eggs and bacon. And, for reasons best known to themselves, they often include baked beans on the breakfast menu, which must make for memorable staff meetings later in the day.
North Americans, finding themselves blessed with forests full of trees yielding delicious sugary sap, spent the next four hundred years developing breakfast foods designed to take advantage of the situation. Thus giving us waffles, french toast, and pancakes of a type totally alien to the delicate crepes eaten by their European forebearers. North America is also, as noted above, one of the few places where you can regularly order yourself breakfast at literally any hour of the day. Whether this is the result of our hardworking, three-shift, mass production economy, or simply our "give me what I want, when I want it - and a lot of it!" American culture - I just can't tell.
America also gave us the concept of ordering your eggs fried to order, in increasing levels of doneness from sunny side up all the way to over well. I usually tell British visitors to specify the restful-sounding over easy, which is considerably more appetizing than the Japanese term medamayaki (literally "fried eye") - used to describe an egg cooked on one side only.
America's other blessed contribution to breakfast culture was the idea of the "bottomless" coffee cup. Order coffee or tea in a British restuarant, and "a cup" is literally what you'll get. Requests for more are met with rolled eyes and a discrete addition to the bill. American waitresses, on the other hand, use the refill as a chance to flirt with the customer in the hopes of increasing their tip. A better metaphor for the differences between US and British commercial culture I cannot imagine.
Sadly, these days breakfast seems to be a meal fewer and fewer people in either country seem to take seriously. More than once I've stayed at a friend's house, only to awaken the next morning to find their kitchen devoid of anything suitable for breakfast - not even a package of fossilized Capn' Crunch. The same people who tell me they are "too busy" to eat breakfast are the same ones who complain of their digestive woes and struggles to lose weight. (Tip: Maybe if you ate something before leaving the house you wouldn't need to eat that double Whopper with cheese at lunch..)
