(Originally written on 11th June 2014)
As followers of the blog will attest, I am a fan of football. I try to play it, watch too much of it, talk about it far too frequently. In many ways this mirrors my breakfast fandom. Football is my favourite sport and breakfast is my favourite meal.
For the uninitiated, the football World Cup rolls round once every 4 years, and 32 of the best teams from all sides of the globe meet to challenge for the title of world champions. This year I will be supporting England, as I have at every world cup since 1998. Now England's chances of winning are regarded as slim (I reckon they'll make the quarter finals), but how would they fare if the countries battled it out, not on the football pitch, but on the breakfast table?
Breakfast culture varies greatly around the world. I was flabbergasted when I found out that the UK eats around 90% or so of the world's baked beans. Why aren't all the other countries eating them for breakfast like us? There must be something else going on, and so I intend to use the world cup as an excuse to take a brief tour around the culinary world to see what tricks are being missed, and to see who can rightfully stake a claim to the best breakfast in the world.
For the uninitiated, the football World Cup rolls round once every 4 years, and 32 of the best teams from all sides of the globe meet to challenge for the title of world champions. This year I will be supporting England, as I have at every world cup since 1998. Now England's chances of winning are regarded as slim (I reckon they'll make the quarter finals), but how would they fare if the countries battled it out, not on the football pitch, but on the breakfast table?
Breakfast culture varies greatly around the world. I was flabbergasted when I found out that the UK eats around 90% or so of the world's baked beans. Why aren't all the other countries eating them for breakfast like us? There must be something else going on, and so I intend to use the world cup as an excuse to take a brief tour around the culinary world to see what tricks are being missed, and to see who can rightfully stake a claim to the best breakfast in the world.
For the next 32 days, the duration of the football World Cup, I will start my day with a vegetarian breakfast (I remain vegetarian) associated with each of the different countries that are involved in events in Brazil. I will then rate the countries against each other, using the same tournament framework as the football competition, and eventually I shall crown one nation as Champions of Breakfasts of Champions.
During my meticulous research I ran into a couple of problems:
a.) some countries don't tend to have breakfast in the same way Brits do
b.) some countries share very similar “traditional” breakfasts
c.) some countries really love meat
In these cases I have taken the odd liberty here and there, in order to make for a more varied and interesting contest. For example, I have read that lots of Australians do not eat steak and eggs for breakfast, even as a special treat. This dish does have a historical significance (so I've read) though, and so I will be doing my best to recreate it as it is significantly different to other breakfasts I will be trying. At the time of writing I'm not quite sure how I will recreate steak in a vegetarian manner, but by the time I put Australia to the test I can assure you I will have found a way.
It's a big undertaking. I don't think I'll have ever gone for so long a period without toast and marmite (might have to shoehorn vegemite into the Australian breakfast) but it should be an exciting adventure. It may be difficult bringing a samba rhythm and carnival spirit to my kitchen between 6am and 8am on weekdays but I'll give it my best shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment