I went out for breakfast in Croydon every day for a week, from a different culture each time, and wrote about it for Croydonist. Would love to hear any comments on this (good or bad!) from Hungry Onioners.
3 Likes
I’m certainly not going to able to visit any of these wonderful breakfast spots but i enjoyed living vicariously through your week of great finds. The Indian breakfast sounds most appealing right now, and i always love going for dim sum
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed reading it. Doing all the research also prompted me to make plans to go out for breakfast more often, though my first attempt at this (last Monday) was a bit of a fail since the place I’d meant to go to was closed, so I ended up at the Halwa Poori House again!
You could do a lot worse than Halwa Poori house, judging by your description.
Great food week. Don’t think we could achieve anything like this in New York, let alone within one broad neighborhood. I’m willing to be corrected.
This can absolutely be done in NYC. In fact, it would be pretty easy to do even if you limited yourself to a radius of a few subway stops in most of Queens. Still, it’s a fabulous itinerary and a great write up!
I was talking breakfast, specifically, but I’ll take any set of meals: I know some of what Queens has to offer, but its size means that one has to often travel longish distances to get from one set of foods to another. You can do pretty well on the stretch of the 7 train between Jackson Heights and Flushing, but can you put together 7 different meals from 7 different countries there?
Probably a subject for its own thread.
1 Like
LOL, I was thinking of the 7 train specifically, since I used to live on that line. I think you could easily put together 7 different countries - I mean, in my old neighborhood alone (Sunnyside), I was within a few blocks of multiple American restaurants (from diners to modern American upscale), Irish and English pub/restaurants, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Filipino, Thai, Romanian, Lebanese, Turkish, Italian and Indian restaurants, not to mention the usual selection of crappy Chinese take-out and a good many fusion places. Not all of these were open for breakfast, but many were - I would guess 7 different countries for breakfast would be doable.
Yep, I imagine you could do e.g. 7 dinners from 7 different countries in most decent-sized urban areas — it was the being-open-for-breakfast part that I found hardest!
I’d love to see people take up this challenge in different places.
1 Like
Wow, that was a really fun read, thanks! Now I am hungry…
Great write-up , Kake. Thanks.
I reckon I’d struggle to get close to such a variety in Greater Manchester, let alone a much smaller place such as Croyden. .
Thanks, Gretchen and Harters! Glad you liked it.
I’ll likely be having a couple of days’ stay in Manchester at some point within the next few years (possibly in 2019), for purposes including visiting the Co-op archives, so will be very interested in breakfast options then.
Brilliant write up Kake, thanks for the recs! I am so glad Croydon’s food scene is still good.
The Co-op is just on the fringe of the Northern Quarter, so I can get you well fed there, even if not very ethnically fed.
I understand the Co-op archives are very interesting. In my other real life (the one where I am not constantly looking for food), I’m a military historian of sorts. I know a guy who has been researching names on the Co-op’s war memorial from the Great War. The archives have apparently really helped to put the research into context. By the by, I worked for them in the early 1980s for a couple of years before they decided they could manage quite happily without me.
Glad you approve 
There’s certainly a lot of good stuff here. I want to organise a London Road food crawl at some point, too — I ran a seafood crawl a couple of years ago and it worked out very well.
I first read that as “not very ethically fed” and wondered where on earth you were going to send me! Will let you know once I have a plan.
Incidentally, I must get around to asking on here for breakfast recs in Bristol — I’ll be there in August for 5 days.
I remember seeing you mention this before, and I’ve pointed one or two people at your book. Military history doesn’t intersect with my interests (though there was a barracks very close to the area I’m researching, albeit not actually within it) but I always appreciate a good writer and meticulous researcher, which from your posts on here you clearly are
As well as primary sources, the Co-op archives have an unpublished history of the South Suburban Co-operative Society which I’m very keen to see. (It’s the SCCS, and their presence throughout my local area, that I’m interested in.)
(Apologies to others for off-topicness… though at least here we can be sure not to get deleted for it 
)
I can get you some ethnic eating in the Quarter. The “curry cafes” have become a local lunchtime institution. Originally set up for the asian garment workers in the area, as “works canteens”, they now serve a mainly Anglo customer base. The “rice and three” is the way to go. For around £4.50, you get a big mound of rice and your choice of three curries from the day’s selection of six or so. Probably the city’s best bargain.
Many thanks for the kind words about the writing.
