Big British and Irish Breakfasts

I have a memory of a savoury Pannenkoek breakfast (crêpe, but a much bigger portion) , followed by a apple and ginger Pannenkoek, from my trip to Amsterdam.

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Yeah, the Dutch do great pancakes. I remember one from many years back. Two pancakes served flat with thin slices of fried apple between them. Which neatly leads me on to Britain’s answer to the Dutch breakfast pancake - the Staffordshire oatcake.

Thicker than a normal British pancake but much thinner than an American one. They originate from the city of Stoke and are very much a regional food. I can buy them in my supermarket and we’re about 35 miles from the city.

Here’s something of the social history of the oatcake which, if it is ever to regain its greater popularity it probably needs a new name- the Potteries Wrap, perhaps.

In this house, it get warmed under the grill, with a sprinkle of cheddar. That’s it at its most basic but it’s quite happy being wrapped round and other elements of the Full English. I doubt whether baked beans would be a great success, although sausage and omelette certainly is.

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I guess they do that kind of breakfast in hotels, in many countries, including those whose cultures don’t eat bread or bacon in the morning.

I can assure you the Dutch do not eat this breakfast at home. And they especially don’t eat pancakes that early. Because pancakes are mostly for dinner. Dinner is the only warm meal of the day and pancakes are warm.

As mentioned by Retrospek, the difference between breakfast and lunch is about 4 hours. Absolutely true. Just buttered cardboard spongy brown or white sliced bread and on each a slice of wet ham (or any type of cold cuts/“liver cheese” which contains real liver, not German “Leberkaese”), peanut butter, jam (yuck… much too sweet), and chocolate sprinkles. If they have to cook something it’s just boiled eggs. That’s the most typical “breakfast”, and repeat it at lunch, at exactly noon. Many people grab a coffee and some pastry from somewhere on the way to work/school.

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Interesting that dinner is the warm meal.
For my relatives in small-town Germany, including some near Aachen, not far from the border, lunch is the warm meal.

The Germans I know eat liverwurst and braunschweiger meat spread on bread at breakfast.
Leberkäse (for others who aren’t familiar, Bavarian meatloaf that translates to liver cheese, which doesn’t contain liver or cheese, and it’s served later in the day) isn’t common outside Bavaria. I’ve visited Germany close to 2 dozen times, and I’ve only ever had one serving of Leberkäse in Munich. :wink:

Dutch immigrants running Pannenkoek specialty restaurants in Calgary and Kelowna capitalize by offering Pannenkoek as a weekend brunch.

Not that it matters, most Canadians would tend associate eating pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday. So it’s probably easier to sell Pannenkoek in Canada as brunch food, and I went to Holland thinking of Pannenkoek as brunch food.

Me, being a tourist in Amsterdam for a few days, I did Pannenkoek for brunch, then dinner (Stamppot one night , Rijjstafel the other night).

If I do a Full English while travelling , I don’t eat again until dinner.

I tend to be a brunch and dinner person, all the time.

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Same in the UK where we often call it Pancake Day.

I just remember they do eat this Berliner classic, Strammer Max, which they call Uitsmijter. They probably ate it for “breakfast” once upon a time when mothers used to stay at home taking care of children.

A country that has no cuisine it’s OK to steal ideas from its neighbours.

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Belgium has a cuisine. Its neighbour to the north doesn’t.

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I’m sure that’s true. I remember two long counters with many different kinds of food that most Americans wouldn’t consider for breakfast. A little something for everyone.

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@retrospek this kept me going through Norway, where I ate enough breakfast (and snuck some out!) that I didn’t have to pay through the nose for lunch :wink:

Norway was breathtakingly expensive but their breakfasts were so good - not as heavy as the British and Irish breakfasts were. I still dream about the pickled herring, their Gjetost and their preserves. We did sneak packets of condiments out, so we could stop at small groceries and buy a couple of rolls and some meat or cheese for lunch. We also ate quite a few roadside hotdogs in our travels there!!

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Late to the party but smoked eel and scrambled egg at the Black Swan, Oldstead. As Boom ! as it looks :blush:

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Thanks for reminding me. This breakfast is more my style. I love smoked fish with (scrambled) eggs! Eel is rich and tasty. It’s become so expensive now that I can’t buy it more often than I used to.

Ate smoked haddock with scrambled eggs at 5:30 in the morning inside Billingsgate fish market (in London). I was visiting a Scottish acquaintance in London and we went to Billingsgate market early in the morning.

Nowadays smoked eel is a treat.

Also amazing in northern Germany but it’s a lot bigger and a different species. I especially went to this town famous for the smoked eels to eat it!

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When we lived in the Netherlands, our Dutch landlords helped us rent a canal boat and we followed them in theirs for 2 weeks one summer. We would pass canal-side stands with signs for “Gerootke Paling” and often stopped to buy some. It was delicious.

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Hopefully now successfully posted above !

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PS your eel picks look delightful. Got me hungry !!

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Posh brekkie , mate. We made do with a Premier Inn one when we ate at the Black Swan. :grinning:

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@Harters , if you visit Cambridge this summer, I like the Full English at Fitzbillies and Hotel Du Vin’s restaurant Bistro du Vin
, and the Traditional Turkish breakfast at Agora at Copper Kettle

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