I… actually like tinned tomatoes as part of a fry-up? OK, yes, cheap tinned tomatoes are never great, but good brands do exist, and then you get that lovely rich sauce from the juice.
(Tinned tomatoes on toast is a thing, right? I used to have it all the time when I was a kid, but the other week in a greasy spoon I asked for tinned tomatoes on toast with two poached eggs and not only did the person taking my order look very confused, it came disassembled with the tomatoes and eggs on one plate and the toast on another!)
Also, in general tinned tomatoes are much less of a gamble than fresh ones, which are often mealy and flavourless. Similarly I find the consistent nature of packet hash browns to be more reliable than bubble — the latter is great when it’s done well, but too often it’s watery, flavourless, and underfried.
I happily use tinned tomatoes for cooking all the time, and agree they can be more consistent.
For me, I don’t really get along with them for breakfast, though – I find the lack of skin and the extra mushiness a bit disconcerting. Maybe it’s one of those things you need to grow up with!
Always go for fresh ones. I find the variety of tomatoes available in the markets amazing these days. Just saw these ones from my local market last weekend.
I like a grilled tomato with my English and Irish breakfasts. If I’m at a hotel with a buffet breakfast, and making my own plate, I’ll load up on the tomatoes and mushrooms.
I don’t care if there are beans, I like fried bread, and I ask them to hold the black pudding when I order English breakfasts. This trip had more hash brown patties included on the plate, than on any of my previous visits to England.
I get the vegetarian English fairly often, but skip the veggie sausages. Quite a few places offer grilled halloumi as a protein on their veggie breakfast offering (English or other veggie brekkies), which I haven’t seen on breakfast menus in Canada yet.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
31
Oh, I’d forgotten this thread.
I may have to start a new “Full English” thread. Although I am very much a traditionalist in this respect.
Tomorrow, I’ll be having a second brekkie at the nearby Lounge (a smallish national chain of “open all day” places, serving right through from breakfast to dinner and beyond. I see in my future the “Big Lounge Breakfast” - Smoked back bacon, Cumberland sausages, hash browns, baked beans, slow-roasted tomato, black pudding, button mushrooms, two fried eggs and two slices of toast .
In the words of the late Hovis Presley - it’s almost a meal in itself.
I’d welcome a new Full English breakfast thread, @Harters!
1 Like
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
33
Even better idea. As we’ve already got quite a bit here, why not just change the thread title to something like “Big British Breakfasts” (I like alliteration), or something. I’m sure naf, as the European moderator, can do that. As the thread starter, the request should probably come from you. Waddya think?
I love a good full, but there have been times where I’ve gotten a this and a that but not a full. For example, there’s this small café near Salts Mill (Salts Village Bakery), and the bacon butty was incredible. The “large”… I want to say it was probably 6-8” in diameter on a buttered whole grain bun with tomatoes, bacon, and mushrooms. I still think about that… and that was a couple years ago.
So maybe the title can include any English, UK, Irish, et al. breakfasts?… it now reminds me of this place in Whitby with delicious oatmeal…
🏴 🏴 🏴
