British Cuisine - The Full Breakfast

Contrary to popular belief, British people do not have a full cooked breakfast every day. Most people eat toast with butter and jam or cereal for breakfast. There isn't enough time in the morning, before school or work, to prepare a full cooked breakfast and who could face all that food at 7 o' clock? This food is usually eaten at the weekends, in hotels on holiday or in pubs and cafés which serve it as an all-day meal. Some people eat it as brunch instead of having a separate breakfast and lunch.

In slang terms, many Brits refer to this breakfast as a fry-up and some of cheaper not so nice looking cafés serving primarily this food are known as greasy spoons.

The typical ingredients of the breakfast vary in different regions but the staple foods are eggs (fried or poached), sausages and bacon. You may also find cooked tomatoes, baked beans, fried mushrooms, black pudding (morcilla), hash browns (potato cakes), toast, eggy bread and many more things. All this food is supposed to be fried but some people prefer it grilled to make it a little healthier and less coronary-inducing! All this should be accompanied with a glass of orange juice and a nice cup of tea!

Perhaps much more common these days are hot sandwiches using ingredients from the full breakfast. Bacon sandwiches, bacon and egg sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, sausage and egg and mushroom sandwiches. These are generally served in a bread roll.

So, if you are going to the UK to stay with a family and study English, don't expect to have to eat a full cooked breakfast every morning, but if you wish you could go to a café and try one. They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and this is a breakfast that is sure to keep you going into the early evening!