The Good Old English Breakfast

11/03/2024 08:15 PM

The Good Old English Breakfast

There was a time when Sunday began with traditional bacon, sausages and eggs garnished with tomato, beans or mushrooms.  This is still a meal that sets you up until tea-time and gives you the

perfect excuse to skip lunch and go through until afternoon tea-time without further nourishment.  

As a visitor to the UK, it is one of those things you probably don’t want to miss, especially if you take it in one of the steamy little cafes where the black cab drivers take their breaks or at one of the market stalls that also dish up “bubble & squeak” on the side.

However the first meal of the day has changed beyond recognition in the last few years.  As an English woman who actually doesn’t enjoy the old fashioned fry-up, the choice available to me at

breakfast/brunch in the capital is nothing short of a revelation.

One of my current favourite places to fill up for the day is “Gail’s” in Exmouth Market.  French toast with a mountain of maple bacon is my no.1 choice, simply delicious and not so far from the more

usual breakfast.  However the sweetcorn pancakes with avocado and yogurt are just such a good way to prepare for a good walk around Clerkenwell on a windy autumn day.

25 years ago recipes overflowing with such delicious but at the same time nourishing ingredients would have been unthinkable but the modern cosmopolitan Londoner enjoys ideas from Australia

to Morocco with his newspaper on a daily basis.

From cinnamon buns to bircher museli, breakfast is for the first time in my life, an absolute delight and possibly my favourite meal of the day.