"Full English Breakfast" versus "Continental Breakfast"

[Anonymous]

Things are probably different now, but historically an English breakfast was much different from breakfast on "the Continent". A full English breakfast included eggs, bacon, maybe sausage, mushrooms, beans, and toast. A continental breakfast was much lighter. Some coffee and a bun, a little bread or croissant and jam. Maybe a piece of cheese. Much lighter. Why?

Also, which do you prefer?

[Anonymous]

English breakfast, whenever I can get it. Grilled tomatoes and beans and toast are the best combo ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things are probably different now, but historically an English breakfast was much different from breakfast on "the Continent". A full English breakfast included eggs, bacon, maybe sausage, mushrooms, beans, and toast. A continental breakfast was much lighter. Some coffee and a bun, a little bread or croissant and jam. Maybe a piece of cheese. Much lighter. Why?

Also, which do you prefer?

Well I'm from England and a full English breakfast in my opinion, is disgusting, a real cardio-disaster I've only ever seen eaten by working-class men who need the energy for construction, that kind of thing.

I do prefer a Continental breakfast and that's what I normally eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things are probably different now, but historically an English breakfast was much different from breakfast on "the Continent". A full English breakfast included eggs, bacon, maybe sausage, mushrooms, beans, and toast. A continental breakfast was much lighter. Some coffee and a bun, a little bread or croissant and jam. Maybe a piece of cheese. Much lighter. Why?

Also, which do you prefer?

Well I'm from England and a full English breakfast in my opinion, is disgusting, a real cardio-disaster I've only ever seen eaten by working-class men who need the energy for construction, that kind of thing.

I do prefer a Continental breakfast and that's what I normally eat.

Those carbs will kill you.

[Anonymous]

I love a full English breakfast (minus the fried bread), but I can only eat it occasionally. DH and I stayed at a B&B in the English countryside once and they served a delicious full English breakfast but we were so over-stuffed each morning that we could barely eat for the rest of the day.

[Anonymous]

I *love* a good full English breakfast. I lived in the UK for a while as a kid, and when I returned as an adult, got these as often as I could. So, so yummy.

[Anonymous]

This wasn't an option but I prefer a SE Asian breakfast, give me some noodles and veggies any time of day, I could live on mei goreng!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love a full English breakfast (minus the fried bread), but I can only eat it occasionally. DH and I stayed at a B&B in the English countryside once and they served a delicious full English breakfast but we were so over-stuffed each morning that we could barely eat for the rest of the day.

That is how we keep down out spending on trips. Full English breakfast in the am, then we don't eat until 5 or so. We can go all day on the breakfast.

[Anonymous]

My mother, growing up in America of the 1950s, had eggs in some form, toast, and either sausage or bacon for breakfast every single day. They just didn't eat in large quantities and she walked to school and everywhere.

I lived in the UK for a while and never liked the full English because it's such a heavy breakfast, as a PP commented, and was really something that working class men who had physically demanding jobs ate rather than everyone else. I'm just old enough to remember those little eateries in working class parts of London with big men were chowing down on a Full English with bottomless pots of sugary sweet tea and the air blue with smoke. Of course, they all died of heart attacks aged 60. There's a big class relationship with the full English and the frequency of it. Very few people I knew had it regularly, or at all.

I'd take the continental any day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother, growing up in America of the 1950s, had eggs in some form, toast, and either sausage or bacon for breakfast every single day. They just didn't eat in large quantities and she walked to school and everywhere.

I lived in the UK for a while and never liked the full English because it's such a heavy breakfast, as a PP commented, and was really something that working class men who had physically demanding jobs ate rather than everyone else. I'm just old enough to remember those little eateries in working class parts of London with big men were chowing down on a Full English with bottomless pots of sugary sweet tea and the air blue with smoke. Of course, they all died of heart attacks aged 60. There's a big class relationship with the full English and the frequency of it. Very few people I knew had it regularly, or at all.

I'd take the continental any day.

I eat an egg or 2 and bacon most mornings. I'm skinny and in perfect health. I only eat the equivalent of 1 or 1.5 strips of bacon, so that's under 100 calories. My whole breakfast rarely breaks 350 calories and that includes the cream in my coffee. I think when people hear a "full American breakfast," they think it means a large quantity of food like you'd get for brunch. But that isn't really the case, at least in our household.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love a full English breakfast (minus the fried bread), but I can only eat it occasionally. DH and I stayed at a B&B in the English countryside once and they served a delicious full English breakfast but we were so over-stuffed each morning that we could barely eat for the rest of the day.

That is how we keep down out spending on trips. Full English breakfast in the am, then we don't eat until 5 or so. We can go all day on the breakfast.

I do the same thing. The kids need a snack at lunch but I can't do 3 full meals a day so on travel it's usually breakfast and dinner.

[Anonymous]

I prefer a full German breakfast but since it’s difficult to find real German rolls or bread, I usually stick with semi-German breakfast of yogurt and fruit, sometimes with muesli, and/or a 3 minute egg, plus tea.

[Anonymous]

Why one or the other? I’ll take eggs and a small pastry and will likely eat only half of the pastry. Or just eggs, one piece of bacon, and fruit. That with coffee would be a nice breakfast for me.

[Anonymous]

I still have nightmares about the way English breakfast looks on the plate. The "bacon" resembles a saggy scrotum. Depending on where the cook arranged the bangers, breakfast could look like an elderly man's junk.

I swear the proprietor of our countryside inn did this on purpose.

[Anonymous]

FEB if I’m hungover. Or if it’s the only meal for most of the day on vacation. Or a once in awhile brunch.

Steel cut oatmeal and skim latte is my everyday breakfast. I will sometimes treat myself with a chocolate almond biscotti to dip in the latte.