Week 27 - Ireland

JUMBO BREAKFAST ROLL

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  And what better way to get the fun started than with the Irish Jumbo Breakfast Roll.

The Breakfast Roll is ubiquitous in Ireland as a quick breakfast for construction workers, students and anyone eating brekkie on the go.  They're commonly found at gas stations, convenience stores, supermarkets and newsstands.  An ingenious idea really, the Breakfast Roll takes the epic Fry-up and sticks it all on a demi-baguette for easy eating.

A product of the Celtic Tiger construction boom (1995-2008), the Breakfast Roll  has become so associated with Irish pop culture that it spawned a hit song!

For our version of the Breakfast Roll we fried up some hashbrowns, breakfast sausage, bacon, eggs, tomato and a side of baked beans.  (The real Irish Breakfast Roll would probably also have black or white pudding and a generous dollop of ketchup or brown sauce.)

This is one hearty breakfast.  In fact, we were only able to make it through half a sandwich each.  According to internet sources, a whole sandwich averages well over 1000 calories!  It was definitely satisfying, but I found it difficult to enjoy all the different taste sensations going on at one time.  When I'm eating bacon, I want to be able to enjoy the awesomeness that is bacon, you know? (So maybe not worth all those calories.)

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

Although it takes some juggling to make sure everything is ready at the same time, it only took about 20 mintues to prepare the Breakfast Roll.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

More an on-the-go food, I wouldn't recommend serving this one to guests.  It would be akin to serving take-out McDonald's McMuffins.  (In fact, I read a rumour that Irish McDonald's actually has a version of the Breakfast Roll on their menu.)

For Sustainability:

Bam!  This is one hearty breakfast, worthy of a "Hungry Man" breakfast.

For Costability:

If you pick one of these in Ireland, it'll set you back around $5 Cdn.  Making one at home was a bit more, about $20 in groceries.  (This buys enough to make several servings.)

For Overall Appeal:

The Breakfast Roll was pretty good, but didn't knock my socks off.  As an on-the-go option it would be awesome, but as an at home meal, it was not as interesting.  The flavours became too muddled together for my taste.

Next time we'll get to that Iran breakfast, stay tuned....

Week 24 - 설날 - South Korea

TTEOKGUK

Happy Lunar New Year!

Today I'd like to write a bit about the Korean holiday of Seollal (the Korean Lunar New Year).  Like most of Asia, Korea celebrates not only the Solar New Year on January 1st but also (and with bigger celebrations) the Lunar New Year.  This year the Lunar New Year fell on February 10th, and since celebrations last for three days, that right near the end of the celebrations today.

Activities during Seollal are much like most holidays in the world - families get together, gifts are given, food is eaten and games are played.  What we're concerned with of course is the food.

On the first day of Seollal it is traditional for Koreans to dress in their Hanbok (traditional Korean attire, see picture of me to the right) and pay respect to their ancestors by bowing and presenting ritual foods.  After this they eat the traditional breakfast of Seollal, Tteokguk (rice cake soup).  Eating this soup is very important to the New Year proceedings as eating a bowl on New Year's morning is believed to add a year to your age.  It is so integral that a common New Year's greeting is, "How many servings of Tteokguk have you had?" (Having more than one bowl is actually common.)

Tteokguk was never a favourite of mine, probably because I couldn't wrap my head around the Korean Rice Cake.  Far different from the Western incarnation of a Rice Cake, Korean Tteok is actually made by pounding cooked rice into oblivion and then reforming it into solid shapes (kind of like an Asian pasta).  It's used for sweet and savoury dishes and is a common ingredient in Korean cuisine.  As for flavour, there really is none, it was the texture that got me.  I'm a big texture girl and Tteok is rubbery, gummy, and slippery all rolled into one.  Not my thing.

But lucky for my breakfast blog, Jon loves Tteokguk!  In fact, whenever we go for non-BBQ Korean food he orders Tteokmanduguk, which is just Tteokguk with Mandus (pork dumplings) thrown in for fun.

Tteokguk is made from a beef broth, boiled with tteok and features seaweed and egg as toppings.  For our feature on it we decided to go out (since I was not interested in having gallons of Tteokguk left-over...) to a classic kind of Korean establishment.  In Korea, you pick your restaurant by what you want to eat that night.  You want BBQ Beef, you go to the BBQ Beef restaurant, Pork, the Pork restaurant etc.  However in every town (and I mean probably every), there will be a cozy place that serves an assortment of cheap and cheerful Korean food.  Most dishes will be under 5000 won (or $5) and might include Kimbap (think Korean sushi), Ramen, Mandu, and an assortment of Guk (soup).  Our favourite haunt like this in Toronto is called Thumbs Ups and is pretty authentic, down to the dishware and the cute frilly aprons on the teenage boys serving.

I'm going to break my rules here and forgo the Verdict, because well, I didn't eat any soup. Oh no!  I didn't gain a year.  Ha ha!  Now Jon and I may finally be the same age.....

Instead please enjoy some pictures taken from our time in Korea around the holiday of Seollal (we visited the Korean Folk Village):

The following pictures were taken in Busan a couple of weeks into the New Year. The bonfire is celebrating Daeboreum, or the first full moon of the New Year.  When we waited in line to watch this we had no idea what we were in for.  The bonfire was extremely intense with ash and cinders flying all over the place.  The whole ceremony took several hours and included speeches from dignitaries, singing, some very beautiful traditional dancing, and much prayer and excitement when the Full Moon finally rose...

Thanks for indulging me in a little trip back to our wonderful time in Korea.

Next time, we'll see what's happening for breakfast in Italy!

Week 19 - الإفطار - Tunisia

SHAKSHOUKA

Have you ever heard of Shakshouka?  No?  Me neither.  But apparently it is a popular breakfast for millions of people across North Africa, the Middle East and Turkey.

This breakfast with the fun, percussive name (which means "shaken" or a "mixed up") seems to have originated in Tunisia and travelled across to Israel where today it is very popular.  A similar dish called Menemen is popular in Turkey. (But that's the subject of another post...)

Shakshouka is a lovely spicy tomato stew with poached eggs that is sopped up with french baguette.  I decided to go with the Tunisian version mainly because it meant I got to use up the Harissa paste that had been lingering in my fridge.  (Harissa is a Tunisian spice mixture made with many chilis, garlic, coriander, caraway seeds and other secret ingredients.)

It seems to be that the breakfasts I look forward to the least end up being the best and Shakshouka definitely fell into that category.  The instant Shakshouka hit my tongue I was in love - it was amazingly fragrant and delicious.  Spicy and savoury with just a hint of licorice, this is one breakfast that wakes up your senses.

Shakshouka has the added bonus of being a really healthy well-rounded meal as well.  The stew is chock-full of vegetables, the eggs add some protein, and the bread, well that's just there because fresh baguette is delightful...

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:






Unfortunately, Shakshouka took quite a bit of work and some time to prepare.  The good news is that it makes for fantastic leftovers.

For Degree of Separation:

Five Cheerios!  I've never eaten anything like this before.

For Guestabililty:

Shakshouka loses points in this category just because it is so spicy!

For Sustainability:

For Overall Appeal:

Shakshouka was hearty, nutritious and best of all scrumptious.  Everything you want in a great breakfast.  Word has it that it makes a great supper too!

Stay tuned, I promise we'll get to those fun Christmas breakfasts very soon....

Week 17 - 朝食 - Japan

GOHAN with TAMAGOYAKI, MISO, UMEBOSHI, SHIOZAKE and NORI

Breakfast in Japan has been near the top of my to-do list for a long time.  But I have to admit I procrastinated.  I felt intimidated by Japan's simple and elegant cuisine.  After tackling it, I'm happy to say that with the right ingredients it wasn't nearly as difficult as I'd imagined.

Hospitality in Japan is legendary, and when staying at a traditional Japanese Ryokan (Inn), breakfast makes up a large part of that hospitality.  Breakfast is served to guests at a specific time (of the guests choosing) in their rooms and always includes a multitude of dishes served in elegant dishware.  Unfortunately, Jon and I didn't stay at a Ryokan while we were in Japan, but that didn't stop us from trying to recreate this breakfast experience at home.

Traditional Japanese breakfast foods are a world away from my normal bowl of Cheerios and this week required a trip to our local Asian grocer, T & T Supermarket.  Even though we lived and travelled through Asia and prepare quite a lot of Asian food at home, I'm always amazed and enthralled by a trip to T & T.  Jon practically has to drag me out of the aisles while I examine such curiosities as Deep-Fried Gluten and Durian-flavoured candy...

This was the most complicated breakfast I've prepared for a long while and it really tested my culinary "make sure everything is ready and hot at the same time" skills.  And even though it seemed like a lot, I'm pretty sure this was a simple version of what you might receive at a nice Ryokan.

Let's break it down:

Gohan:  (Rice)  Like most of Asia, Japanese enjoy a bowl of rice at every meal.  So much so that the word for cooked rice, gohan, also doubles in meaning as the word for meal.  Rice is not all the same however.  At our meal we enjoyed some high quality "genmai"  or Japanese brown rice (white is the norm) and it was extremely different from the rice we had with our Indian or Filipino breakfasts.  The grains are shorter, fatter and the texture was quite sticky. 

Miso Soup:  Miso soup is ubiquitous at most Asian restaurants in Toronto and it turns out that it is just as common for Japanese breakfast.  We all think we know Miso Soup, but do you know what's in that mysterious broth?  A quick google search shows that Miso soup is usually made by dissolving some Miso paste (made with fermented rice, barley, soybeans, salt and fungus) into Dashi soup stock (made with dried baby sardines, dried kelp, and dried skipjack tuna).  That's a lot of er, interesting ingredients.  Miso soup also commonly features tofu cubes, scallions and seaweed pieces.

Nori:  (Dried seaweed)  This is used as an accompaniment to the rice, kind of a roll your own sushi deal. (used in conjunction with soy sauce of course)

Tamagoyaki:  Tamagoyaki is a rolled sweet omelet that is sliced into pretty little bundles.  It features mirin (sweet rice wine) and is commonly made in it's own pan.  I made due with our ordinary fry pan and didn't find the delicate layering required to be difficult at all.

Shiozake:  (Salted broiled salmon)  Much to my normal "fish-hating" self's surprise, this was my favourite part of the breakfast.  It was very simple to prepare, (just pop it in the oven with some olive oil) and was really, really good.

Umeboshi:  (Pickled salty plums)  Common wisdom in Japan is that it is very healthy to start off you day with a couple of Umeboshi.  They are extremely high in salt and citric acid and help aid in digestion.  I was hesitant to try one of these (having been burnt by salty, sour plum flavour in the past), and wow, did it live up to its reputation.  It was so sour and salty and had a texture half-way between fresh or dried fruit.  I don't think I'll be enjoying this for breakfast anytime soon.  (which leaves 90% of my expensive umeboshi jar up for grabs.  Anyone?)

Natto:  (Fermented soybeans)  Although very common for breakfast in Japan, I couldn't find any Natto in Toronto.  I can't say I was that disappointed, this looks like a food you have to grow up with to love.  Adjectives used to describe it:  slippery, pungent, acquired, sticky, powerful.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:






For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

For Sustainability:

For Overall Appeal:

With such a multitude of textures and flavours, the Full Japanese breakfast rivals the Full English in terms of flavour balance, interest and variety.  Although very foreign to my morning taste buds it was certainly an invigorating experience.

Next week we hunker down as the weather turns cold with some comforting Scottish Oatmeal.

Week 9 - Agahan - The Philippines

LONGSILOG

Dear readers, due to an extremely hectic couple of weeks this entry is over two weeks late!  My apologies....

For our second breakfast this weekend we tried some Filipino Agahan (breakfast).  I have many awesome Filipino friends and was especially eager for this breakfast.  I'd like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who helped me with their input for this blog entry.

Breakfast in the Philippines seems like a bigger deal than many of the countries I've researched.  While most entries feature foods that people have on Sundays or special occasions, today's food is something people seem to recall their mothers making on any normal day of the week (and that's awesome!).

Longsilog is really a portmanteau made up of three foods:  Longganisa, a garlicky breakfast sausage; Sinangog, garlic fried rice, and Itlog, fried egg.  How interesting is that?  Points to the Philippines for the best breakfast name.

The food itself smelled awesome cooking up.  Mmmmm, does anything beat fried garlic?

The Longganisa I purchased was garlicky and slightly sweet.  Apparently these sausages can feature different flavourings depending on the province (some are sour, spicy, sweet, etc).  Unfortunately the store I purchased these at only had one kind.

The star of the show, and the feature of this breakfast that gave it that distinct Asian twist was the Sinangog (or garlic fried rice).  You have to plan ahead to make great Sinangog by making sure you have plenty of left-over rice from the meal before.  The overnight time in the fridge allows the rice to dry out and helps you to achieve that delightful fried, but not mushy texture.  Our Sinangog was extremely garlicky with just a bit of crunch from the fried bits.  Masarap!

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:






Not difficult, but it does take some planning ahead.

For Degrees of Separation:







It's just like Sausage and Eggs but the garlic fried rice factor pushes it to a solid three.

For Guestability:






This would bring a thoughtful twist to an old hospitality favourite.

For Sustainability:






Although not quite as hearty as the Full English, this one still satisfies.

Overall Appeal:






I really enjoyed Longganisa and particularly the Sinangog.  I would caution that this is a breakfast for garlic lovers only, no part-time garlic eaters need apply, it is a lot of glorious, stinky garlic to face in the morning.

Where will we go next?  How about does an all-expense paid trip to Mexico sound....