Among the people I know from different countries, most of them are pretty flexible with what they are willing to try for food. When they visit different countries, they will willing seek out examples of the local cuisine to try. And most of the time, even if it’s something they never have tried before, they will give it a chance to see if it’s good.

At least that’s true when it comes to lunch and dinner.

However, it turns out that what you eat for breakfast is in a different category. Moreover what you think is a reasonable thing to eat for breakfast is firmly rooted in where you were raised. And anything other than what you eat for breakfast is considered odd to eat for breakfast.

For example, a friend of ours recently went to the U.S. He stayed at a motel that offered the following on their breakfast buffet:

• boxed cold cereals
• scrambled eggs
• bacon
• sausage
• waffles with maple syrup
• muffins and pastries
• while or wheat slices of bread (to toast)
• OJ
• coffee
• tea
• milk
• fruit (e.g. banana, orange)

As Americans, Chris and I thought, hmm, for a budget motel that all sounds like a pretty decent selection; in some budget motels in the U.S., we’ve been lucky to get a bargain-basement plastic-wrapped sweet roll the, that sounds pretty good.

However, our friend, who is German, termed the offerings dismal. Where was the ham and other sliced cold meats? Cheeses? Other savory spreads? Different types of good breads? Where was the lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers to put on the bread with the meats and cheese? And what’s with all the sweet things – from his perspective, he thought it was crazy to have all these sweet pastries offered at that hour.

You see, in Germany, breakfast is more like an American lunch: the breakfast buffets in Germany have all the fixings for a great sandwich, including a wide assortment of sliced bread and rolls, plus soft-boiled eggs, fruits and muesli (but no boxed cold cereals – those are only for children here). Occasionally a hotel will have a token sweet pastry for the North American tourists, but breakfast in Germany is not seen as a time for eating doughnuts or other sweets, and certainly not a time you’d have something heavy like pancakes topped with a sweet maple syrup.

Our Italian friends have also commented on this in the past. In fact, one Italian friend saw an American TV show where a group of vampires were eating pancakes with syrup for breakfast at a diner. She figured real people couldn’t possibly eat anything that sweet for breakfast, so she assumed it was supposed to be one of the many strange quirks of vampires.

But I digress.

Getting back to the German buffet, as an American I think that it is the German breakfast buffet that is crazy. I mean, a sandwich for breakfast? Who thinks that’s a good breakfast idea? I mean, sandwiches are for lunchtime or later in North America. Now it is true that for breakfast I don’t like a lot of food in general: a bowl of cold cereal, or maybe an English muffin if they are available. But while I usually don’t eat a big breakfast, I can conceive of eating scrambled eggs, hash browns and bacon offered at breakfast time.

However, add baked beans and grilled tomato to that plate, as they do in England and Ireland, and it’s a whole ‘nother thing. IMHO, baked beans and grilled vegetables are just not food to be contemplated at the breakfast table.

Similarly, when I lived in Japan, the traditional breakfast was something other than I what I was used to eating. The traditional breakfast there involved a bowl of rice, a bit of seaweed, a portion of smoked fish and a raw or soft-boiled egg. In the Tokyo area, it also involved ferment soybean stuff called natto. If you’ve never tried it, I don’t recommend it. The fermented smell is so pungent, and — to me — so vile, it is to this day the one food I cannot stomach the thought of it at any time of the day. The rest of those foods from a Japanese breakfast are OK and I could eat them at any time, except I have a hard time with seeing them as foods eaten for breakfast.

Based on a short, highly unscientific survey among friends, no matter how adventurous they otherwise are with food, viable breakfast options are non-negotiably only the foods they grew up eating for breakfast. A great cultural gulf divides the people of the world over the breakfast table, apparently. Who would have thought. Make a note to discuss this with your friends.

But only over lunch or dinner. At least,  that’s my recommendation to you. 😉

*****

P.S. On a special note: this is the 600th post here on Two to Tübingen. In less than 3 years I’ve written 600 posts from Tübingen. It seems like only yesterday I was starting this blog, too! Anyway, thanks to everybody who’s stuck with the blog: you’ve allowed me to write on all kinds of topics, from random photos to reflections about living a life in Europe.

BTW, it was fun to look some stats today and notice that there are already more comments on the this blog than there were on that my old Two to BZ blog.  It’s always great to hear via either comments or private communication that people are enjoying the posts, so thanks very, very much!

Please note, this is hardly the end of the blog.  Look for post # 601 — and a new mystery — coming as usual on Monday. 🙂

Now, I could hardly end this special note without a crazy Broadway show tune or two, could I? Here’s a couple of ones I picked, both sung by Broadway star Sutton Foster:

Not for the life of me – a song all about having no regrets for taking a chance, moving to a new place, and trying something different.

Show Off – a song with a title that is something that I certainly don’t want to do today, even if I did just successfully conduct another photography workshop all in German today. But I don’t want to show off, so I won’t mention it… 😉

Enjoy the weekend – see you on Monday!