Breakfast!

I discovered breakfast shamefully late in the day. A child of the seventies, growing up in the Middle East with 5 siblings and parents who were anything but early-birds, if we caught the worm, it would have been our only shot at protein. Breakfast would be a liquefied mass of something – a fruit smoothie, thin porridge with sugar or god forbid, egg-flip – a now unthinkable concoction of raw egg, hot milk and sugar. Then there were the variations of the buttered bread and too sweet tea breakfast (give or take eggs, bacon, jam, peanut butter).

As a young adult, I’ve probably suffered all the breakfast myths and made some up myself. The ‘if you start the day eating you just over-eat the rest of the day too’ theory, as a chubby girl, ravenous at lunch-time, did me no favours and I still have heartburn from the two-sunny-sides up with buttered toast era.

I attempted breakfast as a young married: muesli made me retch (no sugar-less, raisin-free sort then), porridge brought back childhood nightmares (note: you can switch honey or sugar for organic sea salt) and Indian breakfasts required a level of dedication in the kitchen, that I admit, I looked down on typifying Indian woman subjugation. Also, I’ve never trusted the packaged cereal people.

Having children changed all that. Now, the kids, the husband, hungover house-guests on the sofa-bed and weekend morning walkers who ‘pop in for coffee’ all know that we breakfast like champions – any day of the week but especially on weekends.

Not all great breakfasts must be elaborate. There are all sorts of interesting takes on breakfasts – some can even be jimmied up into brunch, make an excellent snack for the kids or be taken to work for a clever, healthy working lunch.

In our Tokyo hostel, we ate hot noodles beaten with raw egg and tofu. In Crete, as the locals drank a challenging black coffee and smoked their cigarillos, we spooned fruit out of creamy Greek yoghurt and in Paris, we ate breakfast for two hours and then walked slowly till lunch.

So, here are a bunch of home-grown but travel-inspired breakfasts to help both cook and consumer start the day without much fuss but with all the power you need to take on the world, even if lunch is delayed.