English Breakfast

English Breakfast

English breakfast could be regarded as a ritual and a satysfing way to start a day of work or leisure. It is perhaps the most popular meal in the world! Everyone who goes to Britain tries it.
It's a huge meal which includes fried bread, bacon, eggs, sausages, fried tomatoes, toast, marmalade butter, tea, milk, coffe, cereals, fruit juice... but not everybody eats all that food together! During the week most people have a quick meal because they don't have time to prepare a cooked breakfast, so they just eat corn flakes with milk, toast and marmalade and coffee.

Usually they have the traditional English breakfast at weekends because there is more time to prepare it. It is often served not as a breakfast but as a “brunch” (from breakfast and lunch) which is a time halfway between breakfast and lunch, usually around 11 am. Of course nobody eats so much: everybody chooses what he wants.
There are different reasons why breakfast is a full meal in Britain: the workplace is usually far from home, students come back home in the late afternoon, it is often cold and foggy...
In other words they need energy to face the day and wait for the evening dinner!
The word breakfast comes from “to break the fast”. In other words the fast is broken by the first meal. The English breakfast is often called “full breakfast” to differentiate it from the “continental breakfast” which is quite simple (milk, coffee and croissants).
By the way, coffee is a continental tradition which has a subsequently been introduced to the English breakfast.