why american breakfast?

Scones (jam and cream) and Devonshire tea for afternoon tea. I've never had them as a pastry with coffee though

mmm Frances thats a real English way to have scones with tea. I wonder if coffee is typically served with a bagel.

<<Kirk I should try a real bagel from the US. I heard that New York is the Bagel capital of the World. LOL I decided to have a 'to do' list when I visit the US starting with:

1) Have a REAL BAGEL with Kirk
2) Do a English fry up for Kirk
3) - The list is still in progess so probably can give me more ideas :)>>

Haha...sounds like a good list. I'll be anticipating the fry up. Next on your list should be real American food--Mexican food. I say that only half tongue-in cheek (so to speak).

<English scones for dessert? You kidding right?>

Well, I don't know how "English" they were, but what we call scones (I don't know how they compare to what the English call scones) I've only ever had for dessert. For example, when making scones here, it's common to make chocolate-chip scones, and put fresh strawberries on top. Add a side of ice cream and/or coffee, and you've got dessert.

<<I wonder if coffee is typically served with a bagel.>>

Coffee goes great with most things, in my experience :) As for bagels, I love coffee with a bagel. The bagel chains I listed in my previous post also sell specialty coffees, so I guess I'm not the only one who drinks coffee with bagels.

<<Scones (jam and cream) and Devonshire tea for afternoon tea. I've never had them as a pastry with coffee though>>

I bet Earl Grey would be good with scones. At least I think it sounds good.

Yes Earl Grey could be ok too

But it has to be all in a tea house - somewhere slightly remote with a lot of greenery or English cottage garden around you

I stayed with two families in Russia. Breakfast was usually a big bowl of kasha (which just means cooked cereal of one sort or another) with milk and sugar and butter -- LOTS of butter, eggs, potatoes, bread, cheese, sometimes some sort of meat, and we also ate any leftovers from dinner the night before. The remaining meals of the day weren't quite as hefty.

Oh, and also kefir or prastakvasha (not sure of spelling, but that's how it sounded), which is another type of bacteriated milk, which reminded me of buttermilk.

Other items that sometimes appeared at breakfast were blini, grenki (like US French toast) and oladi (thick, light pancakes). Oladi could also be made with added ingredients such as tvorog (a moist sort of farmer's cheese) or grated kabachok (squash) -- yum!

This was in 1990 and 1991 and these two families were fairly well off.

<< Next on your list should be real American food--Mexican food. >>

Kirk, it's funny you should say that -- today I was trying to think of some regional California dishes and couldn't, but Mexican food came to mind. I know it's not exclusively Californian, as it's ubiquitous in the southwestern US (and, of course, Mexico), but when I lived in NY and North Carolina, it was a feature of California living that I missed.

If I have visitors from areas that don't have Mexican restaurants, I always have to take them to one. I think Mexican cooking is quite unique, and delicious.

While touring through Europe in a bus filled with Australians, South Africans, Canadians and fellow Americans, each morning we were to meet for breakfast at 6 am before heading out to our next destination. Our breakfasts were the Continental variety, consisting of some type of hard bread, butter and jam, OJ and coffee. By tour's end we were all so sick of Continental breakfasts that our tour guide promised us an "English" breakfast for our last morning together. We were so ecstatic when we met that final morning to a breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, sausages, muffins, scones, fruits, cereal, etc. Since then, I've known this type of morning meal as an "English breakfast", but I can't say I've ever heard of the term "American breakfast", which I would imagine is very similar.

<<I think Mexican cooking is quite unique, and delicious.>>

When I was living in Argentina, it wasn't traditional "American" food I missed (whether that be potroast, hamburgers, mashed potatoes, or whatever), because I don't eat that kind of food very often. The kind of food all of us Americans missed in Argentina was Mexican food, because we were going crazy without spices and what we considered to be flavorful food.

Sorry, Argentines, I love Argentina and I love Argentine beef, ice cream, and pastries, but Argentine cuisine is positively the blandest food I've ever had in my entire life (some of my Argentine friends considered table pepper to be "too spicy" and I quickly grew tired of mayonnaise and oil salads), and in my book doesn't hold a candle to spicy, flavorful Mexican food bursting with flavor. All of us Americans tried going to a couple of Mexican restaurants in Buenos Aires but they were sorely inadequate, as they are catered to the Argentine palate which tolerates no hint of spiciness. I laughed out loud when they served the supposed "absolute spiciest" salsa I had requested, which wouldn't even be able to muster a "mild" label in a standard supermarket salsa sold in the US. We dipped our chips in the bland salsa in vain, while onlooking Argentines seemed amazed we could eat such "spicy" food.

My first bite of food after coming home to the US after several months in Argentina was a chile verde burrito (from a burrito stand in Turlock, my hometown) and it was heaven, even tho it was a half-eaten leftover in the fridge from the day before when my family had apparently gone out for burritos. I literally can't think of a time when food tasted so good.

" The kind of food all of us Americans missed in Argentina was Mexican food, because we were going crazy without spices and what we considered to be flavorful food."

I'm surprised to hear that. I thought that Argentinians being Latin Americans would have spicy foods (just like their personalities)! I can't go without spice, even just pepper and salt. But pretty much every meal I have (regardless if I cook Balkan, Thai, Indian, Italian etc unless it is meat and three veg then chilli sauce), I must have at least 2 or 3 chillies in them.

When I lived in New York, I went with my Mexican roommate to what I believe was the only Mexican restaurant in Manhattan at that time (ca. 1978). My brother had a job as a bartender there, and he'd warned us not to expect much. At least the food wasn't bland, but, as my roommate, put it, "They call this Mexican?" I recall that the chile relleno was made with a green Bell pepper.

A few years later a taqueria opened up, so we went to that, and the food there did at least taste Mexican, even though they only served the most basic taqueria items.

<<I thought that Argentinians being Latin Americans would have spicy foods (just like their personalities)! I can't go without spice, even just pepper and salt. But pretty much every meal I have (regardless if I cook Balkan, Thai, Indian, Italian etc unless it is meat and three veg then chilli sauce), I must have at least 2 or 3 chillies in them.>>

Yeah, thankfully their wonderful personalities made up for their bland food :) My Argentine friends were great. Your surprise over finding out that Argentines don't like spicy food is pretty common--when I got back to the US everyone assumed I'd been eating spicy salsas, tortillas (Argentina doesn't have those either...except for Spanish tortillas which are omelets--completely different than the ubiquitous Mexican circular unleavened flatbread, even tho they share the same word) and the like, since Argentina's a Latin American country, but Argentina's populace is heavily European (I've seen varying figures, but generally speaking at least 90% of the country is of European descent...wikipedia says Argentina is 97% European, with the remaining percentages coming from other groups such as Asians and less than 1% being indigenous), which I'm sure has to do with their preference for non-spicy foods. I never did understand the Argentine enthusiasm for mayonnaise, tho.

Frances, I agree that pretty much every meal I have must have some form of spiciness to it (or, if not "hot" spiciness, then at least something interesting like oregano or cilantro). I live on-campus at my university, and thankfully the on-campus dining halls have salsa bars, which helps when the food isn't particularly stellar :)

<<I recall that the chile relleno was made with a green Bell pepper.>>

Haha!!!?? That's hilarious and/or disturbing.

Yes it is. For me at least, green Bell peppers are like the absolute antithesis of anything that could be considered "hot" or "spicy".

Or to put it another way, making anything that is supposed to be "hot" out of green Bell peppers is just wrong.