ottawa foodies

Now that we are only 24 hrs. away from the Royal Wedding (yes I will be watching) I thought it would be appropriate to make a full English breakfast while watching the ceremonies. While I am not familiar with this dish I would expect to find on my plate:

eggs
bacon and/or sausages
hash browns
toast
baked beans

Has anyone had a full English breakfast and can enlighten me as to what to include? Thanks!

What a great idea! I would add fried tomato to your current list. I'm pretty sure that they don't do anything fancy to it; just slice it and fry it in oil/lard/bacon fat/what-have-you.

I'd add fried tomato, mushrooms and blood sausage.

I think the operative word is "fried". The Brits love fried bread in lieu of toast. Fried in bacon fat! Also kippers AKA kippered herring, but I don't know how that is prepared. Very salty fish, quite yummy.

"What would you include in a full English breakfast?"

A bypass.

:)

But 'mushrooms on toast' and fried tomatos are standard fare.

Also, lager.

I've seen tinned kippers in the same section of the grocery stores as sardines. I love those little beggars.

Wow lots of great ideas so far!

Tracinho Thanks for the suggestions. As for meat I will probably stick with peameal bacon (from the Piggy Market) or smoked bacon or breakfast sausage (from the Sausage Kitchen) since that's the protein I have on hand right now. I have tomatoes and mushrooms so I will probably toss them in the frypan when the bacon/sausage/whatever is done. (Actually I just realized I have some bacon fat in the fridge if needed so I'm all set!)

MarthaS OMG fried kippers - I don't think I can handle those first thing in the morning-;) My dad LOVED fried kippers for breakfast and my mom would periodically make them for him. The smell is so pungent I just couldn't bring myself to try them for breakfast. My mom made them for supper once during my university years to add to kedgeree and they were in fact very good - I guess I just had some bad breakfast experiences with them...

OSoloMeal LOL @ the bypass comment! Seriously though the mushrooms and toast and fried tomatoes for breakfast are sounding mighty good especially with a lager. And I was going to have tea for breakfast-;)

Momomot Tinned kippers? I'm intrigued! I love tinned sardines so I would probably like tinned kippers too. (Mind you I have never had a food I didn't like-;)

I think the Scottish and Irish store carries English bacon. You sometimes see the Maple Leaf version of it at the grocery store - maybe not the best example, but the same distinctive cut.

Fried bread definitely - maybe a once-per-year treat.

I'm married to a brit and his best friend, of British origin, has fish with his weekend breakfast. I think the Brunswick Sardines come in a variety of sauces: lemon, tomato, etc. Don't know if you can find kippers on the same shelf as the Sardines at the grocery store but the sardines are not expensive. In fact, we took this friend to Walmart to stock up on cheap items and he noticed that the Sardines were less than $1 a tin (probably 97 cents!) so he bought them by the dozen! Kind of funny when you see how they market the packaging, a healthy alternative (to all the "fried" options)!

okay, looks like the images didn't show up ...

Wait there's more images!

Just a bit of Canadiana... Brunswick Sardines (and other products i.e. herring snacks) are Canadian made fish products from the Connors Bros. plant in Black's Harbour, NB. Great stuff! My wife's brit nana would live off this stuff.

Now this really is a FULL English breakfast (I'm sad to say I haven't tackled it myself).

www.dailymail.co.uk

Seriously though - it's got all the right components (although the toast should be replaced with fried bread as noted above).

Of course the other essential thing is several mugs of very hot, strong tea.

Cheers,
Ratty

flexie I love those images - what a hoot! I just have those boring old ones like the image on the right-;)

Saucier Fou Yes those Brunswick sardines are definitely from NB. Buying fish canned in Canada is an added bonus when I walk out of the store with a bag full of them. No one else in my family likes them nor do any of my coworkers - apparently they smell too fishy. Yet they taste so good on rye - they don't know what they are missing!

Ratty I can't imagine even trying to chow down that much food! (Except those mysterious black things - not sure what they are...) And tea is definitely on the menu.

So, after many great suggestions, my menu is set for tomorrow. It will be a healthy man's (or woman's) English breakfast:

fruit salad with feta cheese crumbled on top
half an English muffin, toasted, and served with steamed spinach and poached egg on top
grilled peameal bacon
grilled tomato slices
baked beans
a large pot of tea

Thanks everyone for the great ideas!

Here is our faux full english breakfast, enjoyed during the royal wedding this morning. Didn't fry the eggs, and threw in buttermilk biscuits with tomato jam. Biscuits are southern I know, but they worked well with the rest.

lol missed the thread..

Yeah remember those fried bread and grilll tomotoes and mushrooms when I was working in london from the corner diner on weekends.

Love those fat english or irish susages and british bacon.. much leaner bacon that bacon in north america.

Sorry for the delay in responding to this, but as my username suggests this is my area of expertise.

Golden rule #1 - a true English breakfast does not contain any potato products. The only one you might possibly get away with, and even this is a stretch, is bubble and squeak. (Bubble and squeak is the previous day's cooked vegetables chopped and mixed into mashed potatoes, shaped into small patties and fried.)

Golden rule #2 - tea. It's a stereotype, but a big mug of tea - and not your fancy flavoured teas or tisanes either. Orange Pekoe, Darjeeling, or yes, English Breakfast.

Golden rule #3 - fried bread, not toast. Preferably fried in beef dripping, but if that's not available then a solid fat like lard. Not oil.

Hey, no-one ever claimed we were a healthy bunch!

And we love you for it.

I Like "Toad in the hole" (en.wikipedia.org) and simply adore "Egg in the basket" (en.wikipedia.org). Bubble and squeak bakes me feel somewhat healthy as I am getting some veggie content and using left overs (but we all know better).