What is 'normal' food for meals?

[MasterWuuf]

I'm from Louisiana (U.S.A).
I was wondering what the different countries ate for each of their meal, generally speaking.
I know that we sometimes eat leftover pizza for breakfast (wish I had some),
but that isn't what we normally eat.

I'd be interested to know what would be expected to be on the menu, where you live,
for breakfast/lunch/supper.

[Jan]

Czech cuisine is relatively simple, unhealthy, with a lot of fat meat and sauces. It's very similar to other Central European cuisines (Austria, Bavaria). Various cakes and pies are also typical, and of course "dumplings" (knödel / knedlík).

Breakfast: either (dark) bread with butter and honey / marmalade or something like that; or some sort of cake or pie (with some jam, or curt, or poppy - that's quite typical).

Lunch: it's the main Czech dish, very heavy; with soup (potatoe, noodle); the main dish has normally some dark meat (beef, pork), souce, and potatoes / dumplings. And a beer, of course.

Supper: traditionally, supper is light, usually cold - bread with ham or cheese, etc. Some people prefer warm meals as for lunch, but I think it's a minority. And, of course, another beer (or two ).

Well, this was of course a huge generalisation, this may vary a lot; and of course, there has been a huge influence of various international cuisines during last 20 years.

[beowuuf]

Hmm, this might be more peculiar to me than scottish people, but here we go:

Breaksfast:
- porridge
- toast
- Serial (cornflakes, sugar puffs, etc)
- semi-english (potato bits, eggs, bacon, beans)

Lunch (can be lighter version of supper. less likely to be pastas or pizza, but not ruling it out):

Supper:
- some form of potatoes (chips, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, mached potatoes) with some form of side (beans, peas, etc) along with some form of meat (steak, fish, pie)
- pasta with something (like chicken and sauce, bacon and sauce, chilli/bolognese, mushroom and onion and pepper included)
- rice with something (like chilli or curry)
- fajitas! (bacon or chicken)
- pizza! (rarely home made)

And let's not forget the great sunday roast:
- bacon joint!
- chicken
Both served with veggies, perhaps yorkshire puddings, gravy, potatoes (a few kinds)

[Jan]

And of course - I've almost forgotten: SPAM! Spam, sausage, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and spam. Spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!

[beowuuf]

Bacon's off

[Jan]

I understand - I also prefer lupin (lupinus). OK, this was OT, again, sorry for that, MW, I'll just shut up and go.

[Trego]

... what would be expected to be on the menu, where you live, for breakfast/lunch/supper.

That's hard, I feel like I've turned into a Hobbit. I have breakfast, 2nd breakfast, 9zess (like 10zess only at 9) Lunch, and Supper, sometimes even pudding.

But the locals here traditionally have:
Breakfast: rice or noodles with chicken or fish
Lunch: rice or noodles with chicken or fish
Supper: rice or noodles with chicken or fish and vegetables

Of course they add a variety of flavours. Beef sometimes gets mixed in for variety.

[ChristopheF]

That's all very good, but you must agree that a healthy meal for champions should include Dragon Steak, Worm Round and Screamer Slice.

[cowsmanaut]

woo.. Well I don't eat breakfast usually, but when I do, fruit is good. and lunch I sometimes eat.. sometimes don't.. but when I do I like to have salad and fruit or sandwich and fruit. and dinner, seems to almost always be sushi.. It's cheap , tasty, and everywhere here. we do have other things from time to time.. soups, or the typical hot meal.. but it's rare in comparison.

Sandie has switch to mainly eating raw foods. So I've adapted my own diet surrounding that.. I see the obvious benefits. Easy weight loss, more energy.. and they have a variety of studies showing other advantages and cancer fighting aspects. So that means fruit, nuts, and vegies. As well as fish... ie.. sushi

[MasterWuuf]

Thanks for the information. I'm having to really think, to recall where everyone lives.

Jan: Dark bread? Is it dark rye (pumpernickel)? If so, that's about the only bread I eat now.
Toasted, with butter, makes my eyes all shiny (hee, hee).

[Jan]

Jan: Dark bread? Is it dark rye (pumpernickel)? If so, that's about the only bread I eat now. Toasted, with butter, makes my eyes all shiny (hee, hee).

It's half-rye and half-wheat. The most common bread here.

[Gambit37]

I hate cooking, so I stick to a few simple meals: for evening dinner that usually means pasta & sauce, meat (pork chop, steak, sausages, etc.) and 2/3 veg, or the odd curry (not homemade!). Breakfast is either cereal, porridge or fruit in yoghurt. Lunch in the week is either sandwiches, omelettes or other egg based dish, soup or sometimes pasta. Sometimes at the weekend I'll do a full English roast for dinner, but since it's just little old me on my own, that's usually not fun and is better enjoyed with others.

I definitely don't eat enough though. I've lost weight this last year!

[MasterWuuf]

Porridge is uncommon here. What exactly is it? Is it a kind of wheat cereal? I always think of cabbage soup, when I hear it mentioned.

P.S. Thank you guys/gals, for the 'eating habit' information. I've always enjoyed, watching others or joining in, eating.
I would agree with you, Gambit. A SPAM (Jan) sandwich with friends, is as good as a steak alone.

I like Spam, by the way.

[beowuuf]

Oatmeal basically! Not like soup at all, nice and thick and mmmmmmmmmmmmm good.

[linflas]

For breakfast, i don't have much time so i eat biscuits with tea (tons of different flavours) or cereals with milk to have more energy at 12 for sport. Very rarely, i have an "à la bonne franquette" breakfast with bacon, ham, chorizo, rillettes, pâté, etc. and a bunch of various cheeses (comté, brie and of course camembert and more smelly ones you may imagine).

Lunch time is more fluctuating : can be a restaurant (italian, indian, thai, erm... french ) or my company cafeteria and if i play tennis or badminton, i eat a big sandwich and some pastry (chocolate eclair, raspberries charlotte...)

Dinner is often light : vegetable soup, chinese noodles, a steak with french fries but sometimes i cook a giant pasta dish which i keep for several evenings ! I'm quite proud of my homemade carbonara with mascarpone (instead of cream).

[Trantor]

I'm not a good (or interested) cook myself, so I'll try to describe food in Germany in general.

Breakfast:
Most people eat bread and/or buns, often dark bread, either with some sort of meat, cheese, jam, honey, or nougat cream (Nutella for the win!). There are many different kinds of bread and buns; several people from other countries told me that the German love for bread and its variety is exceptional.
Breakfast also often contains cereals (usually with milk), fruit, boiled or scrambled eggs, and yoghurt. Warm food (except eggs) is extremely uncommon for breakfast here.
People usually drink coffee, tea, juice or milk for breakfast.

Lunch/Dinner:
I won't differentiate between the two, as the preference (if any) often depends on your family and work situation. People who have a warm meal for lunch often eat bread for dinner, for example.
Traditional German cuisine contains cooked or fried meat (mostly pork, beef, or chicken), potatoes, and other vegetables. Fish used to be a "poor-man's dish" decades ago, but has become some form of delicacy over time and is popular today as well. German food is said to be rather salty. Today, you will rarely find the traditional German cuisine anymore, the Germans have embraced the meals from other countries. Italian food (pasta, pizza) is probably the most popular here, but you will also find at least one Chinese and Greek restaurant in almost every small German town.
Though McDonald's and Burger King are basically everywhere (Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut a lot less!), the most popular German fast food is - no, not the infamous Bratwurst, but Döner Kebap (which, according to Wikipedia, is served very differently in countries throughout the world). Here in Berlin with its large Turkish population, you can find a Döner on every corner.
Popular beverages are water (sparkling or still), some sort of cola or soda, and something called "Schorle" - fruit juice mixed with sparkling water (usually apple juice, but others exist as well). If you move to alcohol, beer stands above everything, with wine a distant second.

It seems to me that the time of the meals here is also of note, especially when I meet linflas in the chatroom at 10 pm and he says he is away making dinner. Germans usually eat breakfast somewhere between 6 am and 8 am, lunch between 12 am and 1 pm, and dinner between 6 pm and 8 pm. Is this considerably earlier than elsewhere?

[Bit]

Nonono - most popular fastfood is still the currywurst. It's just - Turkish ones will never get the secret formula!
And Trantor - you did forget the unbelievable importance of noodles!

About kartoffeln (po-ta-toes!):
The legend is told that way:
The prussian old Fritz found out that potatoes could help to feed the population basically and so he wanted that the acres should be filled with it - but no one cared... since... he found the solution to trick them:
He placed a lot of soldiers around his fields to protect this incredible worthful goodie against robbery.
This did it!

[Jan]

LOL - as I said, Czech cuisine is practically the same as the German one, and the time of the meals is also the same.

I forgot to mention the most typical Czech meal - "knedlo-vepřo-zelo" (dumpling/knödel - pork - cabbage), served with beer, of course:

[MitchB1990]

Well as of right now my meals consist of.
Breakfast: Ramen (Chicken)
Lunch: Ramen(Beef)
Dinner: Ramen(Creamy Chicken)
Kinda have nothing in ways of oney at the moment, but thats what you get for going to art school!

In reality breakfast starts at 7ish, generally some eggs meat and cereal.
Lunch anywhere from 10 ish- 1ish. I eat a whole variety of things, easiest though by far is sandwiches (Sub) or any other easy to make and quick to eat meals.
Dinner, is usually got 1 main dish with meat a side of potatoes or noodles with some sort of bread. Nothing to fancy some hamburgers now and then and some steaks.

[Bit]

The general form of the 'Knödels' that Jan wrote about was 'Sundays lunch' in germany for centuries.
But see, this tradition gets more and more lost, that even I as older one forgets to mention it.
People don't take the time to prepare such things anymore.

[Gambit37]

I forgot to mention that at the weekend, I'll sometimes have the classic "Full English Breakfast" in a local café (it's always better in a café than doing it yourself). This is basically a plate full of indigestible grease and fat.

Well, to clarify it can include all or any from this list: sausages, bacon, baked beans, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes, hash browns (fried potato cakes), fried egg, black pudding (look it up!) and possibly even chips, plus toast. All washed down with a big mug of "builder's" tea (very strong tea). More often than not, it's not eaten very early, but in fact as a brunch after a late night drinking...

Nice thread Masterwuuf, interesting to see a small but important part of everyone's culture

[cowsmanaut]

I suppose I should mention that Sushi is not just my regular meal, it's a large number of British columbians. We have a large asian content here. That means a lot of sushi places run by both Korean and Japanese owners. That means really good and cheap sushi. A lot of boxes are around $6-$9 and that contains a small salad, some sushi, some chicken teryaki, some tempura, gyoza, miso soup, and rice... which means that if you make it through the meal you're very full usually with tax, and tip I'm paying no more than $20 for a big and delicious meal for the two of us. It's a damned sight better than McDonalds too! So yeah, imagine paying less than £4 for a large tasty meal, they always come with free tea too.. I seem to recall paying nearly $30 for a meal when I was in london at that indian food place just for me.. and I was still hungry after :S

So you can see why it became very popular That and the fact that BC is along the coast which means a lot of fish is available fresh anyway

Also, sushi is not just raw fish. The have a variety of fully cooked meat based rolls, and veggie rolls too. I used to be resistant to the raw fish.. but it's surprisingly good! You just can't do it at home easily. Fish has to be sushi grade, which reguires a certain level of freshness and has to be flash frozen to kill any potential parasites in it. Ocean fish usually doesn't have them but fresh water fish like salmon often do.

Sandie hadn't really had experience with sushi before, and now she's not interested in anything else

[Gambit37]

I never got into Sushi -- and apparently its new popularity over the last few years has contributed massively to the depletion of fish stocks around the world. But I guess we have the same problem with all food really...

[cowsmanaut]

well, the depletion of very specific fish yes. Salmon, and Tuna (the ones I most commonly eat) have already been fished a lot as it is, but blue fin Tuna is the one that appears to be suffering most. Ahi Tuna is the one I like the most. The meat looks like a rose coloured gem Salmon has turned to farming and is what a larger percentage of the salmon found in resturaunts these days is. Which is not great, but it keeps the species in the food chain.

[MasterWuuf]

Salmon and Tuna Sushi???!!!??? That sounds good, especially the Salmon. I may have to investigate.

[MasterWuuf]

P.S. Getting ready to eat breakfast.

Two eggs (fried in bacon grease)
Two strips/long and thin cuts of bacon
Two slices of Pumpernikel (black rye) toast
Very large mug of Guatamalan/Jamaican blend coffee (strong) with sugar and fat-free, non-dairy, creamer.
(Note the 'fat-free' creamer. DIEt is everything. (Yes, I intentionally spelled DIEt that way ).

Oops. For the record: I weigh less than 175 pounds, so I'm not even heavy set.

[cowsmanaut]

watched a documentary that showed a thin guy and a fat guy and a medium set guy.. got them on tread mills, and they showed that the fat guy was in better health internally than the other two, not in better shape, and not in ideal health.. but better than the other two.. showing that weight is not the only factor in health. you can be thin and still die of a heart clogged with bacon

[MasterWuuf]

watched a documentary that showed a thin guy and a fat guy and a medium set guy.. got them on tread mills, and they showed that the fat guy was in better health internally than the other two, not in better shape, and not in ideal health.. but better than the other two.. showing that weight is not the only factor in health. you can be thin and still die of a heart clogged with bacon

Did he actually place a bad epitaph on bacon?
Next thing, he'll suggest pizza isn't a breakfast food.

[Maven]

I spent some of my honeymoon in Germany. We really enjoyed the German food. My ultimate favorite: Jaegerschnitzel. That was the best! But I enjoy a good Cordon Bleu. I spent some time in Austria a couple decades ago, and got so I really liked the Jogurt and Semmel Knoedels. And Leberkaese. And Motzart Kugels.

Here we mostly have oatmeal/cream of wheat or cold cereal or pancakes/waffles for breakfast. Sometimes scrambled eggs or hash brown potatoes.

For lunch it varies widely. Mostly because my 11-year-old daughter is actively learning how to cook. She has several cookbooks (plus she knows how to look up recipes on the internet) and she picks a different new recipe every day. This week we had sloppy Joes with home-made buns using the French Baguette Bread recipe, Focaccia bread with olive oil and Balsamic vinegar, Ham fried rice, biscuits and gravy, and hot dog hash.

For dinner she sometimes tries a recipe that she tried once before, and tries to improve on it. If not, we have salad and maybe potatoes (mashed or baked or French Fried) or soup or stew of some kind. Or pasta. We eat a lot of spaghetti because I have a lot of sons and it's cheap and easy to make in bulk.

[Bit]

Most children can always be satisfied with noodles mixed with pieces of bacon. (with ketchup, and favourite pasta-type is maccaroni then - for the fun ofc).

First time I had to work in Italia, they had fish - not really my thing - but there was always pasta and bacon - so - fine! But - separat. There the noodles, and there the bacon. Pretty uncommon to me.
So I cutted the bacon into pieces and mixed it into the noodles.
They did watch me doing this.
I never felt so much pairs of eyes on me.
I think I made some kind of revolutionary invention... - and I felt just great!