The full english breakfast is our gift to the world. Honestly it's one of the only things I'm vaguely proud of - most countries fail utterly at breakfast, despite their other meals by far defeating ours (Japan, why do you eat natto for breakfast?). I do have a guilty pleasure in ordering a full english breakfast in other countries just to see the variations. I had a really quite interesting interpretation in Budapest which involved paprika sausages and beans served as a dipping sauce.
Lesser known aspect - it's totally OK to have a pint of beer with your full english breakfast. I would consider that very traditional, and it's also an extra helper against a hangover, somehow.
I come from the Netherlands, so we're in no place to tell others how to breakfast, but do most countries utterly fail at breakfast? I find a lot do pretty OK. I guess my experience is pretty European though. English breakfast is certainly not on my list of appealing breakfasts; way too heavy for my tastes. I also don't often have hangovers to combat.
Haha yeah a full english is not something you want every day, unless you want to die at 30 with arteries full of sausages.
Most places I've been, breakfast seems to be a bit of an after-thought, and lunch is the main event. A lot of places tend to be along the lines of "coffee and a croissant", which I find really hard to adapt to as I often eat a heavier breakfast and a lighter lunch.
Aside: I have a friend in France who was introduced to a kettle and how to make cups of tea, and it resulted in an interesting French/English hybrid breakfast where we dipped some sort of French breakfast cake into a bowl of tea (only thing bigger than a coffee cup he had) :D
In NL, dinner is the main event, and for years I skipped breakfast and lunch entirely. Due to my wife being not Dutch, and finding this unacceptable, I now eat a little, but you're right, I eat little for breakfast and lunch. Lived in France for a while, and I remember those official lunches well :)
What is Dutch food anyway? Bitterballen? Just some salted fish on a thin slice of rye? Seems like everyone there in your neck of the woods eats Italian basically? I spent a solid month in Amsterdam once and the most "Dutch" thing I ate was....Indonesian?
Dutch and Amsterdam restaurants are not a good place to look for Dutch cuisine, although I remember the stamppot restaurant fondly. I'm afraid you'll have to get into non-urbanite homes to get a real taste, in the south of the country if you can, or accept a level of fusion which some higher-end restaurants offer, but is generally hard to trace, even for a Dutch person.
> Makes me wonder what we ate before potatoes were introduced to Europe, I have no idea really.
There is a very interesting book [1] on this subject, and it's title is slightly misleading: the cuisine of the Netherlands of course means you're going to be talking about European cuisine in general, and the effects of trade routes opening up (middle and central Asia first, north Africa, later east Asia and the Americas).
Highly recommended if Dutch/European history of cuisine interests you.
There's no evidence that a hangover is caused by alcohol withdrawal in most cases[0].
I think the thought behind "hair of the dog" remedies like a beer with breakfast is either A) getting a little drunk again helps you ignore the hangover or B) Drinking alcohol again causes your body to produce enzymes that process acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a byproduct of our bodies processing alcohol and is thought to contribute to the hangover, along with the well-known effects of dehydration.
Since OP is referring to a traditional full english with a traditional pint, I assume it would be a bitter or real ale with ~3-4% ABV, so the hydration may also outweigh the diuretic effect (although it’s obviously not the ideal remedy in that regard).
My American eyes were opened to the savory delights I'd been missing once I tried a proper full breakfast. Now whenever I make bacon and eggs, I'll at least throw together a can of beans, a little can of tomato sauce, some Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.
100% agree; and as an alternative, for only GBP 0.45 you can get the Sainsburys own-brand equivalent which is just as good - and then go one better with their Hot and Spicy [0] variant, which is my suggested replacement for anything baked-bean related...
There is no cure. Not for me anyway. Swedish midsummer celebrations tomorrow and I just bought a bottle of Havana Club and a bunch of beers. I know what to expect and only time will help... a lot of time... Haven't been drunk since last summer, that's the only thing that truly works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Excellent advice! If you want to know the meaning of a British slang phrase for a soft drink, seen in a British news article, definitely don't ask a British person. You probably want a Belgian for that.
Before going on to the Metaphysical Hangover, I will, for completeness’s sake, mention three supposed hangover cures, all described as infallible by those who told me about them, though I have not tried any of them. The first two are hard to come by.
• Go down the mine on the early-morning shift at the coal-face.
• Go up for half an hour in an open aeroplane (needless to say, with a non-hungover person at the controls).
• Known as Donald Watt’s Jolt, this consists of a tumbler of some sweet liqueur, Benedictine or Grand Marnier, taken in lieu of breakfast. Its inventor told me that with one of them inside him, he once spent three-quarters of an hour at a freezing bus-stop ‘without turning a hair’. It is true that the sugar in the drink will give you energy and the alcohol alcohol.
Lesser known aspect - it's totally OK to have a pint of beer with your full english breakfast. I would consider that very traditional, and it's also an extra helper against a hangover, somehow.