The breakfast menu at our hotel in Chennai was scrumptious and there was even a food station where a cook was busily applying generous dollops of oil to a healthy ‘ragi dosa’.
The meal was free as it was part of the room charges and the dining hall was full of very hungry foodies every morning. It seemed that people had finally begun to listen to their doctors and nutritionists never to miss breakfast, the most important meal of the day.
The ‘ragi dosa’ looked like you had dropped your regular light-brown coloured dosa on a dirty and dusty floor and picked it up and put it back on the plate. (‘Ragi’ is finger millet and is said to be healthier than wheat flour, helps in weight loss, is high in protein and controls blood glucose levels, which is good for diabetics).
“So, how does it taste?” I asked my wife and she replied, “Yuck”, and went back to the buffet table to get an English brekkie of eggs, toast slathered with butter, sausages, pan-fried potatoes, and she added cinnamon rolls from a side table.
In my hometown Hyderabad, in India, breakfast is never healthy, but is rich and you feel sated and unable to get up after finishing off couple of ‘roti’ stuffed with potato or mince meat.
She then went back to get ‘masala’ tea in a stainless steel glass that was placed in a small stainless steel bowl with a lip.
I had read that healthy Brit millennial were discarding the traditional English Breakfast and even the ubiquitous greasy fish and chips and turning vegan or vegetarian, also due to their environmental concerns, and opting for mashed avocado and toast, smoked salmon or oatmeal pancakes for their morning meal.
The new generation is also drinking less and the so-called pub culture has been turned on its head for them and many watering holes now serve non-alcoholic drinks.
Indians are still at the oily fried chicken, pizza with tandoori chicken, stage and even the veggie Big Mac is unhealthy because of the fried potato burger and white bread bun.
There is a wide culinary disparity between the rich and the poor across the globe, and the poor can only afford the cheaper fast food, which incidentally is also tastier because of excess salt and sugar, while healthy food, such as vegetables and fruit and fat-free meat is much more expensive.
And that takes me to some very interesting breakfasts I have had.
I was once travelling in a train and as the sun rose outside, an Indian family in the seat opposite opened a lunch box and started eating sickly sweet and syrupy rasgolos for breakfast, and it woke me up real fast, with a giant appetite, and with shivers running up my spine.
Afghan bread and tea
In Dubai, I would frequent the Afghan bakeries in the bylines of Bur Dubai, that baked fresh and heavenly smelling ‘naan’ in tandoori clay ovens, and you dunk the warm bread into extra milky sweet tea and can easily finish off two big flat breads even before you can savour and sip the tea.
For a heart-warming Iranian breakfast, just across the Dubai Creek, is the place, where you get fresh Noon Barbari bread, sprinkled with sesame seeds and eaten hot with feta cheese, walnuts, honey and jam.
In my hometown Hyderabad, in India, breakfast is never healthy, but is rich and you feel sated and unable to get up after finishing off couple of ‘roti’ stuffed with potato or mince meat.
Or you can be even more adventurous and visit old Hyderabad and try ‘paya’ (trotter soup) that is slow-cooked the whole night, and dunk ‘kulcha’ or ‘naan’ in it, and feel sleepy while eating.
My wife says ‘idli’ (rice cakes) is the most healthy breakfast and they can be eaten with tomotao or coconut ‘chutney’. What’s your fav brekkie?
— Mahmood Saberi is a storyteller and blogger based in Bengaluru, India. Twitter: @mahmood_saberi
