@capguncowboy Was gonna mention German pancakes. Or whatever they're called. Lemony butter and powdered sugar and light as air pancakes. I'm sure it's health food.
If only Meh would sell a machine that makes them at the table.
@armchair I've had some good ones here in Seattle...But given that I only have them after drinking lovely beer, my opinion may be clouded by the fact that I want greasy food in my scotch-egg-hole, asap.
@metageist Where in Seattle, if you don't mind my asking? I am looking for my next food hookup for after the company party in a few weeks. Although Dick's does tend to win out....
@jaremelz Seattle - Dick's, then Ivar's, then Matt's in the Market, then ferry to Whidbey and have Ivar's again at the dock (or drive the long ass way around if it is late and I'm staying with friends, which is cool because that gives me an excuse to stop at the casino) and then a visit to the wonderful Oystercatcher . . . Only then do I feel like I'm home again (lived in Everett for a bit, seems a lifetime ago). I used to fly Ivar's tartar and chowder (and sometimes the halibut) in on a buddy's plane, but the freaking tartar would explode more often than not - and once the seal is broken and it goes too long without refrigeration it is all downhill from there.
@Pavlov I'm a long time Seattleite who has been working her way south again. I've been an hour south for about 10 years now, so the scotch eggs piqued my interest. I miss the good old days of the Doghouse,the Hurricane, and 13 Coins. I always preferred the dives. Ivars was good, we used to hit them when we were ksyaking, made a great pit stop. But nothing beats Dick's deluxe, fries, and a chocolate shake when you're drunk at 2 am.
@jaremelz Since I work at home now and don't manage to leave the house, I haven't been in a while. But I used to stop by the Whisky Bar in Belltown after work.
@metageist Thanks! I haven't been to Belltown in ages. We used to play pool at some disgustingly trendy place there. But it was easy to hustle those folks. Maybe we will wander that way. The food at these shindigs is always a bit lacking.
Belgian Waffles. But my waffle maker died! Sell me a new one, Meh (well you kinda did with that cuisinart thing but I need to order the waffle plates).
And, it isn't French - Iterations of the dish have been around since Roman times, when egg soaked bread was fried and served with honey. Since then, it has popped up in several different countries, and is referred to by many different names including “Spanish toast”, or “German Toast”. In England, French toast is called “Gypsy Toast,” a name that has no relation whatsoever to French.
@djslack Actually, it's called "pain perdu" (PAN PEAR-do), literally meaning "lost bread", because it normally is made with older, maybe even somewhat stale bread.
@jqubed My French is rusty as hell - I can ask a woman to bed, ask for a beer or ask if they might parlez-vous anglais or vous parlez l'anglais - but that's about it. The English speaking waiters in France (in the larger cities) all look at you shitty and say, correctively, "lost bread" when you ask for French toast. I ask those snotty fuckers every time I'm there just to get a rise out of them, and I generally don't eat carbs - someone else at the table will get the plate. That really pisses them off.
No sense of humor in the cities. None. In the countryside they'll laugh their asses off with you - at you - and at themselves. Whole different France.
@Pavlov They're sick of the obnoxious tourists ("d'you speak American?") in the touristy places (which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy when people intentionally goad them to watch them be snooty). I found when I attempted to speak French, even the first time I went when my French was rusty, they generally appreciated the effort and became friendlier and more helpful. The second time I went I was pretty darn fluent and probably would've had a lovely time if I wasn't getting very sick from a stomach bug I picked up on the cruise (if I'd been by myself I probably would've just left the cruise and gone to a hospital because I was feeling so bad at that point). It might've been just as well; if I'd been feeling any better I would've gotten into a heated argument with a little old French lady.
@Pavlov That said, I used to know a great website for insulting and aggravating the French. Unfortunately, that was in high school and seems long gone now.
@jqubed I admittedly mess with wait staff because unlike here in the US, in France (I'll exclude the smaller towns and villages in the countryside where you'll be received differently), IME, the wait staff is terribly overly sensitive to ensuring that you understand that they are on equal footing with you and that you basically have to earn the right to eat there. It is like they go out of their way from the start to make you earn it. Hotels are a different story as they're dealing with tourists all the time, and more from Asia and other countries than the US - but damn, in MANY little places you might want to stop to eat they ignore you (you learn really quickly to say 'bonjour' to basically everyone - or they think you're the one being rude, which is like ass-backwards from everywhere else on the planet when it comes to service industries), there's usually no bathroom (and more likely than not if there is one available for the public it is filthy and tiny) and I'm sorry, but I can't get used to extending my hand to a maître d' only to have him walk around and press his cheek to mine four times. Just. Shake. My. Hand. It seems odd, because if a frenchman extends his hand to another they shake hands - if they peg you for being anything other than French, they seem to do it purposefully, usually to place you on your toes (again with that ubiquitous need to ensure you know they are your equal and you're going to earn everything you get). I dunno. /end rant & probably my issue.
Oh, but I will say - STAY TO THE RIGHT on the Metro, or they'll literally lose. their. shit. SRSLY.
I do really try NOT to be ethnocentric, but I just haven't cracked the code yet on France in the cities (again, the countryside is easy and that I've got a handle on - and I love it there [but taxes - VAT - are a bite]).
@jqubed When I was in high school TCP/IP protocols replaced NCP as the ARPANET's principal protocol . . . Berners-Lee first proposed the "WorldWideWeb" project long after I graduated and I had earned my first college degree before the first documented version of HTTP (HTTP V0.9). The BBS was king and at 2400 baud, text was almost instantaneous, which was boner inducing. Hell, I remember Mosaic 1.0.
However, I'm living proof that although you can't help getting older, you never have to get old.
@Pavlov Living in Europe for many years, I had the same experience in France. Eating at little French country places was a delight. When asked about why they were so nice to us, one proprietor of a little cafe said something like: "Well, we are French, not Parisienne!
Paris was a whole 'nuther thing. Traveling there for a meeting wearing a US military uniform was especially .. difficult. I remember one outdoor cafe where we heard the waitress speaking perfect English to a group of British tourists. When she turned to us and saw the uniforms, she suddenly lost all ability to speak English, and addressed us in French. One of our group, a linguist, answered her in French. She suddenly had a problem with his perfectly enunciated French, too. So he gave her one of those "Oh, so sorry!" looks and repeated his request in German. (Never do this if you actually want service. Trust me on this. The implication that a citizen of Paris prefers German is ... um ..) The implication was not lost on the British tourists, either, who were trying hard not to laugh.
Dealing with the French army was equally aggravating. Allied protocol dictated that inquiries to an allied unit would be sent in their native language, and the answer would be returned in the language of the recipient. Except that the French sent everything in French and returned everything in French. French officers expected everyone from allied services to treat them as superior officers even when the were the same/equivalent military rank. One of my German coworkers said: "The whole French Officer Corps is from Paris." It made screwing with them really hard to resist.
@Pavlov i remember Mosaic 1.0 on OS2, which blew my mind. I also remember when pocket calculators - esp solar ones - were way cool.
Anyone else here listen yet another World Series w Mickey Mantel at the plate, on a transistor radio under the desk at school?
Sometime i imagine i remember my friendly neighborhood Brontosaurus.
I also remember wide open spaces, and adventures 'round every corner, and long straight roads that were fit for 90mph for the next 900 miles, or so we thought. But that's a lost world now.
@f00l Children, children! I still have the slide rule I used for engineering courses in college. (Damned misplaced decimal point!) I later switched to a calculator - once they had been invented.
Having lived much of my life in Belgium and France and still spending quite a bit of time nowadays in Paris and the south, I've always found that French folk (yes, Parisians absolutely included) are pretty awesomely patient, lovely and humouring (especially when one makes sincere efforts to speak the language and behave with self-awareness and wry self-effacement), with the occasional miserable fuckwit interspersed--just like anywhere in the world I've ever been, US home included. Cuz the fuckwit abroad who's gonna take one to task for fucking up whatever innocuous cultural cue or norm is no different than the fuckwit at home who would do so: one just has more opportunities to encounter an undisguised fuckwit by travelling outside one's usual cultural habitat. And, gotta say, I very much appreciate the formalities of greeting shopstaff and waitstaff upon entering and thanking them upon leaving. By me being the one greeting and thanking them, there's an acknowledgement that they are equal human beings with dignity who are there to help me, not to serve me. People really appreciate that shit, US definitely included. So... yeah.
It is just a thing of beauty when some fuckwit comes along with their presuppositions and snootiness and completely validates other members (@pavlov's and @rockblossom's) experiences.
@goldenthorn - I love your sentiment. I always make a point to look service people in the eye and give them thanks and a smile. So many act like they're hardly even there.
@justbuyit Well, aren't you lovely! I think I see how I wrote it unclearly, but to clarify: I wasn't calling them fuckwits, I was referring to the people being rude to them. So, y'know, sympathising. And also trying to make a point with cutesy language about individuals versus stereotypes, but, eh, whatevs, I ain't no Hemingway here. Cheers.
@goldenthorn I agree. The same courtesy is common in Germany and Italy, and I always greeted the proprietor, especially in small family shops. To do otherwise would be like walking into someone's home and just ignoring them. By the way, I also do that in the USA unless it is one of those superstores where the owner/manager/Grand Poobah is somewhere hidden in an office. I still greet and thank the people in the checkout lines, and it usually gets a smile in return.
I rarely had a problem with service in Europe, and my normal response to rudeness was to simply ignore it and pretend the rude person was just having a bad day, as any good guest should do. But that was sometimes a trial in Paris, where rudeness seemed to be the flavor of the day.
@densa duh! Becuase they said european, not south american!
(J/k) i prefer the egg mcmuffin. English muffin( invented in nyc) canadian bacon ( aka ham), american cheese and an egg. The portable version of eggs benedict.
I voted for Danish, because it is the only one on the list that I've actually eaten in Europe. I might not have been in Denmark at the time, but it was close. It was on a ferry between Denmark and another country.
We were traveling around Europe with Eurail passes. We made it into East Berlin in late December. We didn't travel out of East Berlin, instead East Berlin ceased to exist while we were there. When we left in early January, it was just "Berlin".
I need to start reading all the answers instead of answering the first one I kinda sort of agree with. Or maybe they need to stop giving so many choices.
I quote Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg) : The official name reflects its history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign state.
Somewhat like Texas was an independent republic between 1836 and 1845, before joining the USA... but Texas isn't in Europe :) otherwise, I might have tried Texas Breakfast Tacos
This survey is bullshit. You forgot Swedish Pancakes.
@capguncowboy
Was gonna mention German pancakes. Or whatever they're called. Lemony butter and powdered sugar and light as air pancakes. I'm sure it's health food.
If only Meh would sell a machine that makes them at the table.
@capguncowboy Pancakes make the breast breakfast!
@f00l machine? No way. Cast iron pan is the only way to go. They're only worth the work that you put in.
A pan like this.
@capguncowboy
That's a great pan. Also love the heavy copper stuff i paid a fortune for in NYC, but heavy cast iron for pancakes, always.
OTOH, sometimes i just want German pancakes to simply appear in front of me. I want to have the power to conjure them.
Calling Harry Potter and Co.
@jaremelz nice flapjacks
@capguncowboy how the hell do you even flip something in a pan like this (س ಥ⌂ಥ)س
@Lotsofgoats Lots of patience and a very small spatula. You just loosen them around the edges and they come up pretty easily.
@justbuyit The french love that stuff!!!
Are scotch eggs considered breakfast food? I usually eat them at bars as drunk food but they are damn good either way.
@metageist my thoughts precisely
@metageist Yeah in Scotland yer still drinking at breakfast, so either way ken?
@metageist I have not had a good Scotch egg in Murka. :(
I'll keep trying to find some though!
@metageist I had to look up what a "Scotch egg" was, but I now want to try one.
@armchair I've had some good ones here in Seattle...But given that I only have them after drinking lovely beer, my opinion may be clouded by the fact that I want greasy food in my scotch-egg-hole, asap.
@metageist Where in Seattle, if you don't mind my asking? I am looking for my next food hookup for after the company party in a few weeks. Although Dick's does tend to win out....
@jaremelz Seattle - Dick's, then Ivar's, then Matt's in the Market, then ferry to Whidbey and have Ivar's again at the dock (or drive the long ass way around if it is late and I'm staying with friends, which is cool because that gives me an excuse to stop at the casino) and then a visit to the wonderful Oystercatcher . . . Only then do I feel like I'm home again (lived in Everett for a bit, seems a lifetime ago). I used to fly Ivar's tartar and chowder (and sometimes the halibut) in on a buddy's plane, but the freaking tartar would explode more often than not - and once the seal is broken and it goes too long without refrigeration it is all downhill from there.
@Pavlov I'm a long time Seattleite who has been working her way south again. I've been an hour south for about 10 years now, so the scotch eggs piqued my interest. I miss the good old days of the Doghouse,the Hurricane, and 13 Coins. I always preferred the dives. Ivars was good, we used to hit them when we were ksyaking, made a great pit stop. But nothing beats Dick's deluxe, fries, and a chocolate shake when you're drunk at 2 am.
@jaremelz Since I work at home now and don't manage to leave the house, I haven't been in a while. But I used to stop by the Whisky Bar in Belltown after work.
@metageist Thanks! I haven't been to Belltown in ages. We used to play pool at some disgustingly trendy place there. But it was easy to hustle those folks. Maybe we will wander that way. The food at these shindigs is always a bit lacking.
I'll take some Italian Sausage and eggs over easy
Sicilian pizza. cold. and a day old.
French Toast, obviously. Scotch eggs seem more like an all day thing.
Belgian Waffles. But my waffle maker died! Sell me a new one, Meh (well you kinda did with that cuisinart thing but I need to order the waffle plates).
I recently discovered Scotch eggs. When I did, I thought, "Where have you been all my life???"
Green Hagues & Ham
So, who knows what they call French toast in France?
@jqubed Toast?
@jqubed Royale with cheese?
Actually, it is "lost bread" in France.
And, it isn't French - Iterations of the dish have been around since Roman times, when egg soaked bread was fried and served with honey. Since then, it has popped up in several different countries, and is referred to by many different names including “Spanish toast”, or “German Toast”. In England, French toast is called “Gypsy Toast,” a name that has no relation whatsoever to French.
@djslack Actually, it's called "pain perdu" (PAN PEAR-do), literally meaning "lost bread", because it normally is made with older, maybe even somewhat stale bread.
@Pavlov Neat history lesson!
@jqubed My French is rusty as hell - I can ask a woman to bed, ask for a beer or ask if they might parlez-vous anglais or vous parlez l'anglais - but that's about it. The English speaking waiters in France (in the larger cities) all look at you shitty and say, correctively, "lost bread" when you ask for French toast. I ask those snotty fuckers every time I'm there just to get a rise out of them, and I generally don't eat carbs - someone else at the table will get the plate. That really pisses them off.
No sense of humor in the cities. None. In the countryside they'll laugh their asses off with you - at you - and at themselves. Whole different France.
@Pavlov They're sick of the obnoxious tourists ("d'you speak American?") in the touristy places (which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy when people intentionally goad them to watch them be snooty). I found when I attempted to speak French, even the first time I went when my French was rusty, they generally appreciated the effort and became friendlier and more helpful. The second time I went I was pretty darn fluent and probably would've had a lovely time if I wasn't getting very sick from a stomach bug I picked up on the cruise (if I'd been by myself I probably would've just left the cruise and gone to a hospital because I was feeling so bad at that point). It might've been just as well; if I'd been feeling any better I would've gotten into a heated argument with a little old French lady.
@Pavlov That said, I used to know a great website for insulting and aggravating the French. Unfortunately, that was in high school and seems long gone now.
@jqubed I admittedly mess with wait staff because unlike here in the US, in France (I'll exclude the smaller towns and villages in the countryside where you'll be received differently), IME, the wait staff is terribly overly sensitive to ensuring that you understand that they are on equal footing with you and that you basically have to earn the right to eat there. It is like they go out of their way from the start to make you earn it. Hotels are a different story as they're dealing with tourists all the time, and more from Asia and other countries than the US - but damn, in MANY little places you might want to stop to eat they ignore you (you learn really quickly to say 'bonjour' to basically everyone - or they think you're the one being rude, which is like ass-backwards from everywhere else on the planet when it comes to service industries), there's usually no bathroom (and more likely than not if there is one available for the public it is filthy and tiny) and I'm sorry, but I can't get used to extending my hand to a maître d' only to have him walk around and press his cheek to mine four times. Just. Shake. My. Hand. It seems odd, because if a frenchman extends his hand to another they shake hands - if they peg you for being anything other than French, they seem to do it purposefully, usually to place you on your toes (again with that ubiquitous need to ensure you know they are your equal and you're going to earn everything you get). I dunno. /end rant & probably my issue.
Oh, but I will say - STAY TO THE RIGHT on the Metro, or they'll literally lose. their. shit. SRSLY.
I do really try NOT to be ethnocentric, but I just haven't cracked the code yet on France in the cities (again, the countryside is easy and that I've got a handle on - and I love it there [but taxes - VAT - are a bite]).
@jqubed When I was in high school TCP/IP protocols replaced NCP as the ARPANET's principal protocol . . . Berners-Lee first proposed the "WorldWideWeb" project long after I graduated and I had earned my first college degree before the first documented version of HTTP (HTTP V0.9). The BBS was king and at 2400 baud, text was almost instantaneous, which was boner inducing. Hell, I remember Mosaic 1.0.
However, I'm living proof that although you can't help getting older, you never have to get old.
@Pavlov Living in Europe for many years, I had the same experience in France. Eating at little French country places was a delight. When asked about why they were so nice to us, one proprietor of a little cafe said something like: "Well, we are French, not Parisienne!
Paris was a whole 'nuther thing. Traveling there for a meeting wearing a US military uniform was especially .. difficult. I remember one outdoor cafe where we heard the waitress speaking perfect English to a group of British tourists. When she turned to us and saw the uniforms, she suddenly lost all ability to speak English, and addressed us in French. One of our group, a linguist, answered her in French. She suddenly had a problem with his perfectly enunciated French, too. So he gave her one of those "Oh, so sorry!" looks and repeated his request in German. (Never do this if you actually want service. Trust me on this. The implication that a citizen of Paris prefers German is ... um ..) The implication was not lost on the British tourists, either, who were trying hard not to laugh.
Dealing with the French army was equally aggravating. Allied protocol dictated that inquiries to an allied unit would be sent in their native language, and the answer would be returned in the language of the recipient. Except that the French sent everything in French and returned everything in French. French officers expected everyone from allied services to treat them as superior officers even when the were the same/equivalent military rank. One of my German coworkers said: "The whole French Officer Corps is from Paris." It made screwing with them really hard to resist.
@Pavlov
i remember Mosaic 1.0 on OS2, which blew my mind. I also remember when pocket calculators - esp solar ones - were way cool.
Anyone else here listen yet another World Series w Mickey Mantel at the plate, on a transistor radio under the desk at school?
Sometime i imagine i remember my friendly neighborhood Brontosaurus.
I also remember wide open spaces, and adventures 'round every corner, and long straight roads that were fit for 90mph for the next 900 miles, or so we thought. But that's a lost world now.
@f00l Children, children! I still have the slide rule I used for engineering courses in college. (Damned misplaced decimal point!) I later switched to a calculator - once they had been invented.
@rockblossom
I'm glad to know it isn't just me . . . and the German thing is priceless. I may steal that for a slide in for a script or short, if you don't mind.
Having lived much of my life in Belgium and France and still spending quite a bit of time nowadays in Paris and the south, I've always found that French folk (yes, Parisians absolutely included) are pretty awesomely patient, lovely and humouring (especially when one makes sincere efforts to speak the language and behave with self-awareness and wry self-effacement), with the occasional miserable fuckwit interspersed--just like anywhere in the world I've ever been, US home included.
Cuz the fuckwit abroad who's gonna take one to task for fucking up whatever innocuous cultural cue or norm is no different than the fuckwit at home who would do so: one just has more opportunities to encounter an undisguised fuckwit by travelling outside one's usual cultural habitat.
And, gotta say, I very much appreciate the formalities of greeting shopstaff and waitstaff upon entering and thanking them upon leaving. By me being the one greeting and thanking them, there's an acknowledgement that they are equal human beings with dignity who are there to help me, not to serve me. People really appreciate that shit, US definitely included.
So... yeah.
It is just a thing of beauty when some fuckwit comes along with their presuppositions and snootiness and completely validates other members (@pavlov's and @rockblossom's) experiences.
@goldenthorn - I love your sentiment. I always make a point to look service people in the eye and give them thanks and a smile. So many act like they're hardly even there.
@justbuyit Well, aren't you lovely! I think I see how I wrote it unclearly, but to clarify: I wasn't calling them fuckwits, I was referring to the people being rude to them. So, y'know, sympathising. And also trying to make a point with cutesy language about individuals versus stereotypes, but, eh, whatevs, I ain't no Hemingway here.
Cheers.
@goldenthorn I agree. The same courtesy is common in Germany and Italy, and I always greeted the proprietor, especially in small family shops. To do otherwise would be like walking into someone's home and just ignoring them. By the way, I also do that in the USA unless it is one of those superstores where the owner/manager/Grand Poobah is somewhere hidden in an office. I still greet and thank the people in the checkout lines, and it usually gets a smile in return.
I rarely had a problem with service in Europe, and my normal response to rudeness was to simply ignore it and pretend the rude person was just having a bad day, as any good guest should do. But that was sometimes a trial in Paris, where rudeness seemed to be the flavor of the day.
Polish sausage.
Actually, it's now called "Freedom Toast".
English Breakfast!
How did you forget Canadian bacon?
@densa duh! Becuase they said european, not south american!
(J/k) i prefer the egg mcmuffin. English muffin( invented in nyc) canadian bacon ( aka ham), american cheese and an egg. The portable version of eggs benedict.
Spanish Omelette.
I voted for Danish, because it is the only one on the list that I've actually eaten in Europe. I might not have been in Denmark at the time, but it was close. It was on a ferry between Denmark and another country.
We were traveling around Europe with Eurail passes. We made it into East Berlin in late December. We didn't travel out of East Berlin, instead East Berlin ceased to exist while we were there. When we left in early January, it was just "Berlin".
@hamjudo - What a pivotal and momentous time! We had friends in West Berlin/Berlin that sent us some chunks of the wall.
I need to start reading all the answers instead of answering the first one I kinda sort of agree with.
Or maybe they need to stop giving so many choices.
Irish coffee... it isn't just for breakfast anymore!
@smyle That reminds me, I need to replace that bottle in my desk, just don't tell anyone.
@MEHcus - Your secret is safe here.
@MEHcus just checked, your malört stash is safe.
Norwegian pop tarts
Er... Hamburg---er?
@nkrishnasg I didn't realize Hamburg had become its own country now. But sure, we'll go with it.
@smyle : Not now, but once upon a time...
I quote Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg) :
The official name reflects its history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany.
Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign state.
Somewhat like Texas was an independent republic between 1836 and 1845, before joining the USA... but Texas isn't in Europe :) otherwise, I might have tried Texas Breakfast Tacos
Not a European country but Dutch Baby.
@Ignorant - It refers to the people of a country, and what is a country if not the people? (And babies are people too).