You'll Be Surprised What People Eat for Breakfast Around the World

Pão de queijo (literally “cheese bread”) is a small, light bun — sometimes called a cheese puff — similar to France’s gougère, except that it’s made with tapioca (cassava) flour. A specialty of the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil and traditionally made with cheese from that region, it’s now a popular breakfast snack all over the country, usually accompanied by coffee.

Pupusas — in effect thick, stuffed tortillas, made with masa (alkali-processed corn dough) — are a breakfast staple in this Central American nation. They’re usually filled with beans and cheese or with cheese and chicharrón (spiced, shredded pork, not to be confused with the fried pork rinds called chicharrones) and served with curtido, a spicy slaw.

Bake and saltfish (or salt fish), also called saltfish and bake, is a classic breakfast dish in this small country on the northern coast of South America. Saltfish is another name for salt cod — cod or pollock preserved by drying and salting. “Bake” consists of dough balls fried in hot oil. The accompanying fish is cooked with onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Green tea rather than coffee is the usual accompaniment.

The salted fish in the Jamaican standby called ackee and saltfish — considered the island’s national dish and eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner — is also salt cod. Ackee is a fruit related to lychee. Its yellow flesh, when cooked with onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and often a Scotch bonnet chile, resembles scrambled eggs.

The Mexican breakfast favorite called chilaquiles consists of fried tortilla strips or chips cooked in red or green salsa. Shredded chicken is sometimes stirred in, and chilaquiles are often served with a fried or scrambled egg on top.

Breakfast choices in Peru vary greatly according to region, but one popular example, from the Amazon Basin, is tacacho con cecina — mashed, roasted plantains mixed with bits of rehydrated salted pork (like pork jerky).

Arepas are similar to El Salvador’s pupusas, but tend to be smaller and are made with a variety of cornmeal rather than with the masa used for pupusas. In 2014, the food, travel, and entertainment website Thrillist anointed arepas “the world’s best breakfast” — specifically those filled with “butter and salty cheese, assortment of meats, chicken & avocado salad, eggs, beans” (though presumably not all at once).

This Balkan nation’s banitsa is a relative of Turkey’s börek — flaky filo-like pastry, either round, rectangular, or formed into a coil like sausage — with various sweet or savory fillings. A typical breakfast version is made with eggs and cheese. In place of tea or coffee, the accompanying beverage is sometimes a fermented grain drink called boza.

Pastizzi are small flaky pastries, usually ovoid in shape, with a variety of fillings — most often either ricotta cheese or mashed green peas. While they’re eaten as a snack throughout the day, they are also considered a good way to start the morning.

Though the Portuguese often eat various kinds of toast or sandwiches for their morning meal, one particular treat is the pastel de nata — a custard tart with a puff-pastry-like shell. Copious amounts of coffee are consumed as well.

The most common Swedish breakfast is centered around one or more smörgåsar, or open-faced sandwiches (a smörgåsbord is literally a sandwich table). Typical toppings, besides butter and cheese, might include some combination of liver pâté, cold cuts, pickles, cucumber, and/or bell pepper.

As elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, breakfast in Turkey tends to include lots of small plates filled with foods to be eaten in various combinations. Bread — often simit, ring-shaped rolls covered with sesame seeds — is a given, and there are nearly always cheese, eggs in some form, olives, tomato wedges, cucumber slices, either jam or honey (or both), and tea. Spicy sausage is often added.

Considered Egypt’s national dish, ful medames consists of stewed fava beans (usually reconstituted dried brown ones) mashed with olive oil, lemon juice, and cumin. Though it is eaten at other times of day, it is considered a breakfast basic, sometimes topped with chopped hard-boiled eggs.

A traditional Iranian dish usually served for breakfast, haleem (or halim) is a kind of porridge made with pelted wheat (with the bran removed but the germ intact) or sometimes barley, mixed with long-cooked lamb or other meat or poultry. It may be enhanced with cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter.

Za’atar man’ouche is a simple flatbread generously topped with olive oil and the herb mixture called za’atar — traditionally a blend of a Middle Eastern thyme- or oregano-like herb with dried sumac, sesame seeds, and salt, though other herbs and spices are sometimes included. The bread is considered an ideal way to start the day because za’atar contains magnesium, iron, and other nutrients.

A familiar breakfast dish, especially in the colder months, bessara is a dense soup made with dried fava beans, garlic, olive oil, and cumin. Instead of eating it with a spoon, Moroccans sometimes scoop it up with a piece of bread, as though it were a liquid dip.

Tunisians sometimes turn to the soup pot, too, for their morning repast. Lablabi is a hearty, spicy soup made from dried chickpeas (garbanzos), onions, garlic, olive oil, cumin, and the vivid Tunisian hot sauce called harissa. A poached egg is often added.

Genfo is an Ethiopian breakfast favorite. It’s a thick barley-flour porridge served with a well in the center into which is poured clarified butter and the spice mixture called berbere, whose ingredients include chiles, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, and several herbs and spices unique to Ethiopia and vicinity.

A typical weekend breakfast in Nigeria might include akara and akamu. The former are fritters made with puréed black-eyed peas; the latter, also called ogi or pap, is a semi-solid, sourish cake or solidified porridge made with fermented corn flour.

A common street food in Senegal, ndambe is a spicy stew of black-eyed peas and meat, slathered onto a split baguette.

A ubiquitous breakfast dish in China, also eaten elsewhere in Asia, congee (also called jook) is made by boiling rice in ample water until it turns into a pudding-like mass. Various kinds of meat, fish, vegetables, nuts, or fruit may be added, and congee is sometimes served with youtiao — in effect, Chinese churros — to be dipped into the rice.

The traditional Japanese breakfast is a meal of multiple small dishes, based around steamed rice and miso soup, usually with simply cooked fish, pickled vegetables, and such additions as tofu, eggs, and/or fermented soybeans.

Nasi lemak is another breakfast dish built around rice, in this case cooked with coconut milk and spices. The accompaniments typically include fried anchovies, peanuts, a hard-boiled egg, and sambal, a spicy red chile and garlic condiment.

The classic morning meal in this island nation in the Arabian Sea, southwest of Sri Lanka and India, is mas huni, a spicy tuna salad made with chiles, onions, lime juice, grated coconut, and coconut milk. It is accompanied by huni roshi, a coconut flatbread.

The unofficial national dish of Myanmar, mohinga is eaten throughout the day, but is primarily considered breakfast fare. It’s a broth made with catfish or some other fish, flavored with lemongrass and ginger and thickened with rice powder. Fish sauce, rice noodles, and other additions are stirred in and the soup may be garnished with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

The typical Filipino breakfast, silog, is a combination plate of garlic-fried rice, egg (usually fried), and meat or fish of some description. The meat could be longanisa sausage, dried beef, even hot dogs, even Spam.

Singaporeans eat many different things for breakfast, but kaya toast is quite possibly the most popular of all. It consists of toasted (or, ideally, grilled) white bread spread with a custardy jam made with eggs, coconut, sugar, and the fragrant herb called pandan. Kaya toast is typically topped with a pat of butter or margarine, which melts into the jam.

Dan bing has been called “the Taiwanese street-food answer to a breakfast burrito.” It’s basically a crêpe topped with egg (sometimes mixed with things like cheese, shredded meat, or scallions), then rolled and sliced into bite-sized pieces. The pieces are usually dipped into soy sauce, hot sauce, or some other condiment.

Arguably the most famous and widely enjoyed of all Vietnamese dishes, phở is eaten for lunch and dinner, too, but is Vietnam’s most common breakfast. A hearty meal, it’s clear beef or chicken broth loaded with rice noodles and assorted herbs and topped with sliced meats. The many street vendors who sell the soup start simmering their broth in the early hours of the morning.

Though Australia claims the invention of avocado toast, it’s another kind of toast that shows up most frequently on breakfast tables around the country: toast spread with Vegemite. Vegemite is a thick paste (it looks like particularly dark chocolate frosting) made with yeast extract flavored with spices and other ingredients. It’s very salty and high in umami flavors, and a little bit of it — sometimes combined with butter — goes a long way on a slice of toasted bread or even a bagel.