35 Unusual Breakfasts From Around the World

Part breakfast restorative and part hangover cure, this flavorful “rib broth,” made by boiling beef ribs with potatoes, onions, garlic, and cilantro, is also known as “levantamertos” – “raise the dead.”

This Ghanaian breakfast dish is basically rice and beans (the latter meaning black-eyed peas or field peas) cooked with red sorghum leaves, which give the preparation its dark red hue (the leaves are discarded before eating). Waakye is common street food, sold wrapped in banana leaves, often with other foods (eggs, salad, etc.) added.

Literally “sweet of the spoon,” this Greek morning tradition is simply fruit – grapes, figs, cherries, apples, quinces, apricots, and just about anything else – boiled down with sugar into preserves, then eaten by the spoonful, sometimes with cheese or spread on toast. Strong coffee and a glass of cold water are the usual accompaniments.

Pã de queijo – “cheese bread” – is a small, light bun or 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 it’s traditionally made with cheese from that region – but is now a popular breakfast snack all over the country, usually accompanied by coffee.

The basis of this Ugandan breakfast staple is matoke or matooke – a variety of banana picked green, then cooked and mashed. It is served with a sauce, which may include beef but is traditionally made with organ meats, like sweetbreads and tripe.

Pupusas are basically thick, stuffed tortillas, made with masa (nixtamalized cornmeal) and 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 saltfish and bake – is salt cod (cod or pollock preserved by drying and salting), here cooked with onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Bake consists of dough balls fried in hot oil, eaten as an accompaniment.

In St. Lucia and some other corners of the Caribbean, “green fig” means “green banana” for some reason. This essential preparation, considered the national dish of this island nation, is made with slices of the fruit and salt cod, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, and pickled peppers, all mixed together like a hash.

Yet another example of saltfish for breakfast (though the meal is also eaten for lunch and dinner) is this combination of salt cod with a fruit called ackee, whose yellow flesh, when cooked with onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and often a Scotch bonnet chile, resembles scrambled eggs.

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.

This hearty stew of tripe and hominy in a sauce of red chiles, onions, cilantro, and lime juice, is the ultimate morning-after meal in Mexico, though it’s also served as a main dish on special occasions.

Nasi lemak is a breakfast dish of rice cooked with coconut milk and spices and accompanied by various things like hard-boiled eggs or small fried fish, and always seasoned with sambal, a spicy red chile and garlic paste.

Breakfast choices in Peru vary greatly according to region, but one popular example, from the Amazon Basin, is this combination of roasted, mashed plantains mixed with bits of rehydrated salted pork, not unlike pork jerky.

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

Banitsa is a relative of Turkey’s börek, a flaky 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.

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.

Arepas are similar to El Salvador’s pupusas, but tend to be smaller and are made with a kind of cornmeal instead of masa. Eaten in northern South America since pre-Columbian times, they’re typically filled with cheese, various meats, or avocado.

The Portuguese eat various kinds of toast or sandwiches for their morning meal, but one particular sweet treat that is much appreciated is the pastel (plural pastéis) de nata – a custard tart with a puff-pastry shell, often sprinkled with cinnamon.

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 most common Swedish breakfast is centered smörgåsar, or open-faced sandwiches. Typical toppings, besides butter and cheese, might include some combination of liver pâté, cold cuts, pickles, cucumber, and/or bell pepper.

The simit is a kind of oversized bagel topped with sesame or other seeds, But that’s only the start of a Turkish morning meal. 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, among them cheese, eggs, olives, tomato wedges, cucumber slices, either jam or honey (or both), and sometimes sausage.

A ubiquitous breakfast dish in China, also eaten elsewhere in Asia, jook – also called congee – is made by boiling rice in water until it turns into a pudding-like mass. Various kinds of meat, fish, vegetables, nuts, or fruit may be added.

Lablabi is a hearty, spicy soup made from dried chickpeas, onions, garlic, olive oil, cumin, and the vivid Tunisian hot sauce called harissa, served over hardened crusts of bread. A raw or lightly poached egg is often added, and there is sometimes preserved tuna on the side.

Za’atar man’ouche is a simple flatbread generously topped with olive oil and za’atar — a blend of a Middle Eastern oregano-like herb called za’atar with dried sumac, sesame seeds, and salt, though other herbs and spices are sometimes included.

A standard offering at stalls in the city-state’s many hawker centers, chwee kueh is a steamed rice cake topped with preserved radish or turnip, and inevitably spiced up with the chile paste called sambal.

Genfo is 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.

The collective term for the traditional Japanese breakfast, wa-choushoku 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.

A typical weekend breakfast in Nigeria might include àkàrà , fritters made from puréed black-eyed peas or field peas, and akamu (also called ogi), is a semi-solid, sourish cake or solidified porridge made with fermented corn flour.

A common street food in Senegal, ndambé is a spicy stew of black-eyed peas in tomato sauce, sometimes with the addition of meat, slathered onto a split baguette.

The classic morning meal in this island nation in the Arabian Sea, is this spicy tuna salad made with chiles, onions, lime juice, grated coconut, and coconut milk. It is nearly always eaten with a flatbread called roshi.

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

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.

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 resembles very dark chocolate frosting in appearance) 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.

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. As probably everybody in America knows by now, it’s clear beef or chicken broth loaded with rice noodles and assorted herbs and topped with sliced meats.

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.