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Not the full Monty

the full English. WSJ had a front page article, of course now hidden behind their paywall, about how different this can be and how upset people can get about it. Because of course there's not nearly enough controversy in the world. Here's a little snippet they posted. Also note that the full Scottish and the full Irish may vary.

From Matthew Thomas:

The full English breakfast has been a staple of the nation’s diet for
hundreds of years, but no one can quite agree on what should be
included—or left out.

“It’s such a controversial topic,” said Dan Harris, founder of
Neurodiversity in Business, a U.K.-based charity. “People have very
strong views, not just on the constituents of the breakfast but also
the placement,” he said. Mr. Harris, 43, regularly uploads photos of
himself eating full English breakfasts to LinkedIn, using the debates
that inevitably follow to state his belief that diversity—on the plate
or in the workplace—should be embraced.

Almost everyone agrees sausages and bacon belong on the plate, but
after that things get more complicated. What about mushrooms, fried
bread or grilled tomatoes? Should eggs be fried, scrambled or poached?
Hasn’t anyone heard of vegetables?

The search for answers has led to the creation of various social-media
groups, surveys and even a nonprofit organization called the English
Breakfast Society, launched by Guise Bule, a startup founder. Mr. Bule
said many aficionados of the English breakfast are “small-minded” and
“dogmatic” about what should appear on the plate.

“I personally like it when people try to beautify a breakfast,” said
Mr. Bule, 45. “I believe chefs should make an effort to put something
beautiful-looking on a plate, something that looks really good. But
heaven forbid you sprinkle a bit of green on there to give it a bit of
color and contrast. Everyone loses their minds.”

…Tom Shiers helped create a Facebook group called the Fry-Up Police,
inspired by the culinary failures of a friend who had gone through a
breakup and was learning to cook. The group attracted support outside
of his circle, and now has more than 125,000 followers.

It is one of many sites where people share photos of their
breakfasts—and criticize the photos of others. On CasualUK, a Reddit
forum, photos of full English breakfasts get tens of thousands of
upvotes and thousands of comments. The responses include praise
(“banging, mate”), backhanded compliments (“it will taste much better
than it looks”) and occasional hyperbole (“this is clearly a hate
crime”).

Posted by
4071 posts

Yup, I read it when it came out. Not a fan of a high cholesterol breakfast.

Posted by
4657 posts

Since I have to eat gluten free, I'll take aspects of the Full English over cafe and a coroneto. I need morning protein.

Posted by
7994 posts

The snippet made no mention of baked beans. What’s with that?!?

Posted by
8136 posts

Controversy, controversy.

Should the tomatoes be tinned plum ones, fresh ones halved and grilled, or fancy tidgy ones on the vine.

Why is it so hard to get fried bread these days, having been supplanted by the ubiquitous hash brown.

What's happened to the Black pudding.

What about kippers for breakfast- another rarity.

In the days of the big houses kedgeree was a staple of the breakfast table.

In Scotland it should also have haggis and Lorne (flat) sausage either in addition to or replacing link sausage, but so few places do haggis these days for breakfast. You never see fruit pudding on a hotel breakfast now, only on a breakfast you cook at home.
Of course you should have porridge to start when in Scotland.

Posted by
5466 posts

Hash browns disbarrs a breakfast from being trad English in my personal canon. Beans yea or nay I have no opinion one way or the other ...

Posted by
33994 posts

fresh ones halved and grilled.

No Q.

Fried egg(s). Although I prefer scrambled it isn't right.

We have to be careful about advocating for black pudding - like faggots it is very regional. So which black pudding. Something of that ilk. I prefer the midlands version, as I do for faggots (not for breakfast) probably because that's the version I grew up with.

and I agree - what's this thing with hash browns? Has no place on a full English or Scottish. Dunno about Wales - there be dragons there!

Posted by
1105 posts

English breakfast would improve by a factor of 10 if they knew how to cook bacon.