This is just an off-the-wall question. I've been working on B&B reservations for our upcoming trip to Ireland, and most of them offer a choice of continental or full Irish breakfasts. Okay, I mostly know what that means. When we visited London, our hotel had free continental breakfast, but we could upgrade to full English for a fee (we did that on Sundays).
Are full English and full Irish the same? Does one feature bitter and the other Guinness? :} Do any other countries have full breakfasts?
I would say they are pretty much the same. An English breakfast might have kippers, tomato, and baked beans, while an Irish one might have blood pudding, but it mostly refers to a full cooked breakfast, not just croissants and coffee. In Ireland they usually have the full cooked breakfast as well as a wide variety of cereals, toast, breads, yogurt, and juices.
When we were in Ireland, each morning we were greeted with, "So will ya be havin' the full Irish Breakfast this morning?"
In Scotland, it was "the full Scottish Breakfast".
In England...well, you can guess.
As mentioned above, they're pretty much the same, mainly built around fried or scrambled eggs (your choice), toast, and meat. What I'd call a full American breakfast.
In England I saw a lot of sautéed mushrooms added to the offerings (don't remember seeing them in Ireland or Scotland), plus the beans (what others call "baked beans" I'd call canned "Pork 'n Beans"...nothing like the baked beans we have here in Arkansas, at least).
The meats vary. I've seen the "blood sausage" in all three countries, plus some other types of sausages. I've never tasted American-style breakfast sausage over there, though.
Rather than American-style bacon, theirs is more ham-like, like Canadian bacon.
Whatever the minor differences, they're all almost identical and all DELICIOUS!
Yep, I agree delicious! I've also heard it called a "cooked breakfast." I've gotten mushrooms in Scotland. Also, of course, the fried or broiled tomato, (also the really not so good canned tomato at a tepid temperature), and of course haggis--even for breakfast. Pam
Dav,
I've found the same situation described by the others. The "full" breakfasts in both England and Ireland are somewhat similar, although they sometimes have different names for some items. For example, in England the breakfast included "Black Pudding" whereas in Ireland it was described as "Clonakilty Pudding" (I believe it was the same food).
Cheers!
My British husband calls it a "Fry Up" ... so I suppose thats another term for it as well..
Watch out for the sausages - they are ten times greasier than american ones on account of the fact that they use bread crumbs as a filler so I think they absorb the fat...
The only difference I noticed is that the Irish tend to include a very grainy brown bread as the toast. Otherwise, they seem to be the same.
One other note- both usually include LOTS of potatoes. Sometimes more than 1 kind- a 'tater tot' kind and a 'fried potato'/hash brown kind. Irish suppers also usually offered 3 or 4 kinds of potatoes- mashed, boiled, roasted, and fried!
I suppose it depends on where you go. I can't recall EVER having potatoes on the breakfast menu in Ireland.
I have never seen potatoes on the menu in the UK for breakfast at any of the B&B's or hotels we've stayed in. But like Nancy said, maybe it depends on where you go.
They may have invented the language, but "cholesterol" is not in their version. We stayed a week in English B&Bs with huge home cooked breakfasts. PLease don't tell my doctor.
