They call breakfast the rudder of the day and I would certainly second that emotion. But as well as setting the course of the day ahead, breakfast is also a statement about who you are.
Coffee and a Danish: that says you're a busy modern international person with no time to spare. Gammon, eggs and a banger, with toast and marmalade to follow: you're a traditionalist, maybe with a bowler hat and a copy of the FT on the chair beside you. Grilled fish, soup, rice and pickles: well, obviously you've just come in from tending your rice paddies (or you're staying at an old-style ryokan)..
After 30 years in Japan, breakfast chez the Swinnertons has an unmistakably hybrid character. It can also get pretty experimental sometimes. Miso-shiru (with daikon, cubes of local tofu and wakame seaweed) is a sine qua non. There's usually some rice or porridge to go with that, sometimes with an egg on the side and maybe some leftovers from dinner the night before. But I don't think I've ever before had breakfast with two kinds of Brussels sprouts (one the usual miniature green spheres, here quartered and wok-fried; the other the frilly kind marketed here under the name Petit Veil, simply steamed in a colander).
The porridge itself was also a curious cross-cultural adventure:
Surely there can't be any new food combinations left to be discovered on this planet — but I've never heard of this one anywhere else... White rice cooked down together with coarse whole-grain oats (about equal parts of each) to create a smooth kayu porridge. It worked brilliantly: the oats imparted their wholesome creamy-sweet flavour, while the polished rice made the mix light, smooth and much more digestible. This is definitely a recipe that I will return to on cold late-winter mornings.
