Just look at the rest of the plate. You can feel your arteries block just by looking at it. So why the veggies? To feel better about yourself? To add some *healtiness* to it?
I’m not dissing your breakfast honestly, it looks delicious. But I just find the tomatoes to be hilarious extra that shouldn’t be there.
N.B. I say this with much love and respect from your Canadian colony.
13 comments
Balance, moisture, taste. A complete meal.
Tomatoes are delicious in a full English, simple as
Because tomatoes and mushrooms are fundamental components of a full English. They taste delicious with everything else in the meal.
Please make that TINNED, chopped tomatoes (grilled tomato halves are for posh people), mushrooms (sautéed or fried) and baked beans (in tomato sauce, like you get in the UK).
You simply need them for a fry up, just like you need roasties, veggies and Yorkshire puddings on a Sunday dinner.
And I’m saying this as a German who’s lived in Yorkshire for over 25 years.
You get the fried toast, you smush that tomato all over it, add mushrooms, add black pudding and slice that sausage all over it.
Add the fried egg on and pop it to make it moist yet still surprisingly crisp.
Bit of bacon, maybe if you dare some hash brown and you destroy that basic bitch like it’s your last meal.
Sorry to be that person but tomatoes are technically a fruit …right!? …not sure if that makes it stranger to have with a fry up though?
(personally feel that chopped or tinned tomatoes with a full Eng are the tits)
Name checks out for being Canadian. Well the middle bit does atleast.
Balance. If you only eat meat or fat, you’ll quickly feel loagy. What you ideally want is something with different flavour profiles, from sweet, umami, sour, spicy, salty. Bacon covers salt, ketchup covers sweet, sausages are umami, tomatoes aren’t necessarily sour but they’re closer than anything else on the plate, and black pudding brings the spice. In addition, mushrooms can bring extra umami, oatcakes or bread has a sweetness when fried, beans bring sweetness, butter on toast is salty, orange juice is sour, and black pudding brings not just spice but chilli heat. It’s a clever dish. Balanced twice over, without any of us really knowing the food rules, just knowing what we like. There’s even a third layer if you add salt, pepper, coffee, a sweet and spicy relish or sauce.
If there’s one thing out of place flavour-wise, it’s the egg, but the egg has other duties. It adds wetness and mixes well with everything else on the plate. It’s like the breakfast is a dinner party, and the egg is the host. It chooses great guests and knows not to outshine any of them.
Because they’re awesome. Beans are just good in general. Mushrooms fried in butter also great. Never been that keen on the tomatoes personally but some people love them. Bubble and squeak has largely disappeared to be replaced by hash browns.
Tomato with hash brown is delicious.
For no other reasons than they’re delicious, we like them, and they go well with the rest of it.
The idea that you would only eat veggies because of guilt or some weird notion of healthiness is a bit sad frankly.
Tomatos are slightly acidic so help to cut through the fat
Controversally, one of the nicest fried breakfasts was a vegetarian one. Avocado, halloumi, spinach, mushrooms, poached eggs, sourdough toast.
All it needed was some bacon to make it perfect!