The Thin Edge

Man, I really miss my soul food, especially the typical Southern-style breakfast. It’s one of the huge sacrifices (according to me) that I made in moving to Wales nearly four years ago: no access to the sort of Southern-fried meats and vegetables that I grew up on my home state of Mississippi. No wonder heart disease runs in my family for generations! That may also explain why my cholesterol has dropped to a very healthy level over the past couple of years.

Rather than moan about all the Southern food shortages in the United Kingdom (that would require a book to do it justice), here’s a brief list of my favorite breakfast delicacies that you cannot find in the British culture:

• Smoked, sugar-cured, fully-cooked ham — Obviously, they have pork in Britain, but the hams are completely raw except for sliced deli ham for sandwiches.
• Buttermilk biscuits — British buttermilk is more the consistency of yogurt and tastes completely different. It’s okay for pie recipes and casseroles, but not for something as exquisitely designed to showcase its flavor like biscuits. We have McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, but they don’t serve biscuits and their food tastes so…well, British!
• Pancakes — Sure, you can make them from scratch, but you won’t find anything to put on them except very expensive, pure maple syrup. Where’s the Aunt Jemima or Karo or County Style Pancake syrup?
• Breakfast sausage links or patties — The Brits love their sausages, but most Americans would find them very bland and the consistency of mashed potatoes stuffed into a sausage casing. Yuck! However, I just recently found a recipe for “Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage” on the internet and made some this morning from fresh ground pork and an interesting collection of spices. Yummy! Go here for a look at the images in my Flickr photo stream.
• Creamed chipped beef on toast —My dad says they called it “S.O.S.” when he was a cook in the Army. If you really must know the full translation of that acronym, take a look here on Wikipedia (but don’t say I didn’t warn you). You can make your own, but you will never see it on a British restaurant menu (in fact, very few restaurants over here actually open prior to 11:00 am).
• Hash browns or home fries — Some restaurants like Burger King are now serving tator tots for breakfast and McDonald’s serves their hash brown patties, but you just cannot get the old-fashioned, pan fried hash browns or home fries unless you cook them yourself.
• Sausage gravy — My breakfast beverage of choice! Sausage gravy can liven up even the most bland breakfast, but no one in this country seems to have gotten that message. Fantastic over buttermilk biscuits or hash browns, or eggs of any description. But with no breakfast sausage, it makes sense you wouldn’t expect gravy with bits of sausage crumbled up in it.

Welcome to my new world! I’ve almost given up on breakfast completely, since I’m not a big fan of cereal or porridge (that’s oatmeal for my American friends). Coffee is my breakfast most mornings. As I said, it’s been good for my heart—not the caffeine, but the lack of biscuits and gravy—but my Southern American taste buds are quickly shriveling up. On my last visit to the states, I went to Hardees one morning, salivating as I drove into the parking lot; but I was so disappointed to discover how salty and spicy and greasy everything tasted. Honestly, I couldn’t eat half my breakfast and it suddenly dawned on me how transient our appetites really can be.

The reality is: we don’t have to have any of these things. We could learn to eat bugs and leaves and roots if we had to, couldn’t we? Ever heard of survival training in the Special Forces? Are you thinking about cross-cultural missions but dreading the transition into a new language, new foods, new customs, and other new things you haven’t even thought about? My message to you: don’t worry about those things. Follow God’s leading and pursue his kingdom with passion. Don’t sweat the small stuff, as they say, and he’s promised to give us everything we need (not want). Besides, an English cooked breakfast is pretty decent, as long as you hold the black pudding. Take a look (click image to view large: baked tomatoes, mushrooms, fried egg, toast, baked beans, sausage, bacon that looks/tastes more like ham)! Yummy!