The English Breakfast

If England has some kind of representative dish that is very good, its filling and especially helpful in a morning hangover, that plate would be the English Breakfast.


An English breakfast is a cooked hot meal which, for many English speakers around the world, represents the best breakfast in the world. There are many variations on the English breakfast, most of them are named for the regions they borrow from; a Scottish Breakfast, for example, carries traditional Scottish foods besides the original components of the English breakfast.
English breakfast can also be called a fry up, because almost everything is fried: tomatoes, onions, sausages...Two classic components of the English breakfast are bacon and eggs, but the food doesn't stop there.


A fry up may also include: hash browns, toast, sausage, black pudding, beans, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, porridge, and kippers. It is also common to see an assortment of condiments, like jams and ketchup, and in some places, fresh fruit can be offered as well, for those who find the traditional components of the English breakfast too heavy.

Classically, a fry up is accompanied with many cups of strong black tea or coffee, and orange juice is also not uncommon, especially among more health-conscious consumers, who may try to temper the massive artery-clogging impact of the traditional English breakfast.


The invention of the English breakfast appears to be very recent. It seems to have emerged in the mid-1800s, and it was especially popular among the wealthy aristocracy, although farmers may have eaten similar meals before this point. In rich homes, the components of breakfast were often spread out on a buffet and people served themselves whatever they wanted, and the English breakfast was a display of wealth as much as it was an array of food, given the expense of meat.
Many English speaking nations offer some version of the English breakfast, with a focus on regional specialties. You may also hear the English breakfast called an “all day” breakfast, referring to the fact that it could fuel someone´s batteries for a day, and to the fact that many people like to eat an English breakfast over a period of several hours, rather than trying to eating it all in at once.


This plate, along with the Hot Irish, has been a good companion during my time serving at the Irish Pub I worked at, serving sometimes as energy reconstituent, sometimes as painkiller for hangovers. It was the one and only English dish I liked, besides the Chicken Curry, but I guess that is just a Hindu dish that the English have embraced as theirs to fill up the lack of variety and quality of their gastronomy. And I am not the only one who thinks this...

“To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day.”
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

Transgenic Food

The earlier post I posted talked about how massive food production can harm this society´s health and economy. This one will talk about how it can improve it.

The staples submitted to genetics engineering (GMO´s) are those produced from a genetically modified organism to produce the desired characteristics using molecular genetic techniques such as gene cloning and protein engineering.

GM food is developed and commercialized because of its advantages for the farmers and the consumers of such food. They are cheaper and more resistant to crop plagues by insects of viruses.

Some of the staples that are genetically modified are corn, soy and pumpkin. Animals have been modified also, such as pigs, fish, sheep and even rats for laboratory investigation.

European Corn BorE

The resistance towards insects is achieved by introducing in the plants a gen that produces the toxin of the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (BT). This toxine is actually used as a conventional pesticide in agriculture and it is harmless for humans. It has been proven that GM crops that produce this toxin requires less amounts of pesticides where the risk of plague is higher. Here in Spain, the corn used in our fields is the Corn BT, genetically modified to resist the plague of the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, which destroys corn crops by burrowing into the stem, causing the plant to fall.

The viral resistance is obtained by the introduction of a gen of the virus that may cause infection to the plant, acting as a vaccine. This reduces the risk of crop extermination and guarantees their performance.

The theoretic discussions have involved a large number of possible risks, but the most important and possible problems are an allergic reaction, gen transference and outcrossing:

-Allergenicity. In order to prevent this to happen, the crops have never been genetically modified with genes that come from staples that cause allergic reactions in humans. Research has proven no risk in the GMO´s that are commercialized.

-Gen transferring. Experts were worried that the genes added to the crop could possibly transfer to the human cells or to the bacteria in our intestines, provoking a threat to human health. This can cause our cells or the bacteria to be inmune towards some antibiotics. Even though the possiblity is low, the use of genes that provoke that immunity is avoided.

-Outcrossing. This consists of the displacement of these genes in normal crops or in wild plants. This could have an indirect effect in the toxicity and security of the food.

There risks are there, but there is a possibility that future GMO´s for crops that will be more resistant towards droughts and have a igher nutritional value. Fish species could also be modified to increase their production and even their weight and size. Animals and plants could also be modified to produce a protein that are indispensable for medicines and vaccines.

There is a huge debate whether this is morally right or not, if it can harm humankind and/or destroy our environment, but for now, the GMO´s are proving their efficiency. Maybe someday this leads us to finish with the hunger in the world.

The Corruption of Food

There is a incompatibility between a system based on private ownership monopolies and the production of sustainable, healthy food.
Eating habits have changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.This tells us how mass food production has impacted on consumption. The quality of the food has decreased consistently due to the bulking processes of the raw material, creating health problems to the consumers in the long run, just for more profit. Some of the facts and figures are chilling.

Such is the monopolisation of the meat industry, that the top five US meatpacking companies in the 1970s owned 20 percent of the local market. Today, these same companies own 80 percent, with regulatory agencies virtually controlled by these giant companies. In 1972, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) worked in approximately 50,000 food safety inspections a year. These stats had dropped to only 9,164 in 2006 for obvious reasons: it´s not profitable to have all of the food quality controlled.

Corn production is heavily subsidised in the US: about 30 percent of the main country is used for corn cultivation purposes. Corn is included in countless foods items, specially in fast foods, which makes it much cheaper than fresh products.

Corn is nowadays a major element for beef cattle, but this has increased E.coli infections in the U.S., and this type of E.coli can evolve in the animals into E.coli 757, with deadly results. In example, this led to the death of a two-year-old girl who had eaten E.coli 757 contaminated beef. The company that sold the infected meat did not withdraw it from supermarkets until 16 days after the child’s death. They have yet to apologize to the child’s family.

Moreover, fast food is filled with calories from refined sugar and fats (especially, the artery-clogging saturated fats, which are reheated to high temperatures for frying purposes).
It is also high in sodium, coming from common salt and other additives. Furthermore, fast food is low in dietary fiber and vital micro-nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

The Consequences

Eating fast food and being physically inactive only adds to the problem of obesity. Not many people know that obesity is a major risk factor for a large number of deadly diseases like hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and even many types of cancers.

Recent scientific studies have proved that high-calorie foods rich in fats, refined sugar and salt can reconfigure hormones in the human body in such a way that they make you crave for such foods and always leave you asking for more.

In other words, fast food is somewhat addictive; you turn dependent on it, consuming it in an uncontrolled way even though you know that it is unhealthy. The more you consume, the more difficult it is for you include healthy foods in your diet.

Why do they let this happen?

One word explains it all: PROFIT. Only McDonald´s, the biggest fast food company, profits around 22 billion dollars a year, enough to bribe every government in the world so the food quality is not checked that often. These companies feed us with food that damages our system in the long run, but gives us enough time to be a good client for many years. What can we do about it? Eat healthy.

¨No Fear¨ for the Winter

          Now that Winter has finally arrived, its time for some of us to catch the flu, a sore thoat, get a runny nose...

          This reminded me of a legendary cocktail that I learned to prepare during a Winter at the Irish Pub I worked for 2 years: The Hot Irish.

          This cocktail is one of the very few cocktails that are served hot and its healing capacities are incredible, similar to our traditional ¨carajillo¨. It consists of Jameson, cloves, hot water, lemon and brown sugar, all mixed up an served very hot.

          But the most interesting thing is the story behind it. This drink goes back to even before the 16th century, to later be rescued by John Jameson, the founder of Jameson Whiskey. Around the 1500´s, his ancestors dedicated their lives to fight piracy in the Irish coasts. In order to warm the spirit and handle the low temperatures of the open sea, they drank this beverage religiously. So you could say that this cocktail played an important role in the war against the pirates. After piracy was erradicated, the Queen awarded the Jameson´s family crest with the title ¨Sine Metu¨(no fear) for their heroic efforts to preserve the Irish shores. This motto is printed in the label of the Jameson Whiskey bottle.

          This cocktail has been passed on through generations and is practically the national cocktail- Its little by little becoming very popular worldwide nowadays.

           I would like to add a curious quote of John Jameson, who having already founded the company, wanted to join the Navy with no success:

          ¨I was turned down by the Navy. They said I could better serve Ireland if I kept making whiskey.¨

          Jameson sales about 30 million bottles a year, making it by far the best selling Irish whiskey.

          Writing this blog reminded me of working at the bar filled with cigarrete smoke while having a cold, sipping on my Hot Irish every time I could, to later go back in the bar, not to fight pirates, but to deal with drunk Irishmen, which is quite the adventure as well. The amount of interesting stuff you learn working the night...

WINE POETRY

Wine is one of the most important elements in gastronomy of the whole world. The oldest remains ever found are from 6.000 B.C. in Armenia, spreading fast around the western world with the Greek and Roman empires, to later be used as one of the main symbols in Christianity.

I must stress that, throughout history, wine has always been held in high regard in the western aristocracy, being a firm witness of many important events, and many historic treaties have been signed around it.

In order to taste a wine you must follow easy but essential steps:

- First of all, we must examine the cork, and see if it hasn’t rotten and contaminated the wine.

- Secondly you have to SEE the wine, so we will pour wine in a glass and hold it against a light and over a table with a white cloth, and we describe its color, transparency, bubble formation, rests of sediments...

- Afterwards we will proceed to smell it. for that we will shake the glass and bring our nose near the glass to perceive the aroma of the wine

- The last step is the tasting, where we will touch the wine with our lips and tip of the tongue first to search the sweetness, followed by drinking a small amount and rinsing the mouth with it to sense the acids and the volume of alcohol. Finally, the wine is swallowed and the aftertaste remains.

Now the linguistics comes at play, where adjectives fly connected with each other to make almost poetry, trying to express the beauty of the wine captured by all of your senses. A description of a rosé would be like this:

Pink color
with strawberry nuance,

Shiny and vibrant;

Strong aroma,

with hints of raspberry

and rose petals;

Light, fresh fruity taste and round,

easy to drink;

Overall voluptuous.

Wine tasting is more of an art than a science, and it must be perceived with all of your senses.

There is no need to be a professional in order to taste wine, but an untrained taster won’t be able to isolate the aromas and flavors that wine delight us with and an extended and specific vocabulary is needed to be able to describe it. It just takes practice.