Bangers, bacon and bao buns – how traditionalists are embracing exotic twist on the familiar fry-up
Bao buns, chorizo and masala beans can all be enjoyed as part of a morning fry-up, the society devoted to promoting the traditional English breakfast has said.
The English Breakfast Society says foreign twists can play a part, and even help the tradition to spread around the world.
The full English aficionados announced they had dropped “the dogma surrounding the modern tradition” amid a global “explosion in popularity”.
The society, responding to a campaign by food wholesaler Bidfood, encouraging cafés, hotels and pubs to give the English breakfast “an Indian twist” with masala beans, or serve bacon and eggs with Chinese bao bread, said it welcomed the Asian influences.
“In principle, and providing that we aren’t talking about excluding the British farmer from our breakfast plates, we are open to the idea of substitute ingredients,” the society said.
“We think swapping the bread for a bao bun, or baked beans for masala beans, is completely harmless.”
The society added: “We are a little more open-minded than most, probably because our research has revealed that the English breakfast tradition has changed ingredients so many times over the centuries that we just don’t believe in the dogma surrounding the modern tradition.
“It’s also bang on trend with what we are seeing internationally.
Nothing wrong in substituting ingredients
“The tradition is currently enjoying an explosion in popularity overseas, and we have been tracking many instances of foreign English breakfast variants being made with local substitute ingredients.
“People from different cultural backgrounds want to try our tradition and we see nothing wrong with them substituting ingredients out of necessity in order to do so.”
Guise Bule de Missenden, the society’s founder and chairman, said he had witnessed Spaniards swapping the British banger for chorizo and even Moroccans substituting pork sausages with bananas.
He added: “I’m open to twists on the tradition. The more you look at the tradition, the more you realise how radically our breakfasts have changed.
“It started out as an Anglo-Saxon breakfast, but that’s nothing like the breakfast we eat today.
“I tend to be open-minded; if people want to add masala beans, why not? They are putting American baked beans on their plate.”
When asked if we should fight to safeguard the familiar full English, Mr Bule de Missenden conceded: “That ship has already sailed.”
‘We doubt it will catch on in cafes’
The society said adding “a harmless Asian twist” could help “bring people with a different cultural background closer to our traditions and culture”.
But it added: “Will this become popular in British cafés and pubs across the country? We seriously doubt it.
“The more traditionally minded among us know exactly what kind of bread and beans we want in our English breakfast, and it’s definitely not a bao bun or masala beans.”
Rhia Harry, Bidfood’s senior research and insights executive, said: “British fusion [cuisine] gives [diners] the opportunity to explore their sense of adventure while providing a safe haven of familiar flavours and formats.”
