During my travel and work years I wasn’t always up early enough for breakfast, but one thing was for sure: whatever was on the menu seemed strange to me.

My years on the rig and working worldwide introduced me to various early morning styles of cooking and eating and first up came the English breakfast. Tea was the beverage of choice usually made quite strong and lightened with milk. A proper English breakfast consists of fried eggs, fried bread, bacon, sausage (which is very little like our sausage) and black pudding (which is a sausage made by cooking animal blood). Fry it all up in lard and maybe add baked beans, mushrooms and tomatoes (also fried) and you’ve got the works. You can hear the arteries screaming, but except for the black pudding (in my opinion) it was pretty tasty and filling.

In Scotland you could get the same, but other options included porridge, which is just “oatmeal” but usually eaten plain or with salt and seldom with milk and sugar like I like it. Here and in Norway a common side dish would be kipper which is smoked herring.

In Nigeria we had separate menus, but the locals cooked a seafood and cassava stew which I think could be eaten any time of day. What I remember clearly was the awful smell, made kippers smell good, but after years of avoidance I did try some and much to my surprise it was spicy and very tasty. Live and learn.

In Singapore and many other areas of the Far East soup is for breakfast. Again, not the first thing I would consider, but usually quite soothing and not a bad way to start your day. The Ramen noodle type was most common, but I’m sure there are countless variations. Also, as expected, rice is served at every meal and breakfast is no exception.

In the middle east I think hummus (paste of ground chick peas and tahini) is served at every meal and eaten with unleavened bread like a thick tortilla. The Indians in our crew often ate cereal just like we do, but would put it in the microwave first for a few minutes to make sure the milk was hot. I’m not sure why exactly – maybe not used to refrigeration or more used to very fresh milk from a cow or yak I guess. Yogurt is also popular, but it is very thin and you can drink it if you want.

In France the morning meal is quick (although not as quick as here) and is usually consists of cafe au lait (strong coffee and heated milk) and fresh baguette (French bread), or croissants with unsalted butter. Fresh is always good.

In Portugal and Spain (and probably Italy too, although I’m not so sure) I remember the breakfast crowd made a fast stop for a quick shot of espresso coffee often accompanied by brandy or some other early morning pick me up. Having only finished your evening meal around midnight there wasn’t a big need for a heavy breakfast.

In Brazil and throughout the tropics fresh fruit is available with strong coffee and good bread.

Finally we’re home eating pancakes (a dessert in most of the rest of the world) with maple syrup or piles of grits or sausage and gravy and gallons of coffee because we make it so weak it takes that much to get the necessary caffeine. Wheaties? – probably available everywhere, but not as popular as cornflakes, shredded wheat, rice krispies or the like. No one in India would recognize Brett Favre on the box anyway.