Why You Should Love a Japanese Breakfast
It challenges the idea of what breakfast should look like
What is breakfast food?
I was born in the U.S. and spent my formative years there, so, naturally, I developed the sense that a normal breakfast should look something like pancakes, cereal, buttered toast, bacon, or sausages. It’s what was served to me when I went to friends’ houses for sleepovers and it’s what was advertised to me when I watched television. These are breakfast foods: The things that we should be eating in the morning to start our day.
But when my family would return to Japan for the summer, my idea of breakfast was challenged. Instead of the usual toast or cereal that I was used to, my grandmother would prepare rice, fish, pickles, miso soup, and some vegetables for us every morning. As a child, I would stare down at these foods in the morning and silently protest: These are not breakfast foods.
Numerous times I would try to convince my grandmother to let us buy those fluffy white milk breads from the bakery or sweet yogurts from the conbini instead. The best breads in the world, just out of my reach! Not…
