According to New York Magazine the full English breakfast is taking their city by storm. The great British fry-up, fuel of wiry miners, noble shipyard riveters, clear eyed young Spitfire pilots and cheeky cock-er-ney cabbies has crossed the pond and, according to the article colonised "not only at Brit-owned hotel restaurants (Crosby Bar, Le Caprice) but also at British-themed restaurants at American hotels (the Breslin)".
At first it seems counterintuitive that hatchet-faced masters of the universe or over-toned, oft-facelifted mavens should decide to begin their day with something so relentlessly proletarian. And then one would have to ask why, in a city of obsessive narcissists, would anyone seriously order a plate of salty pork products sweated in grease? Why not a bagel and some of the admirable smoked fish for which Manhattan is justly famed? Why not a stack of their native pancakes and glistening maple syrup? A Danish? Why not, even, America's greatest gift to the culinary world, the oversized muffin? The clue, I suspect is in the picture which accompanies the article.
There, nestling on the finest china that the Breslin can provide, are two fiercely trimmed rashers, a glistering egg, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms and a pretty authentic looking banger. Looks good. Also looks like there's not a single ounce of carbohydrate on the plate. Sure, according to the article, the breakfast is served with 'lashings of toast' but it's crucially a side dish. Where it can be conveniently turned away while the New Yorker chows into a plate of near pure protein.
Yes, food lovers, it's true. The nation that convinced itself that Bernie Madoff should be put in charge of money, that George W Bush was an acceptable choice for leader and that Gordon Ramsay was worth importing, pumping full of wrinkle-busting collagen and putting on their TVs has severed the final link with reality and managed to reposition the fry-up as a diet food.
Are New Yorkers traducing the name of our national breakfast? Can it be a fry-up without a fried slice, toast under the egg and a big plate of chips on the side?
