WEGO.AE, the leading travel search site in the Asia Pacific and Middle East indulges in local breakfast delicacies, which tend to be overlooked and less popular than lunch and dinner when we travel.
“Getting out of your comfort zone is what traveling is all about, and most of us enjoy indulging in local dishes and exploring cultural connections through food when we travel,” said Dean Wicks, Chief Flights Officer of Wego.
“What’s intriguing, however, is that while we’re rather adventurous with trying local delicacies and authentic cuisine when we travel, we rarely change our breakfast routine,” observed Wicks.
“We seem less comfortable diving into local breakfast customs than we do with say lunch or dinner, and I’ve often heard other travellers complain when their toast is not brown enough, or their eggs not quite right.”
“No matter what you’re accustomed to back home, it’s quite likely that the country you’re traveling to does things a little (or a lot) different for their morning meal, and we should seek the entire in-destination experience, which includes breakfast,” said Wicks.
Immerse yourself and try some of these traditional local breakfast delicacies next time you travel.
Cambodia
Nom banh chok is a bed of rice noodles covered in a fish-based green curry gravy made up of lemongrass, turmeric root and kaffir lime. Yum!
Indonesia
With so many cultural influences from China, Malaysia, the Netherlands and more, combined with the enormous size of this country where individual towns and islands add their own touch to many dishes, take the time to taste everything. Nasi Goreng is a typically common breakfast consisting of fried rice with chillies, spices, vegetables, sweet soy sauce and chicken or prawns, topped with a fried egg. You’ll also find pancakes and omelets, remnants of the country’s Dutch heritage.
United Arab Emirates
Vegetables don’t grow in the desert, so what kind of breakfast do you have amongst the beautiful sand dunes? Traditionally breakfast included a variety of breads — ragag (thin, almost like a cracker), chebab (pancake) and khameer (round flatbread) which were served with cheese, date syrup or eggs. These days almost every type of food is available in the extremely multicultural Emirates, so the options are endless.
Hong Kong
Congee, which is a warm rice porridge with either fish, meat or chicken, is common in China and still a regular kickstart to the day in Hong Kong. Hongkongers also enjoy yauchai kwai (fried bread sticks) but the beauty of this city is the mass of local eateries and you can easily eat your way around the city. Sure, there’s loads of fabulous fine dining opportunities in this buzzing metropolis but you’re unlikely to find more delicious dim sum and yum cha anywhere else!
India
Similarly to Indonesia, India is so huge that each region and even city, feature their own flavors and influences. Generally you’ll feast on a platter of roti (flatbread), dosas (thin, fermented pancakes made from rice batter and black lentils), Idlis (savory crepes made from lentils) teamed with chutneys and vegetable stew. Thanks to the British heritage you can also find some classic English breakfasts accompanied by awesome tea in many of the hotels.
Mexico
It’s all about the spice and Mexicans love their chilaquiles, nachos, cheese and beans and salsa at any time of day. Breakfast tacos filled with scrambled eggs and chorizo are popular, or perhaps a tortilla strip dripping in sauce, served with cheese, onion and sour cream. Mexican food is so versatile and many dishes can be adapted to suit any occasion.
Japan
As with the majority of home cooked Japanese meals, breakfast centers around a protein accompanied by rice, soup and pickles. But one of the more unusual breakfast foods is natto — basically a soup made from fermented soybeans, which exudes a rather distinctive smell.
Fiji
These beautiful islands and famously friendly people traditionally enjoy their own specially designed pancake; babakau. Thicker than a regular Western pancake or crepe, babakau have a crust and can be eaten with fresh tropical fruit and jams.
Philippines
Filipino’s place a lot of emphasis on the first meal of the day and rarely miss it. Pandesai and kesong puti, which is basically bread rolls with white cheese, or chocolate rice porridge, garlic fried rice and meat or fish are the way many enjoy their breakfast. The kicker is the rich strong coffee (kapeng barako) from the mountains of Batangas.
Thailand
Thai food is a world favorite, and you may be more familiar with Pad Thai or Tom Yum Goong, than a traditional Thai breakfast. Chok is similar to rice congee, popular in many parts of Asia and is a form of rice porridge. A Thai omelet (khai chiao) is also great, accompanied by chilli sauce and slices of cucumber of course!
Wego.com provides award winning travel search websites and top ranked mobile apps for travelers living in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Wego harnesses powerful yet simple to use technology that automates the process of searching and comparing results from hundreds of airline, hotel and online travel agency websites.
Wego presents an unbiased comparison of all travel products and prices offered in the marketplace by merchants, both local and global, and enables shoppers to quickly find the best deal and place to book whether from an airline or hotel direct, or with a third party aggregator website.
Wego was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Singapore with regional operations in Dubai, Bangalore and Jakarta. Investors include Tiger Global Management, Crescent Point Group and SquarePeg Capital. Each month Wego sends flight and hotel booking referrals worth $1.5B to travel partners. — SG
