The Japanese word for breakfast is “asagohan” which is mean first rice. Like so many Asian regions, rice is a major part of breakfast in Japan.

A traditional breakfast is based on rice, seafood, and fermented foods. They also eat miso soup. Miso is a soybean paste. The soup is usually prepared by combining the miso with water, tofu, sesame oil and green onions. According to legend, miso was a gift from the gods to ensure humanity’s health, longevity, and happiness.

Tea (green tea), milk, and coffee are the beverages of choice to accompany a Japanese breakfast.

CHINA

Generally speaking, the typical Chinese breakfast varies from region to region but a typical rice porridge complete with dried minced pork is a popular breakfast fare in China.

In Northern China, people eat more wheat - for instance, steamed stuffed buns (mantau), deep-fried twisted dough stick, and various other steamed or fried snacks made from wheat flour. Youtiao and baozi served with soymilk or tea are just two famous breakfast snacks in this regard.

In Central and Eastern China, like in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, breakfast fares include some Northern as well as Southern dishes. They also eat youtiao. But the other breakfasts they eat are youdoufu fensi (a soup made by fried tofu and cellophane noodles) and plain porridge with duck eggs or century eggs.

In Southeastern China such as Fujian province, breakfasts consist of rice porridge served with side dishes like pickled vegetables and century eggs.

Century egg is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulphur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste.

In Yunnan Province, southwest of China, the spicy and delicious noodles are very common breakfast. But in Guizhou, big bowl of wheat noodles are often poured with a falf inch layer of hot pig fat.

HONGKONG

Guangdong and HK people in particular do Yam cha, literally, drink tea if they go out for breakfast. Dim sum are little snacks, usually steamed, deep fried, or boiled, and the variety is enormous, hundreds of them, mostly savoury. Like ha gao, A steamed wafer-thin rice-flour wrapping filled with baby shrimp or minced shrimp and some minced meat. The skin of rice-flour is so translucent that the ingredients can be clearly seen.

Another thing worth mentioning is that leaves, no matter its Lotus leaves, banana leaves or maybe some other types, are used to wrap things in and steam or boiled for a very special flavor. A prime expression for it can be found in a kind of steamed fried rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf - fresh fragrance of lotus leaf.

Besides, there are also other savory ones. If you have a sweet tooth, then the water chestnut cake, being one of the most famous, coconut snowballs, and thousand-layer sweet cake with egg topping are your best choices.

TAIWAN

In Taiwan, breakfasts tend to be a mix of Northern and Eastern Chinese dishes in addition to the traditional south-eastern Chinese fare. This is more pronounced in cities with high proportions of people of mainland Han Chinese descent, like Taipei.

Eat cereal every morning will become a boring routine. Therefore, we must make our breakfast cereals so fun. Delicious and nutritious too. Here are Nutritionist Penny Hunking’s ‘Top Toppings’ to add some fun to your cereal:

- Seasonal fresh fruit with lashings of cold milk. Try sliced pear sprinkled with cinnamon.
- Chocolate, strawberry or banana flavored milk
- Yoghurt and fruit compote
- Honey and chopped banana with hot or cold milk
- Natural yoghurt with pumpkin/sunflower seeds for added omega 3
- Hot milk and honey
- Smoothie as a fruity alternative to milk
- Almonds and bananas with cold milk
- Dried fruit and cold milk
- Chopped stem ginger and cranberries with cold milk

Did you know it?

- Of the more than 294 million people in US, 49% start their day with a bowl of cereal
- The average American eats 160 bowls of cereal each year.
- One bushel of wheat will make 53 boxes of cereal.
- Astronauts from Apollo 11 boosted their brain power while in space with a cereal breakfast. The cereal was mixed with fruit and pressed into cubes since the lack of gravity kept the astronauts from pouring it into a bowl with milk.
- Breakfast cereal is the third most popular item sold in grocery stores after carbonated beverages and milk.
- Breakfast cereals fortified with vitamins and minerals provide at least 25% of daily requirements for essential vitamins and 17% for iron
- Eating breakfast cereals with milk is one of the easiest ways to increase calcium in the diet
- Cereals containing nuts and seeds provide added nutrients, including essential fatty acids, which are important for growth and development, and may help to maintain a healthy heart
- “Breakfast cereal is an important source of dietary fiber and is the single most important way of increasing wholegrain in the diet” - Prof. Tom Sanders, Head of Nutrition Sciences, Kings College London
- Breakfast cereals are mostly low in fat, on average containing between 2 and 4% fat except those containing nuts and oilseeds
- There are 2.7 billion packages of cereal sold every year – that’s enough boxes to wrap around the Earth thirteen times.

Isn’t it fun to know the facts, right?

One hundred fifty years ago, Americans eat pork, beef, and chicken for their breakfast. In the long term, consumption of such foods, a gastrointestinal disease has been widely spread. Over time, more interested in eating healthy foods began a push for all Americans to eat better.
This brought about the creation of “Granula”, which invented by James Caleb Jackson. “Granula” comes from granules, which form of pellets or grains. In 1863 this was American first breakfast cereal and consisted of heavy nuggets made from bran, that to be soaked overnight before being eaten. Therefore, during the years 1877, John Harvey Kellogg created the crushed cornmeal, along with oats and wheat. He also made this for his other patients who suffered from severe constipation.

John’s brother, WK Kellogg saw a business opportunity to create a tasty, ready-to-eat morning breakfast; it would also nutritious pulp that has been cooked. Both of men started their own company, named Kellog Company.
In 1865, Mr. Post developed an item called Postum, a hot drink made of cereal. Two years later, Grape Nuts, we all know today. In 1906, Mr. Kellogg developed his first cereal and named it Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes.

During the 1930’s, Kellogg’s breakfast cereal main target was the younger generation, particularly the kids. This is why they added sugar as their main ingredient. - Quaker Oats Company also introduced the hot cereal, either cooked in a pan or just by adding hot water. This is best with milk and sugar, along with variants of flavors like chocolate and strawberry. It has become popular in the market these days.

The manufacturing of these breakfast cereals was soon followed and enriched by different companies.