For each of almost 30 countries, it has a photograph of an average family with all the food that would comprise a normal week's consumption, accompanied with a description and cost. (Not all families are from separate countries. Some larger countries have two families from different regions).
Later, the authors published an expanded version as a book, which I believe covers 80 families.
I think there is at least one more subset of photos other than the set TIME published that has been published in some major online magazine, because I am sure I saw one of a German family whose weekly consumption included an amazing amount of beer, and that doesn't match the German family in the TIME article.
I don't think this is relevant on the classical food expenditures of the average family. At least in Europe.
I live in France, I'm middle class (~50k€ income/year before tax with my wife and 1 child), and we spend around 400-500€ __per month__ for food, including meat and organic vegetables. We drink bottled water.
This is way far from the French family presented in the pictures.
> Food expenditure for one week: 315.17 euros
1200€ / month on just food? This is more than my mortgage.
I have an intense desire to learn how to incorporate some of the more traditional diets shown. Not only do they look healthier, they are also much cheaper. How can a westerner like me learn how to prepare these meals and base our diets around them? I am sort of disgusted by how much our family spends on food, and how often we don't cook.
Really I just want to learn how to base our diets around cooking. I can cook pretty well. My wife can, too. We just don't plan ahead. I wish there was a guide that told me exactly what to do to create a traditional kitchen that can create a home-cooked complete meal each evening with < 1 hour of work per day.
Breakfast in South India esp. Karnataka/Bangalore is quite varied. Each day means a different breakfast and both parents and kids usually eat the same food. What we do is pick from one of these each day
1. Dosa - Similar to Crepes but not sweet.
2. Idli - A Rice Cake
3. Uppittu or Upma - Semolina with Vegetables
4. Rava Dosa
5. Rava Idli
6. Vada - Deep Fried rice doughnut
7. Cereal - Not a traditional breakfast and usually rare
8. Toast with Jelly/Butter
9. Vermicelli with Vegetables
10. Awwalaki or Poha - Flattened Rice with Vegetables
It's a bit over the top for sure, even by Indian standards. I'm not sure if people from other states in India choose between all these. I would be bored stiff to eat the same breakfast everyday. One other thing to note is that usually traditional breakfasts are not sweet and do not have any sugar in them. That's for later!
This is in essence what I enjoy most out of good web journalism. Taking advantage of one of the real powers of hypertext, the lack of "shelf space" restrictions on column inches, to have huge, blown-up photos; and using understated interaction and animation techniques to enhance the reading experience.
It's a fine line, and most of the stories in this style are filled with the "million paper cuts" style of UI/UX issues. But when it's done right, it's very effective.
> to have huge, blown-up photos; and using understated interaction and animation techniques to enhance the reading experience.
I probably scrolled past at least 5 images, meaning I had to scroll up to look at the actual breakfast. On top of that the images below, of the kids, loaded faster. I don't have a bad connection. Very frustration article to read in my opinion.
"The first time Saki ate the fermented soybean dish called natto, she was 7 months old. She promptly vomited."
Yes, that sounds about right. Natto is the single most disgusting food I've ever eaten. It looks like snot and smells like some kind of animal vomit.
One nitpick with the article: I know that the food was put out to be photographed, but seriously - Oyku Ozarslan from Istanbul has eleven dishes put out before her on the table for breakfast? Are her parents doing anything else but preparing and then washing dishes?! If I did that in my house we would have FIFTY FIVE dishes to clean before 8:00am :-)
Natto is indeeed disgusting on first experience, but my 2-year-old eats natto and rice for breakfast every morning (this is in Japan). We've tried to vary it up, but he insistently shouts natto!
I first experienced it at age 15 and it was revolting -- stinky slime with small soybeans in it. BUT I ate it to be polite to my Japanese hosts... and lo and behold after about 5 times I found myself wanting more. Now I eat it regularly, and find it delicious. :)
I'm guessing Natto has a similar smell/taste to Korean Cheonggukjang (청국장), which smells like an a pair of wet moldy socks or old shoes, but the moment you get it in your mouth and the flavor your tastebuds detect combines with the smell your nose is gettings, it suddenly makes "sense" and is absolutely delicious -- an incredible hearty flavor with all these wonderful subtle under and overtones (sometimes with a hint of of a kind of smokiness). It's the weirdest taste hack I've ever encountered in food and one of my favorite Korean dishes.
It's made out of a kind of fermented soybean as well.
Japanese food is the most disgusting I know of. Pick any random dish and there's a 50% chance it will be disgusting to me and untrained people in general. That said, it's supposed to be healthy - I would love to like it.
in New Zealand, toast covered with Vegemite, a salty paste made of brewer’s yeast
Up next, a crowd of angry Kiwis heading for the NYT offices. Vegemite is an Australian thing, New Zealanders eat Marmite. (Of course, to an outsider like me, they're both about as palatable as dipping my bread in soy sauce.)
Point of fact - Kiwis eat both Vegemite and Marmite, and the preference is binary and very strong (no-one likes both equally, that I've ever met) and survives the usual jingoism between Aussies and Kiwis.
I am a Kiwi, and like my mother I've a strong preference for Vegemite, though my father and brother are both Marmite people.
My wife is American, and has converted to being a Vegemite-lover after finally experiencing it correctly (NOT a mouthful on a spoon, like all those "look how disgusting Vegemite is" videos show). We did a blind taste test last time we were in New Zealand, and to my surprise we could both correctly tell Vegemite from Marmite, and both preferred Vegemite - even though it's Australian!
Look carefully. Except for the eggs, none of it needs to be cooked fresh, including the pastry. Cheeses, olives, halvah etc go from fridge to the table, back to fridge, and get restocked on the weekends...
I can only say this from experience traveling around the mediterranean, but this seems to be a pretty common breakfast.
Some olives, feta cheese, a boiled or fried egg, some sliced tomatoes and cucumber, fresh brown bread with butter and some jam or honey. Once prepared you can quickly make little sandwiches, and is quite tasty!
These meals are pretty easy to put together, when tomatoes are good my wife and I often switch off on making breakfast and can whip this up for ourselves pretty quick. It's much more enjoyable than our normal greek yogurt, granola, and fruit.
I was thinking the same thing for the Japanese breakfast. Are those foods prepared beforehand or is someone (probably the mom) waking up early to cook those?
My kids are 3 (preschool) and 5 (kindergarten). I wake them at 6:30ish and they dawdle down to get dressed and have breakfast, which is typically just some kind of fruit. I then take them to school where they have a morning snack around 9:30. School provides healthy snacks for the younger one -- fresh veg/fruit, crackers, cheese, etc -- and I provide for the elder. I pack lunches for both, and at their request they each get a pb&j on high quality bread, some kind of veg, some kind of fruit, and either yogurt or cheese. Occasionally I'll toss in a homemade dessert, something chocolate or trail mix. They have afternoon snack around 3:00/3:30. School provides something healthy for the younger, I provide something for the elder. Usually it's sliced fruit, but he has an ever-present granola bar in his lunchbox if he's still hungry.
The point is that, while this is moderately healthy food, it's still really basic, simple, inexpensive stuff.
For dinners (and leftovers for my wife's & my lunches), we make a big pot of soup/stew/chili on the weekend, and eat a ton of veggies. We're mostly vegetarian, and pasta, pizza, tofu, eggs, and salmon all make regular appearances during the week. None of it takes long to prep and I work from home so I can get started before picking the kids of from school around 4:30.
I would hate to have to work outside the home and not be able to start thinking about dinner until 6pm or later. We put the kids to bed by 8:30 and we're usually asleep by 9:30.
Your 3 year old is likely not getting enough sleep. A three year old should be sleeping 11-12 hours a day. If waking up at 6:30-ish, around 19:00 she should be in bed sleeping.
I'm a little tickled by the author's clear concern about the idea of giving coffee to a child, yet in our society we give adderall - amphetamines - to preschool aged children. Caffeine really seems pretty tame in comparison.
As a kid in Germany, I used to eat a slice of bread with butter and jam or nutella on it, sometimes with cheese, plus a glass of OJ or milk. Sometimes cornflakes with oatmeal/muesli and cold milk and maybe some fruit, which I still do every morning.
I do enjoy a good hotel breakfast with baked beans, crisp bacon and hash potatoes (plus the normal continental bread/jam/cheese selection), but I wouldn't dream of preparing food myself in the morning when I'm still asleep.
I think there is a lot more variety than one photo suggests. The link someone posted from time magazine, where the weekly food of a family is shown seems to be much more representative (look at the nice fresh vegetables and fruits in non-western countries).
For the record: my german kids breakfast: oatmeal without sugar, dried fruits, milk from the local farmers cow, fresh fruits from our own garden, tea. bread with home made jam (from our gardens fruits ;o). Toast with Nutella only on sundays, but my mothers jam was so much better...
Butterbrot with some kind of spread or cold cuts still seems to be the typical German breakfast. Except for Sundays when the sliced bread is replaced by fresh rolls and possibly croissants.
My favorite breakfast to this day is either a bowl of cold cereal with milk or something like a full-English or some minimized version like eggs and bacon or pancakes without the beans and tomatoes (I'll never understand that) -- hot oatmeal with nuts, raisin and cinnamon (I don't really need sugar with it) will also do fine.
When I travel overseas I like to go "local" with my foods, but breakfast has always been special to me, an almost holy meal. I've never really been able to get into how other places do it. I'll spend exorbitant amounts of money on milk and cereal or eggs and the local sausage analog or whatever or at the very least some kind of pastry and coffee.
I've tried to eat like a local for breakfast, I really really have, but it kind of ruins the start of that day for me for some reason and I've never been able to really shake it.
It's a weakness. But I like to tell myself that the definition of separate food categories just for breakfast is a sign of an advanced civilization (even though most of what I eat is farmer's food) which makes me feel better.
I've heard Indian breakfasts sound quite civilized, I need to try one one of these days.
I think my quality of life would be vastly improved if I started my day with something like this, but I can neither buy this despite living in a very walkable neighborhod nor see myself developing the habit of organizing and executing it myself.
As an adult, I would have a hard time eating olives for breakfast--and I like them. You know...in salads, on pizza, etc. I cannot fathom a child eating a bowl-full for breakfast. Especially when the bowls of feta-esque cheese and sliced tomatoes are already sort-of daunting.
I'll make a wild guess and say that kids around the world actually eat the equivalent of pop tarts (if they have money) or oatmeal (if they don't).
> I cannot fathom a child eating a bowl-full for breakfast.
They don't do that. The page doesn't make it wonderfully clear, but some of these breakfasts are DIY buffet affairs where of some dishes only a little is used and the rest is put back.
From the Netherlands, when I was young I didn't know many kids who were allowed refined sugar/equivalent for breakfast and now I don't know many parents allowing their kids refined sugar for breakfast. Or at all actually unless at special occasions or in very low quantities. Pop tarts (or equivalent) for breakfast sounds absolutely horrible to be honest. Olives on the other hand...
I grew up on brown bread with cheese for breakfast as did my friends; we are all almost 2 meters tall; is it a coincidence? :)
I've been in most of those countries (long enough to know about their breakfasts) and can attest these are very accurate. But stepping back a bit, it's not too surprising a somewhat in-depth piece of investigative journalism on the new york times is more accurate than someone on the internet's ... "wild guess".
From my experience, these are accurate. In many countries, the morning meal does not differ much from the other meals of the day, and will consist of things that Americans find quite strange.
olives, tomato and feta makes a very nice breakfast. As does Greek yoghurt and honey. Oats do not grow in Greece, so probably cost more - oatmeal is a Scottish/northern countries thing, not really very universal. And poptarts, yuk.
Why? The strong taste? Well my sister used to be absolutely obsessed with olives when she was very very young. I never understood it myself, I didn't like them as a kid. I tried them again in adulthood and loved them. I could easily eat a bowl of olives. In fact I have.
I had pop tarts when I was 6 years old and went on a trip to the USA with my family. It was horribly sweet and not at all delicious. On the other hand, peanut butter was an enjoyable discovery.
I live in North India and my mom used to give me a varied breakfast every morning. It includes
Aloo da paratha with Butter or Cream
Parantha with Hot cup of milk
SOmetimes Daliya or vermicelli
Many a times I used to get cooked spicy vegetables with baked bread (roti)
My breakfast was never boring. Everymorning I ate something different from the last 7 days.
I love the fact that (in the UK at least) Nutella is marketed as a "hazelnut spread", presumably so that parents can give it to their kids without all that pesky guilt that surrounds giving your children chocolate.
I still remember the excitement of this exotic foreign goo first making it to our shores, a schoolfriend bringing a jar to my house as if it were some sacred relic.
Breakfast in San Salvador, El Salvador, means
. Hot tamales - usually with salty with chicken or sweet.
. Fried eggs and beans with cheese
. A side of plantains and a toasted tortilla
. Hand crafted hot chocolate and coffee
. Mango juice with a speck of pinnaple
Glad we live in a world so diverse in even the little things we eat in our mornings.
I dont really see a difference in American eating habits when compared to Europe. Most of them looked like variations of the same thing. I would love to eat chocolate bread when I was younger every morning like Amsterdam. The biggest difference is the American/Europe vs Asia (Japan/Korea).
In Australia, McDonald's is exceptionally busy in the morning for the drive-through and the sit-down areas. Lots of parents bring their children there before school. At least the one in Albion, Brisbane.
[+] [-] tzs|11 years ago|reply
For each of almost 30 countries, it has a photograph of an average family with all the food that would comprise a normal week's consumption, accompanied with a description and cost. (Not all families are from separate countries. Some larger countries have two families from different regions).
Later, the authors published an expanded version as a book, which I believe covers 80 families.
I think there is at least one more subset of photos other than the set TIME published that has been published in some major online magazine, because I am sure I saw one of a German family whose weekly consumption included an amazing amount of beer, and that doesn't match the German family in the TIME article.
More directly relevant to the current story, here's a look at typical breakfasts from several countries: http://www.businessinsider.com/breakfast-around-the-world-20...
These are adult breakfasts, not kid breakfasts.
[+] [-] xgbi|11 years ago|reply
This is way far from the French family presented in the pictures.
> Food expenditure for one week: 315.17 euros
1200€ / month on just food? This is more than my mortgage.
[+] [-] nmeofthestate|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rthomas6|11 years ago|reply
Really I just want to learn how to base our diets around cooking. I can cook pretty well. My wife can, too. We just don't plan ahead. I wish there was a guide that told me exactly what to do to create a traditional kitchen that can create a home-cooked complete meal each evening with < 1 hour of work per day.
[+] [-] ycaspirant|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mironathetin|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shortsightedsid|11 years ago|reply
1. Dosa - Similar to Crepes but not sweet.
2. Idli - A Rice Cake
3. Uppittu or Upma - Semolina with Vegetables
4. Rava Dosa
5. Rava Idli
6. Vada - Deep Fried rice doughnut
7. Cereal - Not a traditional breakfast and usually rare
8. Toast with Jelly/Butter
9. Vermicelli with Vegetables
10. Awwalaki or Poha - Flattened Rice with Vegetables
It's a bit over the top for sure, even by Indian standards. I'm not sure if people from other states in India choose between all these. I would be bored stiff to eat the same breakfast everyday. One other thing to note is that usually traditional breakfasts are not sweet and do not have any sugar in them. That's for later!
[+] [-] yzzxy|11 years ago|reply
It's a fine line, and most of the stories in this style are filled with the "million paper cuts" style of UI/UX issues. But when it's done right, it's very effective.
[+] [-] wingerlang|11 years ago|reply
I probably scrolled past at least 5 images, meaning I had to scroll up to look at the actual breakfast. On top of that the images below, of the kids, loaded faster. I don't have a bad connection. Very frustration article to read in my opinion.
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nakedrobot2|11 years ago|reply
Yes, that sounds about right. Natto is the single most disgusting food I've ever eaten. It looks like snot and smells like some kind of animal vomit.
One nitpick with the article: I know that the food was put out to be photographed, but seriously - Oyku Ozarslan from Istanbul has eleven dishes put out before her on the table for breakfast? Are her parents doing anything else but preparing and then washing dishes?! If I did that in my house we would have FIFTY FIVE dishes to clean before 8:00am :-)
[+] [-] jamesjyu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] veidr|11 years ago|reply
I first experienced it at age 15 and it was revolting -- stinky slime with small soybeans in it. BUT I ate it to be polite to my Japanese hosts... and lo and behold after about 5 times I found myself wanting more. Now I eat it regularly, and find it delicious. :)
[+] [-] bane|11 years ago|reply
It's made out of a kind of fermented soybean as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggukjang
[+] [-] kalleboo|11 years ago|reply
I imagine you could pop saran wrap on those dishes, put them in the fridge and keep eating the leftovers the next couple mornings.
[+] [-] albertoleal|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tormeh|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpatokal|11 years ago|reply
Up next, a crowd of angry Kiwis heading for the NYT offices. Vegemite is an Australian thing, New Zealanders eat Marmite. (Of course, to an outsider like me, they're both about as palatable as dipping my bread in soy sauce.)
[+] [-] vosper|11 years ago|reply
I am a Kiwi, and like my mother I've a strong preference for Vegemite, though my father and brother are both Marmite people.
My wife is American, and has converted to being a Vegemite-lover after finally experiencing it correctly (NOT a mouthful on a spoon, like all those "look how disgusting Vegemite is" videos show). We did a blind taste test last time we were in New Zealand, and to my surprise we could both correctly tell Vegemite from Marmite, and both preferred Vegemite - even though it's Australian!
Edit: grammar
[+] [-] adwf|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abcd_f|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] byoung2|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mertd|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bullfight|11 years ago|reply
Some olives, feta cheese, a boiled or fried egg, some sliced tomatoes and cucumber, fresh brown bread with butter and some jam or honey. Once prepared you can quickly make little sandwiches, and is quite tasty!
These meals are pretty easy to put together, when tomatoes are good my wife and I often switch off on making breakfast and can whip this up for ourselves pretty quick. It's much more enjoyable than our normal greek yogurt, granola, and fruit.
[+] [-] msrpotus|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eitally|11 years ago|reply
The point is that, while this is moderately healthy food, it's still really basic, simple, inexpensive stuff.
For dinners (and leftovers for my wife's & my lunches), we make a big pot of soup/stew/chili on the weekend, and eat a ton of veggies. We're mostly vegetarian, and pasta, pizza, tofu, eggs, and salmon all make regular appearances during the week. None of it takes long to prep and I work from home so I can get started before picking the kids of from school around 4:30.
I would hate to have to work outside the home and not be able to start thinking about dinner until 6pm or later. We put the kids to bed by 8:30 and we're usually asleep by 9:30.
[+] [-] watt|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dannypgh|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thejdude|11 years ago|reply
I do enjoy a good hotel breakfast with baked beans, crisp bacon and hash potatoes (plus the normal continental bread/jam/cheese selection), but I wouldn't dream of preparing food myself in the morning when I'm still asleep.
[+] [-] mironathetin|11 years ago|reply
For the record: my german kids breakfast: oatmeal without sugar, dried fruits, milk from the local farmers cow, fresh fruits from our own garden, tea. bread with home made jam (from our gardens fruits ;o). Toast with Nutella only on sundays, but my mothers jam was so much better...
[+] [-] pluma|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bane|11 years ago|reply
When I travel overseas I like to go "local" with my foods, but breakfast has always been special to me, an almost holy meal. I've never really been able to get into how other places do it. I'll spend exorbitant amounts of money on milk and cereal or eggs and the local sausage analog or whatever or at the very least some kind of pastry and coffee.
I've tried to eat like a local for breakfast, I really really have, but it kind of ruins the start of that day for me for some reason and I've never been able to really shake it.
It's a weakness. But I like to tell myself that the definition of separate food categories just for breakfast is a sign of an advanced civilization (even though most of what I eat is farmer's food) which makes me feel better.
I've heard Indian breakfasts sound quite civilized, I need to try one one of these days.
[+] [-] shaan7|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colechristensen|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mynameishere|11 years ago|reply
I'll make a wild guess and say that kids around the world actually eat the equivalent of pop tarts (if they have money) or oatmeal (if they don't).
[+] [-] Mithaldu|11 years ago|reply
They don't do that. The page doesn't make it wonderfully clear, but some of these breakfasts are DIY buffet affairs where of some dishes only a little is used and the rest is put back.
[+] [-] tluyben2|11 years ago|reply
I grew up on brown bread with cheese for breakfast as did my friends; we are all almost 2 meters tall; is it a coincidence? :)
[+] [-] scrollaway|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamesjyu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justincormack|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aestra|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rumbler|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cpach|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nitin_flanker|11 years ago|reply
My breakfast was never boring. Everymorning I ate something different from the last 7 days.
The breakfast on sundays used to be memorable.
[+] [-] tragomaskhalos|11 years ago|reply
I still remember the excitement of this exotic foreign goo first making it to our shores, a schoolfriend bringing a jar to my house as if it were some sacred relic.
[+] [-] charlie_vill|11 years ago|reply
Glad we live in a world so diverse in even the little things we eat in our mornings.
[+] [-] canvia|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekianjo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wil421|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vince_refiti|11 years ago|reply