For the most part, I’m a traditionalist.

Cereal, oats, or bacon, eggs & toast, get me by.

But I understand that this breakfast isn’t for everyone.

Global hospitality and its myriad of travellers, as well as globalization, colonization, and pop culture, have all contributed to the perception that the eggcellent English Breakfast is the standard pick from which all other breakfasts should be judged.

Thanks to hipsters, online food trends, the revolution into healthy living, and many other variables, breakfasts around the world now have genre-bending range. You need only switch on your food-delivery App to see the wide catalogue inspired by the tastes and cultures of the world – from breakfast burritos to crepes and, rice involved in seriously interesting food combos!

Walk into nearly any eatery in Cape Town’s famed Bree Street, for example, and you’ll find unconventional breakfasts offering themselves as tributes to sate your hunger.

From Clarke’s crowd-pleasing protein-rich Huevos Rancheros, to Hemelhuijs’s salted butter and Karoo honey Mielie pap or Mulberry & Prince’s curated menu including Chicken & Waffles, this part of the world isn’t bereft of interesting morning meals to break ones fast.

I, myself, venture away from my Oats, Cereals, and English Breakies on occasion, to enjoy quality breakfast bagels schmeared with Cream Cheese, from Cape Town’s most celebrated bagel store: New York Bagels – a stop-in that delivers on atmosphere, community, trendiness, and satisfying breakfast food!

Reading through an issue of Conde Nast Traveler is another way I visually feast and am introduced to the breakfasts of the world. From vegan smoothie bowls and South Korea’s famed Kimchi fried organic rice, to Vietnamese Pho, banting Avo Toasts, and even the Cachapas of Venezuela; There’s a world of interesting iterations of the morning meal to dip into.

Want breakfast ideas to switch to? Try:

• A Classic Croque Madame (sourdough sandwich of creamy Bechamel-covered ham and cheese and egg)
• Angus Shaved Beef on toast, from Boschendal Farm in particular
• Halwa Puri (enjoyed with halwa – a slightly gelatinous sweet usually made from semolina, sugar and ghee)
• Jachnun Pastry, from Yemen
• The MRKT Texas breakfast (includes poached eggs and corn), at The Onyx Hotel

• Ackee and Saltfish (saltfish/salt cod gets sautéed with boiled ackee, onions, scotch bonnet peppers, tomatoes and spices – served with breadfruit, bread and fried plantain.)
• A Dutch Baby Pancake (think Yorkshire pudding but not!)
• Caramelized Apple Yogurt Bowls With Popped Amaranth
• Green Shakshuka (sautéed greens with eggs)

• Pho (rice noodle soup with a clear broth topped with slices of raw beef, herbs, lime, bean sprouts and spicy fresh chillis)
• Katogo (can refer to any kind of sauce within which the Matoke/green bananas are cooked), from Uganda
• Smörgås (open-faced sandwich)

Do you have an unconventional breakfast favourite?