A Not-So Dominican Breakfast

Breakfast and Brunch are a big deal in the United States but not so much internationally. We have an entire culture of breakfast foods: cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, french toast, bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, coffee, tea, cakes, etc. But in other parts of the world, breakfast is completely different. When I would visit my father's family in Portugal, torradas (thick cut toast with butter) and galao (steamed milk with coffee and sugar) is the most common breakfast you'll find served at cafes. I asked my mother, who is from the Dominican Republic, what she would have for breakfast growing up. Dominican breakfast sometimes includes mangu (boiled and mashed plantains) topped with salami and cooked red onions (belch), or fried cheese with salami. The most common breakfast though was bread served with hot cocoa or coffee. I decided to pay homage to a simple Dominican bread and hot cocoa breakfast by expanding it into a full brunch.

Hot Cocoa (made from scratch)

Challah Bread Rolls (from Wilson Farm)

Mango Jam (from Goya)

Scrambled Eggs

Fresh Strawberries and Bananas, sliced

My mother told me that grandma made hot coca by melting some dark chocolate and water in a pan, then slowly mixing in some milk. She would then heat up the milk, stirring along the way, until the hot chocolate was done. I used Ghirardelli chocolate (dark), almond milk and a dash of cinnamon. The almonds in the milk gave the drink a nice nutty flavor. The big surprise with this meal was the mango jam. On a whim, I picked up a jar of Goya's Mango Jam and was pleasantly surprised by how delicious it was. It's got great mango flavor and isn't too sweet. With the challah rolls, they are divine. While this isn't a Dominican breakfast by any means, it did make me think differently about traditional breakfasts.

What kind of breakfasts did your parents grow up with? How do you switch up brunch?