One of the great things about staying in a hotel is that you get to really enjoy a great breakfast. It’s not the grab-a-coffee-while-throwing-cereal-at-the-kids rush of the working week – a hotel breakfast is a wonderfully relaxing morning ritual, where you sit down and plan what to do with the rest of your day.
What can you expect to have for breakfast at The Cornwall?
Naturally, we serve a full cooked breakfast! The full breakfast is one of Britain’s universally-recognised dishes, enjoying the same fame as fish and chips, and bangers and mash. Its staple elements can include eggs, bacon, sausages, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, and toast or fried bread. Beans and hash browns are moot points, with some places insisting that they are essential, others saying they’re imposters.
In the Middle Ages, people just dined twice a day, so breakfast had to be a hearty meal. Breakfast consisted of bread, cheese, and perhaps some cold meat, washed down with ale. During the Georgian period, it became more of a social meal for the upper classes, unhurried and with lots of dishes. As the British Empire expanded, such dishes as kedgeree were included. Mrs Beeton’s Victorian version of the full breakfast is lavish to say the least. Breakfast, according to Mrs Beeton was “usually substantial…and rightly so”.
The traditional full breakfast is often called “the full English”; however that’s to ignore all the regional variations across the UK. The Scottish version has a “tattie scone” (potato scone), the “Ulster Fry” may include soda bread, and in Wales, they have been known to serve laverbread, made from seaweed.
In Cornwall, we have our own version, so of course that’s what we serve in the Elephant Bar and Brasserie. The main Cornish addition is hog’s pudding, a type of Cornish sausage served sliced and grilled or fried. It’s absolutely delicious. We also include potato cake, another traditional element of the Cornish breakfast. We offer a veggie version, with vegetarian sausage instead of the meats.
If you don’t fancy starting the day with quite so much under your belt, what are the other traditional breakfast options?
Smoked fish is a popular breakfast dish, and we serve smoked salmon, smoked haddock, and kippers. Smoking fish preserves it, so it has been a common dish for centuries. Smoked fish were a common feature of the Victorian and Edwardian breakfast; however they fell out of favour in Britain post World War II. Happily, smoked fish is now popular again, as people have realised that it’s a healthy alternative for breakfast if you’d like a hot meal but don’t want the full fry up or mixed grill.
And then there’s the “Continental Breakfast”, a phrase you only ever hear in hotel dining rooms. A lighter option, it includes croissants and other pastries, breads, occasionally cold meats and cheeses, fruit, yoghurt, and copious quantities of coffee. The name dates from the Victorian period, when travel for leisure increased between the UK, the US, and continental Europe. The breakfast itself is usually a bit of a mash up of breakfast foods from all over Europe – but if you enjoy a taster-plate approach to eating, it’s a lovely choice for breakfast.
We also serve porridge for breakfast. Another Cornish addition to our breakfast menu is the clotted cream we serve with our porridge. It’s one of those things that guests often look rather startled by when they first read the menu – then they try it! It’s a lovely, decadent touch, making for a truly hearty breakfast. We also offer clotted cream with our American-style pancakes, for a real transatlantic twist!
Hungry yet? Whether you like “the Full Monty” for breakfast (named after the big breakfasts enjoyed by the famous Field Marshal), or you’re more the coffee-and-croissant type, have a look at our wonderful breakfast menu. There’s a great variety of dishes to get your day off to a great start.
For our current bed and breakfast offers, please click here, or contact us to find out more.
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