The first meal of the day, in five places.

Breakfast is the meal least touched by fashion, which is exactly why it tells you the most about where you are.

• Kahvaltı

  Turkey

  Cheese, olives, tomato, cucumber, egg, bread — and the name means “before coffee.”

• Asa-gohan

  Japan

  Rice, miso soup, grilled fish, pickles. Literally “morning rice.”

• Akara & ogi

  Nigeria

  Fried bean fritters with fermented maize porridge.

• Changua

  Colombia · Andean highlands

  Milk broth with a whole egg poached in it, and bread left to soften.

• The fry-up

  England

  Eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, tomato — a meal built for people about to do hard physical work.

Breakfast is the meal least touched by fashion. Lunch and dinner absorb whatever is arriving from elsewhere. Breakfast is eaten half-asleep, by habit, usually at home — so it stays closest to what a place actually grows, ferments and can afford before the day starts.