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Many countries are typified by what their breakfasts consist of. The phrase 'typical English breakfast' is understood worldwide by what is more descriptively known as a 'fry-up', featuring eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, and occasionally black pudding.
While it can effectively provide an active person's daily calorie count, it is a favourite of sedentary lorry drivers and construction site workers.
However, a more typical breakfast features cereals with milk and sugar, toast and marmalade, with porridge as an also-ran.
The French characteristically eat croissants, though these are not cheap, so bread soaked in a large bowl of watery coffee is a popular alternative.
Germans eat cheese and cold meats, and the Spanish toasted bread and olive oil.
Americans eat waffles and South Americans enjoy black beans. The Japanese devour rice, grilled fish, and fermented things.
But only in France does the shape of the typical breakfast dish give it its name: the croissant, or crescent, with the religious connotations it conveys.
The croissant originated from the Austrian kipferl that was created in Vienna in 1683 following the city's victory over the Ottoman Empire during an attempted attack.
The story goes that a Viennese baker, up before dawn to prepare the day's goods, heard the Ottomans tunneling beneath his premises and sounded the alarm, giving troops enough time to repel the attackers.
By his actions the baker effectively saved the city, and in celebration, he created a crescent-shaped pastry to represent the waxing moon on the Ottoman flag.
So, if anyone insists the croissant is typically French, remind them of its Austrian combatant origins.
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