My Five Favourite Breakfasts

Oatmeal: Maybe it is because my tastes were formed in the nursery but I love good, thick oatmeal porridge. You pour a little warm milk (or soya milk) into the porridge, sprinkle some sliced almonds, bits of walnut and raisins and stir well. As a final touch, you pour a little honey into it.

It is not only satisfying but it will give you a huge energy boost that should last till tea even if you don’t eat lunch.

South Indian: I’m not an Upma fan. (Ok, Southies, you can shoot me now!) But I love good, soft idlis with gunpowder and a little coconut oil (or ghee) in the mornings. I have two other favourites but they must be eaten straight from the pan before they get soggy: crisp dosas with chutney and medu vadas if they are light, golden and fresh.

Eggs: My favourite egg breakfast is a mixture of boarding-school food and high-end luxury. At school, they gave us very runny scrambled eggs (they called them Rumble-Tumble) which they spooned over toast. I still love them.

But now I have tried a very fancy version. I like free-range eggs slowly scrambled over a very low flame with a dash of butter in the finishing, spooned over good country bread toasted on an open fire. The final luxury: some white (or even black, at a punch) truffle grated over the eggs. Heaven! (And bankruptcy!)

Full English: Not the healthiest breakfast but great, if you are up early. (Somehow it doesn’t make sense for a late breakfast). Two eggs fried gently with runny golden yolks, very crisp bacon, a good quality (ideally European, not English) sausage, grilled whole mushrooms and French sourdough bread (ideally Pain Poilane).

Not good for your heart. But delicious.

Congee: This is a rice porridge you find all over the Far East and you spice it up as you like with chilli, fish sauce, fried onions, lots of garlic, soya or whatever. I like the version made with chicken but you get all sorts!