Woke Cambridge don claims the Full English breakfast isn't British

Woke Cambridge don claims the Full English breakfast isn’t very British at all because ‘bacon is from Denmark’ and ‘hash browns are American’

• Cambridge academic Dr Ha-Joon Chang also attacked fish and chips and roasts
• He said bacon is likely to come from Denmark and eggs could be from anywhere 
• He added that hash browns are ‘very American’ and are the easiest to cook
• Understanding origins of national dishes helps to ‘break down prejudices’ 

Bacon, eggs, hash browns, black pudding and beans – few things are more English than a good old fry-up.

One Cambridge academic, however, seems to have been eating his breakfasts with a thick slice of wokery… and has decided the full English isn’t very English at all.

Dr Ha-Joon Chang dissected the greasy spoon favourite, saying the bacon on our plates is likely to have been produced in Denmark, while the eggs could have been shipped in from anywhere. 

The economist, who said he ‘fell in love with the English breakfast’ when he came to Britain in the Eighties from South Korea, said bacon ‘is a result of the Danes industrialising the process of rearing pigs in the 19th century’. 

And on our beloved hash browns, he said: ‘Hash browns are very American. They are also, from the point of view of the restaurant, the easiest dish to cook because they’re frozen and ready-made.’

Dr Ha-Joon Chang (pictured in 2011) dissected the greasy spoon favourite, saying the bacon on our plates is likely to have been produced in Denmark, while the eggs could have been shipped in from anywhere

Dr Chang, 59, said: ‘If you want to make a proper breakfast potato, you have to put in a lot of work.’

Other traditionally British dishes including fish and chips and Christmas dinner also attracted Dr Chang’s attention.

‘Fish and chips came to Britain through Sephardic Jewish people from Spain and Portugal,’ he said.

‘And almost everything in Britain’s Christmas dinner isn’t from Britain. The potatoes are from Peru, turkeys are from Mexico, the carrots are from Afghanistan, the brussels sprouts are from Belgium. 

The economist, who said he ‘fell in love with the English breakfast’ when he came to Britain in the Eighties from South Korea, said bacon ‘is a result of the Danes industrialising the process of rearing pigs in the 19th century’ (file image)

‘So if you scratch the surface, there’s so much interaction, fusion, the marriage of different traditions.’

However, he did name one staple that we’re allowed to call ours – apparently apple crumble is a ‘very good’ example of British food.

Dr Chang, whose book Edible Economics is released on October 20, told Radio Times that understanding the origins of our national dishes helps to break down nationality-based prejudices and stops us ‘thinking we are unique and hating other people simply because they are different’.

Speaking about national stereotypes of the past, he continued: ‘In the 19th century, before Germany industrialised, British people used to go to Germany and say that the people were lazy, too emotional – the opposite of the current stereotype.

‘And the Japanese were called lazy by the Americans and Australians. Lazy Germans and lazy Japanese? It’s almost comical from today’s point of view.’

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