North American cultural assumption: continental breakfast refers to “European” style in contrast to English breakfast. So a rather light breakfast of cereals and fruits with the occasional bread, ham and cheese, instead of beacon, sausage and eggs.
Problem is, its usually stale bagels and fruit that sat out all morning. Hot items are rare and usually referred to as “deluxe continental” in my experience.
American hotels use “continental breakfast” to mean that they supply a cheap light snack and call it breakfast. There’s no cooking except for coffee and not enough food to hold you for long.
I’ve only stayed in one hotel on the “continent” (that is, Europe, not including the UK) and I don’t know if it’s at all typical. This was in the Palatinate (Germany) right near the French border, and it was a small family-owned place in a village that looks straight out of the middle ages. There was nothing hot except coffee, but breakfast certainly wasn’t cheap or light. They laid out several kinds of sausages and several kinds of bread. Sampling everything would have been enough food for a day. And when they opened the kitchen for dinner, it was a gourmand’s delight. I think I gained 5 pounds in a week.
I love me some continental breakfast! (BTW… Which continent?)
North American cultural assumption: continental breakfast refers to “European” style in contrast to English breakfast. So a rather light breakfast of cereals and fruits with the occasional bread, ham and cheese, instead of beacon, sausage and eggs.
Problem is, its usually stale bagels and fruit that sat out all morning. Hot items are rare and usually referred to as “deluxe continental” in my experience.
American hotels use “continental breakfast” to mean that they supply a cheap light snack and call it breakfast. There’s no cooking except for coffee and not enough food to hold you for long.
I’ve only stayed in one hotel on the “continent” (that is, Europe, not including the UK) and I don’t know if it’s at all typical. This was in the Palatinate (Germany) right near the French border, and it was a small family-owned place in a village that looks straight out of the middle ages. There was nothing hot except coffee, but breakfast certainly wasn’t cheap or light. They laid out several kinds of sausages and several kinds of bread. Sampling everything would have been enough food for a day. And when they opened the kitchen for dinner, it was a gourmand’s delight. I think I gained 5 pounds in a week.