
What kids around the world eat for breakfast - mhb
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/08/magazine/eaters-all-over.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region
======
tzs
People who enjoy this might like this similar thing from TIME Last year:
[http://time.com/8515/hungry-planet-what-the-world-
eats/](http://time.com/8515/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/)

For each of almost 30 countries, it has a photograph of an average family with
all the food that would comprise a normal week's consumption, accompanied with
a description and cost. (Not all families are from separate countries. Some
larger countries have two families from different regions).

Later, the authors published an expanded version as a book, which I believe
covers 80 families.

I think there is at least one more subset of photos other than the set TIME
published that has been published in some major online magazine, because I am
sure I saw one of a German family whose weekly consumption included an amazing
amount of beer, and that doesn't match the German family in the TIME article.

More directly relevant to the current story, here's a look at typical
breakfasts from several countries: [http://www.businessinsider.com/breakfast-
around-the-world-20...](http://www.businessinsider.com/breakfast-around-the-
world-2013-5?op=1)

These are adult breakfasts, not kid breakfasts.

~~~
rthomas6
I have an intense desire to learn how to incorporate some of the more
traditional diets shown. Not only do they look healthier, they are also much
cheaper. How can a westerner like me learn how to prepare these meals and base
our diets around them? I am sort of disgusted by how much our family spends on
food, and how often we don't cook.

Really I just want to learn how to base our diets around cooking. I can cook
pretty well. My wife can, too. We just don't plan ahead. I wish there was a
guide that told me exactly what to do to create a traditional kitchen that can
create a home-cooked complete meal each evening with < 1 hour of work per day.

~~~
cschneid
In terms of running a kitchen, and how to think about food, I really liked the
book The Everlasting Meal [1]

It was a bit fluffy, but gets at the heart of how to run a kitchen as an
ongoing concern, rather than as a place you dive into as a one-off recipe, and
leave when done.

[1] [http://smile.amazon.com/An-Everlasting-Meal-Cooking-
Economy/...](http://smile.amazon.com/An-Everlasting-Meal-Cooking-
Economy/dp/1439181888?sa-no-redirect=1)

~~~
rthomas6
Thank you for the recommendation. This looks great. This excerpt from a review
sold me on it:

"Tonight I had a few (lovely, organic) chicken breasts in the fridge that were
getting perilously close to the date. As it is the end of the weekend, I
haven't shopped in days and I don't have the ingredients to make any of my
glossy paged cookbook recipes. There was some stuff in the fridge, yet I would
have thought "nothing to make". Thanks to Tamar Adler, I pulled out my trusty
pot, boiled some very salty water and starting by boiling the chicken (who
does that???) with a handful of Tuscan spice blend. Then I sauteed a diced
onion with some leftover mushrooms (that also would have gone bad), chopped
celery ends my kids didn't eat from their Ants on a Log, then made a little
roux. I created a sauce with a couple of cups of the broth from the chicken
breasts and a cup of milk and random cheese bits. Then I tossed some random
leftover cooked veggies and the diced chicken breasts in my lovely mushroom
sauce. I also found some too-stale-for-salad croutons in the pantry, so I
threw them in the rest of my seasoned broth, making a kind of stuffing, and
put it on top of my mushroom saucey chicken concoction and baked for a few
minutes. My family declared this makeshift casserole the best thing ever. And
there was enough to put another one in the freezer, so I have solved "what's
for dinner" twice, never having touched a single recipe. Everything except the
chicken, onion, and cup of milk was what Tamar calls "ends", most of which
would likely have been in the garbage."

------
shortsightedsid
Breakfast in South India esp. Karnataka/Bangalore is quite varied. Each day
means a different breakfast and both parents and kids usually eat the same
food. What we do is pick from one of these each day

1\. Dosa - Similar to Crepes but not sweet.

2\. Idli - A Rice Cake

3\. Uppittu or Upma - Semolina with Vegetables

4\. Rava Dosa

5\. Rava Idli

6\. Vada - Deep Fried rice doughnut

7\. Cereal - Not a traditional breakfast and usually rare

8\. Toast with Jelly/Butter

9\. Vermicelli with Vegetables

10\. Awwalaki or Poha - Flattened Rice with Vegetables

It's a bit over the top for sure, even by Indian standards. I'm not sure if
people from other states in India choose between all these. I would be bored
stiff to eat the same breakfast everyday. One other thing to note is that
usually traditional breakfasts are not sweet and do not have any sugar in
them. That's for later!

~~~
lemming
One thing I've always wondered - at what age are Indian kids (or kids from
other cultures with spicy cuisines) introduced to spicy food? They mention
kimchi for toddlers in the article, what about in India?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I'm not Indian but spicy food is effectively introduced pre-birth. The
nutrient range that one gets from ones mother pre-birth appears to have a
bearing on ones taste later. Certainly some flavours are passed on to breast-
milk, eg [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2452382/Mothers-shown-how-
to...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2452382/Mothers-shown-how-to-produce-
flavoured-breast-milk.html).

The first solids one of my kids (UK) had was Thai green curry, at 5 months,
but it wasn't very spicy. Our kids just ate what we eat when they were ready
to ween [move on to solid foods]; I can imagine this is probably quite common
and so in many cultures if the adults are eating spicy food then the kids are
from the time they begin to ween.

------
yzzxy
This is in essence what I enjoy most out of good web journalism. Taking
advantage of one of the real powers of hypertext, the lack of "shelf space"
restrictions on column inches, to have huge, blown-up photos; and using
understated interaction and animation techniques to enhance the reading
experience.

It's a fine line, and most of the stories in this style are filled with the
"million paper cuts" style of UI/UX issues. But when it's done right, it's
very effective.

~~~
wingerlang
> to have huge, blown-up photos; and using understated interaction and
> animation techniques to enhance the reading experience.

I probably scrolled past at least 5 images, meaning I had to scroll up to look
at the actual breakfast. On top of that the images below, of the kids, loaded
faster. I don't have a bad connection. Very frustration article to read in my
opinion.

~~~
arjie
Not to be contrary for the sake of it, but maybe your connection isn't as good
as you think it is. I'm using a laptop from 6 years ago and it loads on time,
so it's not because some JS took ages to run.

~~~
riffraff
I _think_ my pictures loaded on time, but since they animated when i was
scrolling I thought maybe they hadn't loaded before so scrolled up anyway. It
was frustrating in my modest experience.

------
nakedrobot2
"The first time Saki ate the fermented soybean dish called natto, she was 7
months old. She promptly vomited."

Yes, that sounds about right. Natto is the single most disgusting food I've
ever eaten. It looks like snot and smells like some kind of animal vomit.

One nitpick with the article: I know that the food was put out to be
photographed, but seriously - Oyku Ozarslan from Istanbul has _eleven_ dishes
put out before her on the table for breakfast? Are her parents doing anything
else but preparing and then washing dishes?! If I did that in my house we
would have FIFTY FIVE dishes to clean before 8:00am :-)

~~~
tormeh
Japanese food is the most disgusting I know of. Pick any random dish and
there's a 50% chance it will be disgusting to me and untrained people in
general. That said, it's supposed to be healthy - I would love to like it.

~~~
judk
Most food is acquired taste, thabs to our evolved brains that instinctively
avoid potential poisons. Eat it five times, don't die, and it becomes
palatable

------
jpatokal
_in New Zealand, toast covered with Vegemite, a salty paste made of brewer’s
yeast_

Up next, a crowd of angry Kiwis heading for the NYT offices. Vegemite is an
Australian thing, New Zealanders eat Marmite. (Of course, to an outsider like
me, they're both about as palatable as dipping my bread in soy sauce.)

~~~
vosper
Point of fact - Kiwis eat both Vegemite and Marmite, and the preference is
binary and very strong (no-one likes both equally, that I've ever met) and
survives the usual jingoism between Aussies and Kiwis.

I am a Kiwi, and like my mother I've a strong preference for Vegemite, though
my father and brother are both Marmite people.

My wife is American, and has converted to being a Vegemite-lover after finally
experiencing it correctly (NOT a mouthful on a spoon, like all those "look how
disgusting Vegemite is" videos show). We did a blind taste test last time we
were in New Zealand, and to my surprise we could both correctly tell Vegemite
from Marmite, and both preferred Vegemite - even though it's Australian!

Edit: grammar

~~~
girvo
I like both equally, so you've now "met" one person! I was born and spent my
first 8 years in NZ, then moved to Australia.

~~~
demallien
Freak. Everyone knows that Vegemite is the one true spread. Fun thing you can
do with vegemite - get a bunch of French people in a room that have tried
vegemite and get them to discuss whether the word is masculine or feminine.
Some want feminine because of the 'ite' ending, others want masculine because
of the nature of the product :)

------
byoung2
The breakfast in Istanbul is pretty elaborate. I'd like to live there if I'm
eating, but not if I have to do the cooking.

~~~
msrpotus
I was thinking the same thing for the Japanese breakfast. Are those foods
prepared beforehand or is someone (probably the mom) waking up early to cook
those?

~~~
jmadsen
it's a little more elaborate than we genuinely cook every day, but:

Rice - in a rice cooker with timer, so just needs scooped

Natto - from a package

Pumpkin - been made already, prolly leftover from previous night's dinner

Cucumbers - same (those are not fresh, they are in a vinegary sauce)

Eggs -take 5 min, wife makes them every morning

Miso soup - leftover from previous night's dinner

Salmon - leftover from previous night's dinner, or from little "bento sized"
frozen packaged & microwaved

The "real" meal is elaborate, but as you can see from above, a lot of it is
left over from last night or night before, constantly mixed in for variety

These days, my older girl settles for toast :-)

------
eitally
My kids are 3 (preschool) and 5 (kindergarten). I wake them at 6:30ish and
they dawdle down to get dressed and have breakfast, which is typically just
some kind of fruit. I then take them to school where they have a morning snack
around 9:30. School provides healthy snacks for the younger one -- fresh
veg/fruit, crackers, cheese, etc -- and I provide for the elder. I pack
lunches for both, and at their request they each get a pb&j on high quality
bread, some kind of veg, some kind of fruit, and either yogurt or cheese.
Occasionally I'll toss in a homemade dessert, something chocolate or trail
mix. They have afternoon snack around 3:00/3:30. School provides something
healthy for the younger, I provide something for the elder. Usually it's
sliced fruit, but he has an ever-present granola bar in his lunchbox if he's
still hungry.

The point is that, while this is moderately healthy food, it's still really
basic, simple, inexpensive stuff.

For dinners (and leftovers for my wife's & my lunches), we make a big pot of
soup/stew/chili on the weekend, and eat a ton of veggies. We're mostly
vegetarian, and pasta, pizza, tofu, eggs, and salmon all make regular
appearances during the week. None of it takes long to prep and I work from
home so I can get started before picking the kids of from school around 4:30.

I would hate to have to work outside the home and not be able to start
thinking about dinner until 6pm or later. We put the kids to bed by 8:30 and
we're usually asleep by 9:30.

~~~
watt
Your 3 year old is likely not getting enough sleep. A three year old should be
sleeping 11-12 hours a day. If waking up at 6:30-ish, around 19:00 she should
be in bed sleeping.

~~~
aestra
My bed time was 8:00pm for the longest time (until I was in 6th grade - then
it moved to 9:00). It isn't out of the question she is going to bed at the
proper time.

But yes, the National Sleep Foundation says 11-13 hours of sleep a night for a
3 year old and at that age sleep is extremely important for proper brain
development.

------
dannypgh
I'm a little tickled by the author's clear concern about the idea of giving
coffee to a child, yet in our society we give adderall - amphetamines - to
preschool aged children. Caffeine really seems pretty tame in comparison.

~~~
ControlledBurn
It's not exactly fair to assume that the author isn't also concerned about the
prescription of adderall to kids as well.

------
thejdude
As a kid in Germany, I used to eat a slice of bread with butter and jam or
nutella on it, sometimes with cheese, plus a glass of OJ or milk. Sometimes
cornflakes with oatmeal/muesli and cold milk and maybe some fruit, which I
still do every morning.

I do enjoy a good hotel breakfast with baked beans, crisp bacon and hash
potatoes (plus the normal continental bread/jam/cheese selection), but I
wouldn't dream of preparing food myself in the morning when I'm still asleep.

~~~
mironathetin
I think there is a lot more variety than one photo suggests. The link someone
posted from time magazine, where the weekly food of a family is shown seems to
be much more representative (look at the nice fresh vegetables and fruits in
non-western countries).

For the record: my german kids breakfast: oatmeal without sugar, dried fruits,
milk from the local farmers cow, fresh fruits from our own garden, tea. bread
with home made jam (from our gardens fruits ;o). Toast with Nutella only on
sundays, but my mothers jam was so much better...

------
bane
My favorite breakfast to this day is either a bowl of cold cereal with milk or
something like a full-English or some minimized version like eggs and bacon or
pancakes _without_ the beans and tomatoes (I'll never understand that) -- hot
oatmeal with nuts, raisin and cinnamon (I don't really need sugar with it)
will also do fine.

When I travel overseas I like to go "local" with my foods, but breakfast has
always been special to me, an almost holy meal. I've never really been able to
get into how other places do it. I'll spend exorbitant amounts of money on
milk and cereal or eggs and the local sausage analog or whatever or at the
_very_ least some kind of pastry and coffee.

I've tried to eat like a local for breakfast, I really really have, but it
kind of ruins the start of that day for me for some reason and I've never been
able to really shake it.

It's a weakness. But I like to tell myself that the definition of separate
food categories just for breakfast is a sign of an advanced civilization (even
though most of what I eat is farmer's food) which makes me feel better.

I've heard Indian breakfasts sound quite civilized, I need to try one one of
these days.

------
vram22
When I was in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) for a while, I tried out some
restaurants and foods of various cuisines. (Many of the malls in KL had food
courts with different ethnic food specialities.) Quite good. Roti canai
(pronounced roti chanai) was one good item (among many - mentioning it because
it is a breakfast item, the topic of this thread). It is like an Indian
paratha, but with a bit more fat/oil used to make it. In the places where I
ate it, they served it with an egg spread and cooked into the top surface of
the roti. Almost a breakfast in itself, with some tea.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti_canai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti_canai)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratha)

Or what I ate could have been roti telur, since it had egg in it (according to
the first Wikipedia article above).

~~~
janineyoong
That is, in fact, roti telur! you can fold in a variety things into roti
canai:

\- roti bawang (onion) \- roti sardin (canned sardines) \- roti pisang
(banana)

I had a roti pisang at home in KL last month and nearly wept at the
impossibility of finding this anywhere else.

~~~
vram22
Cool, thanks for confirming it. Good to know about the other variations of
roti canai. Hope you find some of those items you like in other places
eventually :)

------
shaan7
Talk about food and leave out Indian food? zomg! Here's some food for thought
[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/quickstir/lifestyle/24-Li...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/quickstir/lifestyle/24-Lip-
Smacking-Breakfasts-Across-India/quickstirshow/44610424.cms)

------
colechristensen
I think my quality of life would be vastly improved if I started my day with
something like this, but I can neither buy this despite living in a very
walkable neighborhod nor see myself developing the habit of organizing and
executing it myself.

~~~
bullfight
I think this kind of eating really follows from having a partner and a family.
It is much harder to have the kind of motivation to do this on your own. In
many cases however I think these are idealized meals, not necessarily everyday
meals.

I imagine if they did a photo series on what the worlds bachelors ate for
breakfast it would look much different.

P.S. Sorry to assume bachelor status.

~~~
tormeh
Some of them were Saturday breakfasts as well - that certainly inflates the
quantity and quality of food on offer.

------
mynameishere
As an adult, I would have a hard time eating olives for breakfast--and I like
them. You know...in salads, on pizza, etc. I cannot fathom a child eating a
bowl-full for breakfast. Especially when the bowls of feta-esque cheese and
sliced tomatoes are already sort-of daunting.

I'll make a wild guess and say that kids around the world actually eat the
equivalent of pop tarts (if they have money) or oatmeal (if they don't).

~~~
tluyben2
From the Netherlands, when I was young I didn't know many kids who were
allowed refined sugar/equivalent for breakfast and now I don't know many
parents allowing their kids refined sugar for breakfast. Or at all actually
unless at special occasions or in very low quantities. Pop tarts (or
equivalent) for breakfast sounds absolutely horrible to be honest. Olives on
the other hand...

I grew up on brown bread with cheese for breakfast as did my friends; we are
all almost 2 meters tall; is it a coincidence? :)

~~~
unwind
Uh ... So all the talk about hagelslag is just nonsense? I haven't tasted it,
but just from the looks of it I'd say it probably contains quite a lot of
refined sugar. And it seems to be very popular with kids (as the article
says).

Disclaimer: I'm from Sweden, but I've been to the Netherlands quite a lot.

~~~
IkmoIkmo
Nope, I know a lot of kids from school who eat that stuff like crazy. Not my
hippy mom though haha. But it wasn't at all on the list of 'things other kids
have that I wan't but can't get', I still don't like it to this day. It's
basically bread with sugar, which is pretty ridiculous considering the bread
itself contains plenty of sugar.

I really wish we'd be eating more warm and more green in the morning. Fruits
are great, but they're also sugar bombs. So when I see a tiny kid eat a kiwi
(sugar bomb), a glass of pure orange juice (two oranges full of sugar-juice),
bread (carbohydrate-bomb that gets turned into sugar) with jam (full of sugar,
made of fruits) and milk with chocolate cereal (more sugar!) I'd be surprised
if that kid couldn't concentrate in class. For one, that's the volume of food
I might eat in the morning (at 80kg), but with much less sugar.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-sugar, I eat fruits and jams and
bread every day. But some of these breakfasts seem completely unbalanced.

Hope to see more oatmeal like the Icelander kid!

Funny to see kids in Brazil drink coffee. Reminds me of having coffee as a kid
(cafe late late late though, more milk than coffee) in Morocco when I was
young.

------
nitin_flanker
I live in North India and my mom used to give me a varied breakfast every
morning. It includes Aloo da paratha with Butter or Cream Parantha with Hot
cup of milk SOmetimes Daliya or vermicelli Many a times I used to get cooked
spicy vegetables with baked bread (roti)

My breakfast was never boring. Everymorning I ate something different from the
last 7 days.

The breakfast on sundays used to be memorable.

------
tragomaskhalos
I love the fact that (in the UK at least) Nutella is marketed as a "hazelnut
spread", presumably so that parents can give it to their kids without all that
pesky guilt that surrounds giving your children chocolate.

I still remember the excitement of this exotic foreign goo first making it to
our shores, a schoolfriend bringing a jar to my house as if it were some
sacred relic.

------
charlie_vill
Breakfast in San Salvador, El Salvador, means . Hot tamales - usually with
salty with chicken or sweet. . Fried eggs and beans with cheese . A side of
plantains and a toasted tortilla . Hand crafted hot chocolate and coffee .
Mango juice with a speck of pinnaple

Glad we live in a world so diverse in even the little things we eat in our
mornings.

------
canvia
If you drink orange juice with breakfast frequently, you might want to
reconsider:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/misunderst...](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/misunderstanding-
orange-juice-as-a-health-drink/283579/)

~~~
buckbova
Reconsider because the producers add "flavor packets"? Why would this scare
me? Because of the sugar? It's no mystery there's sugar in there, otherwise
the beverage wouldn't be sweet.

I'll continue to drink my "fresh-squeezed" juice. Thanks anyway for the promo-
scare piece.

------
ekianjo
Natto for breakfast in Japan ? This claim is completely unfounded. Tons of
Japanese actually HATE natto themselves.

~~~
enqk
in kansai, people don't usually eat natto. In kanto, they would. For
breakfast, it depends if you're traditional or not. At a hotel, it would not
be surprising to be served natto for breakfast.

~~~
rumbler
Enough with the "Kansai people don't eat natto" thing, that's just not true. I
lived in Kansai for years, and there were like a dozen brands of natto on
supermarket shelves, everywhere. Big beans, small beans, with sauce and
mustard, with just mustard, with added kombu taste, treated with "stink-less"
process, you name them. My neighborhood sushi place had natto-maki prominently
on the menu. If you order a traditional Japanese breakfast at an upscale
restaurant in Osaka, it will most likely include natto.

Lots of Japanese like natto, lots of Japanese don't like natto. Go to France
and you'll find the same thing is true of blue cheese.

Maybe natto is slightly more popular in Kanto. Maybe it wasn't common in
Kansai 100 years ago and that's how the myth started. But let's stop staying
Kansai people don't usually eat natto, when it's plain to see that's not the
case.

~~~
enqk
If I would have said, "Kanto people don't usually eat Okonomiyaki" would you
also have replied in a similar way?

------
wil421
I dont really see a difference in American eating habits when compared to
Europe. Most of them looked like variations of the same thing. I would love to
eat chocolate bread when I was younger every morning like Amsterdam. The
biggest difference is the American/Europe vs Asia (Japan/Korea).

------
vince_refiti
In Australia, McDonald's is exceptionally busy in the morning for the drive-
through and the sit-down areas. Lots of parents bring their children there
before school. At least the one in Albion, Brisbane.

------
markbnj
Two from Malawi, two from Brazil, two from Turkey, two from Japan. It was an
interesting piece, but I guess the writer and photographer couldn't get as
much of the world in as they would have liked.

------
GordonS
Nitpick: The rice porridge, 粥, eaten in China is only called 'jook' (zuk1) in
Cantonese speaking parts, like Hong Kong.

It's called 'joe' (zhōu) in Mandarin speaking parts (i.e. most of China).

------
zxc1234
I don´t believe that in some countries one prepares 12 different foods for
breakfast every day. This only reflects "pretending" attitude of those
countries when they know someone is looking.

~~~
bryanlarsen
It probably takes a lot less time than frying up bacon and eggs. Remember that
these are typically large extended families, and those are usually communal
dishes. So there might be 12 foods in the middle of the table, but 6-12 people
are helping themselves from the dishes. The other thing to remember is that
most, if not all, of those foods are leftovers and/or prepared ahead of time
in large quantities. It doesn't take long to pull stuff out of the fridge and
put it on the table.

------
rumbler
I enjoyed reading about breakfast while eating mine. I had pumpkin soup and
toast. In my opinion, soup is highly underrated as breakfast food (in the
Western world at least).

------
bryanlarsen
Missing my favorite: Denmark. The best pastries in the world + a wide variety
of cold cuts, cheeses and spreads with lots of butter and rye bread.

------
socialist_coder
Wow, so much sugar in the Netherlands breakfast. My hippie mom would turn over
in her grave if we ate that for breakfast!

~~~
coldpie
Hagelslag is delicious, but yeah, even one piece of bread with the stuff on
makes me a bit sick to my stomach with the sweetness.

------
selimthegrim
God, I could never stand Rooh-e-Afza growing up. I guess I should go turn in
my brown person badge.

------
Red_Tarsius
Italian breakfast usually is made of:

* a bowl of cereals, or

* a glass of milk, cookies, jam, or

* croissant/pastry, coffee/cappuccino.

------
Hortinstein
ahhh i miss the great traditional breakfast in Tokyo . It took a while to get
used to cold fish and rice for breakfast, but I ended up loving it.

Also worth mentioning is Tamago kake gohan (egg rice), literally raw egg over
rice mixed together

~~~
lk145
In that dish is the rice hot? Does the egg end up semi-cooked? I really hate
most convenient American breakfast foods because I don't like to eat sweet
stuff in the morning. Egg and rice sounds pretty appealing and very
convenient.

------
known
No breakfast for [http://www.rediff.com/business/report/india-is-home-
to-13rd-...](http://www.rediff.com/business/report/india-is-home-to-13rd-of-
the-worlds-poor-imf/20141009.htm)

------
Marry_09
Following can be used for healthy breakfast. Boiled eggs. Milk + oats. Fruits.

------
Shad0w59
Great photography.

------
frozenport
What about the common man that has nothing for breakfast?

------
for_i_in_range
And what about the 16,000 kids that die everyday because of hunger?

------
lazyjones
Great photos (although possibly not showing those kids' typical breakfasts,
but something they came up with for the photo session), somewhat boring text.
But my gripe with this article is mainly that it's the year 2014 and a famous
US-based publication would have the means (financial and technological) to
produce something that would live up to the expectations raised by the title:
representative dishes from many more than just a handful of countries, not a
few shiny pictures for a 10 minute read, but instead something that could
actually be used a reference and at some point become a publication of
historical value. The TIME article linked in the comments does it much better.

tl;dr - sad times: hyperbole everywhere and "fast food" journalism. Someone
ought to do it properly.

