I saw this prompt yesterday, but had nothing as an inspiration to write. Today I was in the local supermarket and armed with my mobile phone took a few photos. Of course I got some strange sideways glances from other shoppers, but they probably thought I was some sort of crazy golden oldie with a touch of Alzheimer. Mr. Swiss distanced himself from me, but he was on the quest for Pepsi Cola which happened to be in the next shelf.
Writing about your favourite cereal could become a very lengthy blog. There are so many different kinds. When I was a kid back in London in the fifties, the only choice was cornflakes, or shredded wheat, although mum would help to brighten up the cornflakes with some slices of banana.
I was never a great milk drinker, did not like the stuff, but mum found it would be good for me and pouring it over the cornflakes would be a confirmation that I was eating healthy food.
I quite like shredded what, after all it was the favourite of the Tottenham Hotspur football player, Danny Blanchflower. He was constantly showing how good it was on the TV commercial, and if it was good enough for a professional footballer, it would be good enough for me. I did not really like it so much, as a full sized shredded wheat was big. However later in life the bite sized wheaties arrived, and you could fill up your bowl according to how much you wanted to eat.
Later in life I moved to Switzerland and as you can see in the first photo, Switzerland was not in the breakfast cereal isolation and they could compete with the rest. However, prices were twice as expensive as in England. Of course we had Birchermusli, the Swiss healthy version of the breakfast cereal. Dr. Bircher, the Swiss cereal guru, discovered and developed a mixture of various fruits and oats, guranteed to transform you into a picture of health.
Unfortunately slowly but surely I developed a lactose allergy and my breakfast cereal days came to an end. I am now confined to bread, butter and jam, although I quite enjoy it. We can even buy marmalade in Switzerland according to the original recipe, made from bitter oranges, so what could possibly be better. I do not miss my cereal, I just have a higher sugar content in my blood in the morning after breakfast – yes, I am also diabetic. Oats and wheat grow in the fields surrounding my home, so the cereal touch is not completely lost.
My favourite breakfast – if I had the time, fried egg on fried bread, a few sausages, baked tomatoes, garnished with mushrooms and perhaps some baked beans. I always loved the english idea of a cooked breakfast.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
I eat pretty much as you do, though coffee, not tea. I’ve found some “lighter sugar” toppings for toast that taste fine too, so i’m also happy. I’m not sensitive to milk — I simply don’t LIKE it 🙂
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I no longer do” lighter sugar”. If I drink cola than the real stuff and not anything with the name light. I do not like it. I have learned to manage my own sugar household in my body. I now have to measure my sugar before I drive the car – one of the have-to-do things when you are diabetic and over 70 and now I can really see how my sugar is developing (otherwise I do not really bother because the strips for measuring are expensive) and I discover that I can live with my sugar houshold without all the light stuff which I do not like. Practice makes perfect, as they say.
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When I was teaching international students back in the late 80s one of my German students asked me, “Why do you have so many kinds of corn flakes in America? Is it really necessary?” I had to explain that they weren’t all corn flakes. We had a field trip to the grocery store later on to study the variety of breakfast cereals and back then there were not even as many as there are now. It’s interesting how the companies change the names of the cereals to fit the country in which they’re sold. For example, “Frosties” here is is “Frosted Flakes.” 🙂
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But it is a fact that in Amerian there are so many more choices in flavours and sorts. Just the ice cream varieties are so many. Names do change for various articles from country to country. We have Ovalmaltine, a warm milk drink before going to bed, originally from Dr. Wander in Bern. In England we knew it as Ovaltine, but the same product.
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Yep. Here we have Ovaltine, too. My Swiss friend insists it’s NOT Ovalmatine, but I think he’s wrong. I had to bring back Ovalmaltine candy for him this past summer.
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Ovaltine is Ovalmaltine, most definitely It is just the name change from one country to another.
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Yeah, I think my friend is governed by nostalgia here and remembers it tasting differently than it does. 🙂
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I con’t even like it, apart from the lactose intolerance that I have.
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Very interesting.
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🙂
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I often make myself porridge/oatmeal with the “old-fashioned” thicker flakes as it is supposed to help keep cholesterol at bay. I never heard about cholesterol when in England and told my US doctor I didn’t think we had it there. I have it with yoghurt -LOW fat, not the awful no-fat kind. Plain, and with some fruit. Did you know that currants have fewer calories than raisins? I smiled at your first photo of the candy cereals – when my middle son came over here he brought an extra suitcase inside another in order to take it back full of Fruit Loops. He rations them with his sons. Too sweet for me.
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My dad loved his porridge every morning. In England they sold it in portions, sort of a quick solution, and all you had to do was add milk and put it in the microwave. He was then approaching 100 years old, so he could manage making it himself. Although he had his own version and would mix it with water. Cholesterol seems to be a modern problem. My results from my long time sugar tests also showed a cholesterol problem. So I had to take Atorvastatin tablets, once a day. With time I was suffering from diarhoe, and my quality of life was diminishing. I discovered a slight lactose allergy, but stopped taking the tablets, avoid milk, and I was cured. The symtoms disappeared. I had a look in Internet that is one of the side effects of the tablets. I spoke to my doctor about it, and she also said I should stop taking the tablets and now everything is fine. It seems to me that half the human race have too much cholesterol these days. I am not into calories so much. I eat what I want to eat. Keep an eye of sugar content (diabetes) but that is a way of life. I do not panic, do not stop eating things that might not be so healthy, just apply common sense.
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my two favourite mantras are “moderation in all things” (except happiness) and “A little of what you fancy does you good” – that last one from my Dad.
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