Can you really have an 'all-day breakfast'? After all, as far as I'm aware, the word 'breakfast' means the first meal of the day or a meal eaten in the morning. So is an 'all-day breakfast' not just a fry-up or scrambled eggs on toast etc?
This is probably just me being pedantic, but it's something that bothered me the other day. I'm guessing that the reason they use 'all-day breakfast' is that it groups certain types of food together – although I still think if they advertised an 'all-day fry-up' it may be a little clearer.
Thanks, Gingerous – I've never really thought about this one before. The Oxford English Dictionary does indeed define 'breakfast' as "a meal eaten in the morning, the first of the day", so in that sense an 'all-day breakfast' is contradictory. I also agree with you that the word 'breakfast' in the term 'all-day breakfast' refers to the types of food included rather than the timing of the meal.
However, in my experience, an 'all-day breakfast' tends to contain slightly different items to a regular fry-up so it remains a useful term. For example, I wouldn't expect chips with an all-day breakfast (although the photo below, taken from the website of the Royal Cafe Restaurant, Stranraer, clearly shows chips as part of the 'Traditional' all-day breakfast. Note as well the 'Breakfast Brunch' – it's three meals in one, two of which are breakfast. And then there's the 'Early Starter' – if you were such an early starter, why not just have breakfast, as opposed to an all-day breakfast?).
I'd also take issue with your suggestion 'all-day fry-up': why not just use 'fry-up'? After all, it's not as if fry-ups are traditionally only eaten in the morning.
Anyone else have anything to add to this discussion? And do other countries apart from the UK have all-day breakfasts?
