By L.V. Anderson ~ Last week’s Key & Peele ( a new sketch-comedy show on Comedy Central) featured a sketch in which Jordan Peele’s character rapturously discovers the free continental breakfast offered by his mid-range hotel. With increasing excitement, he encounters Fruit Loops, miniature muffins, and bananas as though they were rare delicacies from assorted European countries. (“Ahhh, the Danish, clearly from Brussels.”) The joke, of course, is that contra the character’s genuine delight, the offerings at most hotel continental breakfasts are far from European. Why are such morning buffets called “continental breakfasts,” anyway? READ MORE
The term dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when American hotels began changing to appeal to an emerging middle class and to European tourists. One meaning of the original “continental breakfast” refers to the type of food served: Americans traditionally ate large quantities of hearty, fried fare for breakfast, like pancakes, eggs, and meat—holdovers of the agrarian lifestyle. European visitors to America were appalled by such greasy abundance, preferring lighter items like fruit, bread, and pastries. Hotels began offering such continental foodstuffs to appeal both to Europeans and to health-conscious Americans.