What Is Balkan Breakfast and Why Is It Taking Over TikTok?
It’s certainly one way to get your vegetable fill.
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If you need a nudge to eat your veggies, this TikTok trend might be for you. Piggybacking off girl dinner, and our broader love for charcuterie boards, comes the (so-called) Balkan breakfast.
It started with a video that TikToker @.dayi_ posted of himself at the end of August. In the video, he takes haphazard bites of whole, raw vegetables (peppers, tomatoes and a cucumber), eats crumbly white cheese out of a small baggie and tears pieces off a hunk of bread. He eats all this directly off his table, never saying a word or pausing his crunching. The video racked up nearly five million views.
Since then, TikTok has generalized this style of eating as “Balkan breakfast,” and many people are curious to try it for themselves. The components always include plenty of whole, raw vegetables, bread, cheese and sometimes pickled vegetables, cured meat and a sprinkling of salt or a dip. Ajvar, a red pepper condiment popular throughout the Balkans, is the dip of choice.
This trend seems to be fueled both by people who have never eaten this way before — those filming mukbangs of themselves trying it out — and by mystified commenters who don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Self-aware TikToker @robbsfilms wryly captioned his video, “Man discovers eating vegetables.” Both groups tend to agree that a no-cook meal built around fresh ingredients scratches a certain (“primal,” according to Robb) itch.
So, how Balkan is the Balkan breakfast, really? Plenty of self-identified Balkan commenters call the trend inauthentic, while others say it resonates with them. A couple of commenters on one video point out that they would chop up the vegetables, not chomp them whole.
“As a Balkan we eat them like a charcuterie board, they are cut in pieces. We had cured bacon, onion, pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, feta style cheese and fresh bread in my house,” one person says.
Another Balkan commenter adds that this type of meal is common where people grow vegetables, so fresh ingredients are on hand.
“Romanian here: [it’s] because most people have a small garden/farm and they will eat like that before going to work the fields/while working in the fields,” the commenter says.
So, while perhaps exaggerated, it seems like there’s a grain of truth in the Balkan breakfast. And regardless of where it came from, those craving fresh ingredients and easy meals are loving it.
As with other TikTok trends that cobble together meals, it’s important to pay attention to portion size, especially considering how rich many vegetables are in fiber.
“Robb said he couldn’t get off the toilet after this, so if you’re not used to eating 100 grams of fiber like I am, be careful with this trend,” warned TikTok creator @theplantslant, who also tried it.
However, all this excitement might be an ironic reminder for many of us that sometimes, less is more — and making a habit of eating vegetables is usually a good idea.
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