It’s said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. While a lot of the Western World serve their kids sugary cereals, many children around the world eat vastly different foods first thing in the morning. Hannah Whitaker photographed children and their colorful breakfast plates for the New York Times. The results are surprising and have given me a few ideas to change up my usual morning meal routine. 

Tokyo, Japan: 2¾-year-old Saki Suzuki

In front of Saki is white rice, miso soup, squash simmered in soy sauce, sweet sake, pickled cucumber, which Saki doesn’t enjoy, rolled egg omelet and grilled salmon.

Paris, France: 6-year-old Nathanaël Witschi Picard

Nathanaël enjoys a kiwi fruit, cold cereal with milk, freshly squeezed orange juice and a baguette topped with butter and home-made blackberry jam. 

Chitedze, Malawi: 7-year-old Emily Kathumba

On Emily’s menu is phala, a cornmeal porridge with soy and groundnut flour; boiled sweet potato and pumpkin; hibiscus flower juice; and deep fried fritters.   

Istanbul, Turkey: 8-year-old Doga Gunce Gursoy

Doga enjoys a traditional mezze meal with kaymak  (honey and clotted cream) on toasted bread, sucuk fried eggs with spicy sausage, pekmez thick grape syrup topped with tahini, pastries and bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and other fresh vegetables, and green and black olives. Other plates have butter, hard-boiled eggs, an assortment cheeses from goat, cow, and sheep milk, quince and blackberry jams, kahvaltilik biber salcasi (a paste made of grilled red peppers), and halvah. Doga drinks milk and orange juice.

Tokyo, Japan: 4-year-old Koki Hayashi

Koki’s warm breakfast includes grapes, miso soup, a sliced Asian pear, milk and green peppers, stir-fried with dried fish, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. He also eats rice with a sauce of raw egg mixed with soy sauce, and kinpira (sauteed lotus and burdock roots, and carrots), and a sweet rice wine with soy sauce called mirin.  

Reykjavik, Iceland: 3½-year-old Birta Gudrun Brynjarsdottir

Birta’s meal consists of hafragrautur, an Icelandic staple of oatmeal porridge. She also sips some lysi (cod-liver oil) for her source of vitamin D due to the lack of sunlight in Iceland in most of the year. 

São Paulo, Brazil: 3-year-old Tiago Bueno Young

Tiago eats cornflakes, a sweet white bread called bisnaguinha, topped with requeijão, a cream cheese, and a slice of banana cake. 

Amsterdam, the Netherlands: 5-year-old Viv Bourdrez

Viv enjoys hagelslag, bread with unsalted butter, coated in sweet sprinkles, along with a glass of milk. 

Chitedze, Malawi: 4-year-olds Phillip & Shelleen Kamtengo

These cute twins share a breakfast with black tea, boiled potatoes and chikondamoyo, a sweet cornbread-like cake.  

Istanbul, Turkey: 9-year-old Oyku Ozarslan

Oyku enjoys a mezze breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, strawberry jam, an assortment of cheeses, brown bread, green and black olives, Nutella spread, sliced tomatoes, and butter soaked in honey.

São Paulo, Brazil: 4-year-old Aricia Domenica Ferreira and 2-year-old Hakim Jorge Ferreira Gomes

Aricia enjoys a drink of chocolate milk while Hakim sips on coffee called café com leite. The children eat pão com manteiga, bread with butter, and ham and cheese slices.