Viral Breakfast for Couples by Michael Zee

By
Brenda Mitchell
-

For Londoner Michael Zee and his partner Mark van Beek, breakfast is a necessary morning ritual, and that’s not just any ordinary breakfast. Ever since their first morning together, Zee has been creating identical breakfasts for him and his partner and sharing the photos on Instagram. He now has almost 800,000 followers on his page called SymmetryBreakfast.

Zee has endless inspiration for making a different pair of breakfasts every single day. So far, there are over 1,800 photos on his page, meaning that he has made over 1,800 breakfasts and counting!

In 2016, his recipe book SymmetryBreakfast: Cook-Love-Share came out. Scroll down for the photos.

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Monday: Bircher muesli with a Chinese twist 🇨🇳🇨🇭homemade peanut milk with black sesame and Chinese yam, topped with peanut butter and fruits, plums, frozen strawberry, blueberries, mango, redcurrants and pumpkin seeds – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Bircher was created around 1900 by Swiss physician and nutritionist named Maximillian Bircher-Benner, who devised a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables to help patients in his hospital, which was controversial at the time. Like many fad diets even today, his research was backed up by pure anecdotal observation, and he did no actual scientific studies to prove his results. His facility was described as a “health jail” by his contemporaries. Even though bircher muesli is easy to make and delicious, it seems like nothing has changed! #symmetrybreakfast

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Friday: Börek, a savoury pie of Anatolian origins, mine is filled with purple Chinese spinach, feta, bacon and pine nuts and served with some hot hot sauce and cooling yoghurt. Recipe is in my book too ✌🏼Also a great Ayran recipe to match 😉 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – A gentle reminder! Next week we are going to HONG KONG! 🇭🇰 香港 I’ve got a book signing at the gorgeous @themurrayhk on Saturday 18th and the EventBrite link is both on my Stories and my bio page under Get Tickets! I’ll be selling my English and Chinese books and also TEA! Tickets are almost sold out so don’t wait around 😘😘😘 #symmetrybreakfast

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Thursday: Yemenite malaweh, a layered flatbread (the recipe from @thecinnaman) his recipe includes 🧀 with cucumber, tomato, feta, egg, thick yoghurt with olive oil and za’atar and a cup of tea – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – I learn and discover more about the different food cultures around the world everyday. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the people in places like Yemen, where this bread originates from, and exactly what they are going through right now. The worst (and largely forgotten by the media) humanitarian crisis happening right now. I’m going to make a donation today to Save The Children but if you’ve not heard about what’s happening I would encourage you to find out. #symmetrybreakfast

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Saturday: Sesame yoghurt, with roasted garlic, topped with pumpkin and confit tomato, crispy spiced chickpeas (olive oil, cumin, caraway, fennel, lemon pepper, salt) dem fudgy soft eggs, watermelon radish, that I found out in Chinese are called 心里美 Xin Li Mei, (Inside the Heart is Beauty ❤️❤️❤️) and even more lemon juice 🍋A delicious purple dragonfruit and orange smoothie and a cup of tea 👍🏻 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – The confit tomatoes and garlic (a la @nocrumbsleft recipe) is certainly a game changer, the summer is still clinging on in Shanghai but it’s nice to have a jar of sunshine in the fridge. I also used Chinese sesame paste rather than tahini, because in Shanghai it’s so much cheaper, but also the sesame is heavily toasted (majority of tahini is untoasted seeds) giving it a totally different flavour but I used it in very much the Middle Eastern way 🙌🏼 Mix it up a little! #symmetrybreakfast

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