Here's a quiz to get your brain going. What do all these foods have in common?

* Pancakes and sausage

* Olives, cheese and bread

* Soup, rice and fish

If you said "breakfast foods," you're right (you must have had breakfast to get your brain going!). Though most people around the world eat something in the morning to "break" their overnight "fast," their breakfast foods are as varied as the languages they speak.

"It's not just what people eat for breakfast; it's when they eat it and even what's eaten at other meals," says Barbara Haber, a cookbook expert and librarian at the Schlesinger Library in Boston.

For instance, people in southern European countries such as France, Spain and Italy will wake up to a hot drink and bread and butter. At 10 a.m., they'll have a substantial snack of a sandwich or a salad. And the Jorai people of Southeast Asia eat all day, Karin Luisa Badt says in her book "Good Morning, Let's Eat!" Their breakfast is whatever fruit, bug or bird they find first.

Sandwiches? Salads? Bugs? Yep. Not all breakfasts are sweet, even bland, like the pancakes, cereal and French toast Americans prefer. In fact, Costa Ricans eat beans and rice, and ** the Lebanese eat olives and cheese, stuff others might consider dinner foods.

Still, whether it's on the table in India or Italy, breakfast meals often have one ingredient in common: a grain or a starch. Take a look at this menu of breakfasts around the world:

India: Iddly (lentils and grains) with coconut chutney in the South; paratha (pan-fried bread) and yogurt in the North.

Northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark): Cold cuts, cheeses and hard rolls.

Southern Europe (France, Spain, Italy): Bread and butter, a pastry and coffee or tea early; sandwich snack at midmorning.

Ghana's Ashanti people: Taro leaves mashed with salted fish, tomato, onion, turmeric and palm oil.

Nigeria's Yoruba people: Fried bean cake, beans and rice.

Japan: Rice with nori (seaweed), misoshiru (salty soup), pickles, salad, fish and rice.

Turkey: Borek (savory pastry with cheese, meat and vegetables).

Mexico: Chicken tacos, eggs and refried beans.

Costa Rica: Rice, beans and scrambled eggs.

Ireland: Blood sausage, eggs, brown bread and bacon.

Lebanon: Olives, cheese and bread.

Pub Date: 12/10/98