Balkan Breakfast

Submission 7,653

Part of a series on Balkan Memes. [View Related Entries]

About

Balkan Breakfast refers to a series of viral videos documenting an alleged traditional Balkan breakfast consisting of raw tomato, salt, peppers, cucumber, cheese and bread. In the videos, the Balkan way of eating vegetables is with your hands or a knife. For instance, a tomato is often eaten like an apple and salt is poured onto it before each bite. Balkan Breakfast videos and memes surfaced on TikTok and elsewhere in late 2024, predominantly spawned from a video of a Balkan man eating the Balkan way which had Snapchat text overlay reading, "Bro invited me to breakfast." After the video went viral, other TikTokers reenacted it.

Origin

The earliest known creator to parody the way Balkans eat was TikToker^[1] @balkandad on April 23rd, 2020, who posted a skit called, "How Balkan dads eat breakfast," showing himself eating raw vegetables, bread, meat and cheese with his hands. Over four years, the video received roughly 1.9 million plays and 166,700 likes (shown below).

@balkandad How Balkan dads eat breakfast 😂 #balkan #tiktokbalkan #relatable ♬ original sound – balkandad

Spread

TikToker^[2]^[3] @balkandad continued to post viral video skits about the way Balkan men eat in the following years.

On May 20th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @pazarciklisalman posted a video of himself eating a similarly Balkan meal, seen squatting while tearing apart a baguette and inserting tomato, peppers and salt. The video received over 20 million plays and 614,400 likes in a year (shown below).

@pazarciklisalman

♬ son original – marasli salman

TikToker^[5]^[6] @pazarciklisalman continued posting videos of himself eating like a Balkan going into 2024.

On August 26th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @.dayi_ posted a video of himself eating tomato, peppers, cheese and cucumbers with his hands. Over 16 days, the video received roughly 4.1 million plays and 50,900 likes (shown below).

@.dayi_

♬ orijinal ses – dayı

On September 5th, 2024, TikToker^[8] @thecannedmemes posted the video with an added Snapchat text filter reading, "Bro invited me to breakfast." The video received over 28.1 million plays and 2.6 million likes in six days (shown below).

@thecannedmemes How can he even enjoy this? #breakfast #vegetables #meme ♬ Originalton – Canned Memes

In the following days, others on the app started eating so-called "Balkan breakfasts." For instance, on September 9th, TikToker^[9] @fishbswimmin posted a video following the Balkan Breakfast trend, gaining over 367,400 plays and 14,100 likes in two days (shown below).