What kind of breakfast cereal is popular outside the states?
We have the big three cereal makers; Kellogg’s, Post and General Mills plus some others.
There’s Corn Flakes, Shredded Wheat, Frosted Mini Wheats, Raisin Bran, Bran Flakes, Lucky Charms, Wheaties, Cheerios, Grape Nuts, Captain Crunch, Trix, etc etc.
In the hot cereal line there’s Malt-o-meal, Coco Wheats, Cream of wheat and so on.
What are the popular cereals around the world?
We bought Frosted Flakes in England. They had Tony the Tiger on the box and all, but were called Frosties.
Hot cereal in UK = porridge.
Phew, normality restored.
Porridge for me every time. 
Hm. Lots of overlap between the states and the UK, but some things are slightly different. Other things are unique to each country.
You can get Quaker Oats microwaveable oatmeal, but only certain flavours. No Maple and Brown Sugar flavour, which is my favourite, but I imported some and have also recently found an acceptable replacement - Flahavan’s Microwaveable Quick Oats. I haven’t seen the other hot cereal type of things here.
The big makers here seem to be Nestle and Kelloggs. I don’t recall seeing Post, and anything that is General Mills in the US seems to be Nestle here.
Cold cereal brands that I know I have seen here: Cheerios (under Nestle brand instead of General Mills), Honey Nut Cheerios (only available in certain stores; also under Nestle brand), Special K, Cookie Crisp, Grape Nuts, Frosted Flakes (under the Frosties name), Rice Krispies (under a different name as well I believe), several others I’m sure. You can get Lucky Charms but only in speciality food shops for about £7 a box. Cinnamon Grahams looks like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
US Cold cereal brands that I don’t remember seeing here: Froot Loops, Reese’s anything, Captain Crunch, Corn Pops (at least not under that name, and nothing I’ve bought has been the same), Trix, …I’m sure there are tons. And some have probably been invented since I left!
One of the local supermarkets, Sainsbury’s, has an online shopping function. You can browse in it and see what cereals they stock if you’re really bored. http://www.sainsburys.co.uk
Oh yeah - in Ireland they have Corn Pops but it is different (and better!) than the stuff in the states. Next time I go to Ireland I am bringing a couple of boxes home.
Mostly oat meal. I like cream of wheat as a change every once in a while. I could never get into stuff like Roman Meal.
I know how the cold cereals are made, that there is more nutritional value in the packaging, except for whatever has been “added” after the fact. I haven’t had cold cereal since I was young.
Your list does not, however, include a proper fry-up, with eggs, bacon, sausage, blood pudding, home-fries, fried bread, fried tomatoes, fried fried fried, fried fried fried and fried with baked beans, fried fried fried fried …
djm
Arrrgh!
but only certain > flavours> .
AArrrgh!!
Ah, yes. Nowt like that lot with a mug or two of good strong tea for a good clear-out! 
The only cold cereal worth eating is TRIX. But mostly I eat oatmeal, which is the god of all breakfast foods. Hell, oatmeal is the god of all slightly-less-than-solid foods.
But what is porridge? What’s in it?
The stuff I’m referring to is a grain meal type of thing.
My favorite hot cereal is corn meal mush. Cheaper than the above and just as good. Would this be considered corn meal porridge? I can’t stomach oatmeal. Too slimy.
I had taken that to mean that porridge is a generic term for hot cereal in the UK.
This kid would scare me away from Farina forever:
This is the only one I’ve ever seen (red box):
djm
We buy this stuff sometimes –
It has a maple/brown sugar. We get it at a British imports store. Of course, it’s a tad pricey by the time it’s shipped to Kansas.
We also have used this –
and there’s another steelcut Scottish oat we buy now instead, but I can’t remember the name.
Quaker rolled oats can’t hold a candle to the good steel cut stuff, not even the Old-fashioned, which are not smushed out as much as quick or instant. I’ve never seen a US-made steelcut oat in the grocery store.
I looked at those (Lambchop is big on steel-cut oats and has some brand recommendations, as well) but they are all three to four times more expensive than Quaker Oats, and I don’t know that they are worth the difference in price.
I know that, nutritionally speaking, steel-milled wheat flour has almost all the nutritional value destroyed by the heat of the milling process. That is why stone-milled is so much better for you. What is the benefit of steel-milled oats versus rolled oats?
djm
For some reason, they’re often called “pinhead oats” in the US.
You can find 'em in some Whole Foods type stores…
Rolled oats are just steel-milled oats that have been steamed
and pressed and dried, which makes them cook faster.
Alton Brown (of Good Eats) did a pretty good show about oats.
You can see the transcript here.
We don’t have a Whole Foods in my town. We only recently got a Starbucks.
When I find steel-cut or pinhead oats in the locally owned healthy food co-op, they are either McCann’s or a Scottish brand that has a picture of a Scot in a kilt on the front of the box. All imports. I like them because you actually can chew them.
Here’s what Quaker has to say about the difference – Quaker FAQ.
Hold the presses – I just found that Quaker makes a
steel cut oat.
Now I have to find a place that sells the stuff.
Thanks, Fearfaoin. Simplistic but effective, i.e. even I understood it. But he says to make a cup of rolled oats. The Quaker can of steel-rolled says a quarter cup per serving. Alton Brown didn’t mention it, but that sounds like he made enough for four people. Does this sound right?
With all of Brown’s prep and cooking time, this means steel-milled takes close to an hour, versus ten minutes for a bowl of rolled oats, the difference being a preference for flavour and texture of the steel-milled.
Now, if I can just find someone dumb enough to spend an hour each morning to make me a bowl of oatmeal …
djm