Many years ago we had a visitor from Ireland. One morning she asked me if I would like to try what she was having for breakfast. She took a piece of white bread and put it into an iron skillet that already had a small amount of oil in it and started to fry the bread on both sides. She said you could eat it just the way it was or with syrup. She didn't butter the bread first but I guess you could. I just figured it was something they did in Ireland but I'm sure it's a simple an inexpensive food in many countries.