Fun fact: just as the Chinese (and I think other asian cultures) utilize "rice"(their staple grain) as a synoym for a meal so in English we use the concept of a staple grain as a synoym for a meal: meal.
As far as I can tell, "meal" (time) and "meal" (flour) have different etymological origins. There was still a difference in spelling in Middle English (mel vs mele), but that distinction was lost in Modern English.[0]
I've heard it as "breaking bread." I like the phrase. But yeah, it's essentially the same as eating bread, and it clearly refers to having a meal and is not limited to bread.
That's because in Victorian times the lower classes often couldn't afford a meal at that time and had to subside on some tea and perhaps a slice of bread.
The use of "tea" for that meal remains a class signifier; my paternal grandmother used it, my parents did not (my mother, despite not being a native speaker, presumably is the one who eradicated it from my father's vocabulary), and yet I continue to say unwittingly say it occasionally though I now live in the USA. A vestigial Australianism in my case
It's definitely "non-U" in the UK, though that whole world is mostly gone.
I'm also a random person on the Internet, but I can confirm that "饭" can mean both "rice (米)" or meal, depends on the combination of word. "吃饭" almost always mean "have/having/had a meal".
However, based on my research (1), "扒饭" is likely a meal type rather than an action. For example, "鸡扒饭" consists of a bowl of rice covered by a layer of pre-cooked chicken breast plus some veggies. The rice itself seemed normally cooked, not grilled. And yes, this sounded very similar to "盖浇饭" which is also a meal type.
(Me been a local to the country, you would assume that I knew this kind of things. Well...no, this is the first time I learned this term. But if someone asks me "Hey do you want some 鸡扒饭?", I'll take my chances.)
I'm a native Chinese. I think it's 猪扒 饭 or 鸡扒 饭, 猪扒=猪排=pork chops*.
Note: 排 literally means ribs. But this dish has been evolved quite a bit and now 猪排 could be any part of pork, and I'd say pork chop is actually more common than actual ribs nowadays. Same goes to chicken - 鸡排/鸡扒 is typically just chicken breast (not like chicken has ribs to begin with, hehe).
no 吃饭 doesn’t always mean have a meal, when asking if some one would prefer rice or noodle, it’s ‘吃饭还是吃面‘ ( you eat rice or noodle), it heavily depends on the context.
