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.
