You eat WHAT for breakfast?

One of the wonderful benefits of writing about what you like to eat and putting it on-line is that everyone you know wants to tell you about great places that they've been. Unfortunately this is also one of the worst side-effects. (We take the good with the bad).

As is tradition with my childhood friends (a clan of middle-class Jews from West Rogers Park), I was having a drink and throwing darts at the Mark II Lounge ("The Deuce") on Christmas Eve. I was involved in a conversation with the lovely girlfriend of a friend, when the unfortunate side-effect kicked in. She wanted to tell me all about "a great, new breakfast place" that they just found. This breakfast place, which shall remain nameless, is neither great nor new. Furthermore, I wholeheartedly agree with Mike G about eating out for breakfast. I have no interest in standing in line on a peaceful weekend morning for mediocre food. Ms. EC and I rarely, if ever, eat out for breakfast.

Sensing my discomfort in this conversation, Ms. EC stepped in to save the day. "We really never go out for breakfast. Michael likes to eat at home, and he eats stuff that most places don't serve," she said. "Like what?", we were asked. So, I described my breakfast from that particular morning:

2 slices of Polish rye, toasted
Thick slabs of hard farmer cheese (Dutch or Belgian, I forget)
1 smoked chub
3 or 4 sardines in olive oil
Sliced onion
Sliced tomato
Kosher salt and cracked pepper

From this, I make two open-faced sandwiches (one chub, one sardine). This, in my humble opinion, is the greatest breakfast in the world. During the Sunday mornings of my youth, my father would add to this a bowl of farmer's chop suey (veggies mixed in sour cream and cottage cheese), and replace the sliced onion with his "onions in oil" (a Tupperware container of chopped onions that have been sitting in vegetable oil since the previous Sunday, pungent and delicious).

Smoked fish, white cheese, fresh vegetables, and good bread are how I learned to eat breakfast from my Polish-immigrant father and grandfather. Eggs, pancakes, or anything sweet really turns me the other way. On the weekends, I'm usually having whitefish, chubs, trout, or sardines. Sometimes lox, if I'm entertaining others. If I've got a lot of money in my pocket, I'll pick up a piece of sable.

After my description at the bar I was met with the exclamation: "You eat WHAT for breakfast?" And my morning dining habits became the topic of conversation around the bar. Most people added laughter, some disgust. No one (minus the Ms) said "That sounds good!"

I didn't jump to defend my tastes. I never see any reason to, beyond throwing out the obligatory, "don't knock it 'til ya tried it," and most of them aren't willing to try it.

So, this raised the question in my mind. Why do Americans find this idea so distasteful? Is my sandwich so far removed from lox & cream cheese on a bagel? Do I only enjoy this meal because it was passed on to me in my youth and is the opposite true for others? Is taste tied so closely to tradition?

Best,
EC

kudos to you 1) for your all but declaratory statement as to what you like for and about breakfast, and 2) for your berakfast suggestion. sounds delectable.

a few years back, just after my first and last visit to orange, to which i went all but kicking and screaming, i decided a few things -- 1) i hate, with almost every ounce of my soul, toast (the place), orange (the place), the bongo room, and all places remotely like it, 2) i don't want anything involving, for example, pancakes, yogurt, fruit, and a bunch of other "stuff" combined (tho each on its own is perfectly acceptable), 3) all i do want for breakfast, if i go out (which i do rarely for breakfast) is eggs, some port product, toast, and hashbrowns, 4) i won't go to any place where i can't get what i consider to be about the most basic amercan berakfast there is, and 5) i don't want to pay $15 for a breakfast that i did not want in the first place. at home, and often out, smoked fish, a bagel, cream cheese, tomato and onion are more than welcome (i grew uip in a middle class jewish home, too). i have on more than one occasion declined and torpedoed plans to go to orange or toast.

can't wait to try the eatchicago breakfast. i might even have it for lunch.

EC:

I applaud your breakfast menu.

I have an anti-sweet-tooth (sort of) and with the basic choice in this country being between things sweet or bacon and eggs (which I love but can only eat for breakfast once in a while, I too am regarded as something of a morning monster.

One of my favourite things to do is to make a sort of a soup. Beans and parsley or a little greens with garlic... drop in some paximadia or stale bread... That's hard to beat.

A little bowl of acini di pepe dressed in various ways is also a favourite of mine. One way is with parsley and a dollop of ricotta or another way is with a touch of grated tomato, chives or parsley and a spoonful of tahini.

A plate of sliced tomato, radish, cucumber, maybe onion, and some olives, with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, a drizzle of olive oil, and a dusting of zaatar or sumac and some hot bread is really good.

Northern European style boterhammen/Stullen/tartines (slice of bread, with or without schmear) with some cheese or cold cut or pâté or slice of left-over roasted meat is also something I enjoy and eat very regularly.

We were recently for a visit with the in-laws who are very serious about having good breakfasts in an American sort of a way: cereals, toast with jam, fruit, on occasion the old acon-and-beggs. I'm afraid I once again cut a bad figure and did something perverse when I chose for breakfast one morning a plate of feta, parsley and walnuts with pita over the usual breakfast spread they lay out.

This topic comes up now and again and it seems clear that, while all the things most Americans eat at breakfast are eaten elsewhere, the overal breakfast pattern here and in particular the horror for savoury items aside from the egg/bacon etc. family of things (and more recently the bagels and lox) is unusual from a global perspective. I suspect that this American approach to the start of the day has developed in part under the influence of commercial interests (good marketing by certain corporations and industries) but that can hardly explain everything.

But EC, would the average American eat sardines or chubbs even for lunch?

Antonius

One favorite breakfast of mine is cold pizza or lasagna from the night before. Warming it makes it feel more like lunch or dinner, so I usually just disengage a slab and suck it down while coffee is made. I find that I sometimes appreciate it more in the morning than I did the night before.

The Wife and kids treat me like some un-American communist atheist for not wanting to enjoy a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast, but I can never seem to find my taste buds in the right place for milk-soaked grain first thing in the morning (or ever, actually).

They say breakfast is "the most important meal of the day," and these observations usually relate to blood-sugar levels and other biochemical considerations I barely understand. It would seem, though, that after a night of rest, the taste buds would be relaxed and ready, perhaps somewhat more discerning than usual and primed to appreciate full-flavored meals, rather than simply moist oaten glop or bland bread cakes (there is a place for these breakfast foods, of course; just not usually in my mouth).

Hammond

PS. A, you paint quite a tableau: the in-laws enjoying the traditional jam and toast, and you, off to the side, scowling and munching walnuts and parsley.

This morning I had the pleasure of eating Extra Crisp Pan Fried Rice Noodles with BBQ Pork from Little Three Happiness. I brought an order home for my wife after having lunch with the Ultimo.

For lunch today was an order of Crispy Fried Chicken I also brought home yesterday. Both were great but even better fresh.

David Hammond wrote:The Wife and kids treat me like some un-American communist atheist for not wanting to enjoy a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast, but I can never seem to find my taste buds in the right place for milk-soaked grain first thing in the morning (or ever, actually).

You should see how my coworkers react when I eat breakfast at my desk: Jalapeno Krunchers and Coca Cola, breakfast of champions.

-ed

David Hammond wrote:One favorite breakfast of mine is cold pizza or lasagna from the night before.

Yesterday I had a few left-over ravioli di ricotta in tomato sauce... fortified me so well I had to clear off the snow from around our house and from in front of our neighbours' house as well...

I do find that lots of the things I eat for breakfast don't go with coffee. I need to have the coffee either before or after the food but coffee and savoury food don't go together well for me. I guess I'm un-American on that score too.

PS. A, you paint quite a tableau: the in-laws enjoying the traditional jam and toast, and you, off to the side, scowling and munching walnuts and parsley.

You're right, I probably was scowling but I do that a lot in general and especially when I can't figure out which way Mecca is... Chapel Hill geography is still a mystery to me... Incidentally, that breakfast stuff was left over from the previous night's dinner at a very fine Persian restaurant in Chapel Hill. Good stuff... If Mr. Barolo is out there, I think I should mention that I'm fairly sure the feta was the Corsican one ("French"-- free Corsica!) ... really delicious...

A

David Hammond wrote:PS. A, you paint quite a tableau: the in-laws enjoying the traditional jam and toast, and you, off to the side, scowling and munching walnuts and parsley.

No! Off to the side is not permitted! Everyone must sit down at the table together at the same time!

EC,

Having grown up with the joys of smoked sable, chubs, lox, red onion and the occasional olive oil packed sardine for breakfast, your 'typical' breakfast seems normal to me.

While my wife enjoys, what most would consider, standard American breakfast I'm of the leftover school of breakfast. For example, today I had a few pieces of Thai fried chicken from last nights dinner at Silver Spoon.

I might have had lunch leftovers from 'Little' Three Happiness, but Bruce made them disappear into his 'wife's' take home order while I was distracted by bright shiny objects.

Enjoy,
Gary

gleam wrote:You should see how my coworkers react when I eat breakfast at my desk: Jalapeno Krunchers and Coca Cola, breakfast of champions.

-ed

Ed,

This happened to me last Tuesday. One of my coworkers even got up from her desk and shut my office door to remove the Krunchers from her eyesight.

Flip

Sunday breakfast consists of a boatload of eggs scrambled, mixed with cream and frozen chives, joined by Nueske bacon (when on hand), accompanied by hash browns(with fried onions mixed in)--finished off with Pepperidge Farm Italian Bread (toasted and slathered with Kerrygold butter)

Weekdays, I eat much healthier----Super Big Gulp Coke with a couple of Newports--------

Fish for breakfast. Yum! I too grew up in a middle class Jewish home and don't think of fish at breakfast as an oddity.

In her last years I sometimes brought some smoked fish to my Mom at the retirement home. She always worried about the bones, but cleaned her plate anyway.

Like her I regard smoked fish at breakfast as a real treat. This thread has inspired me and I'll get some smoked chub soon (fortunately Kaufman's Bagel Bakery is not far) as a substitute for my high-fiber cereal with soymilk routine.

Antonius wrote:...coffee and savoury food don't go together well for me.

I find hot (temperature and chile) Mexican food an exception to this--I really love to follow picante tamales or huevos or tacos with a hot cup of coffee.

In Tulsa over the holidays, a friend took a bunch of the previous night's chopped brisket mixed it up with some scrambled eggs, threw it in some tortillas with hot sauce, and it made a very fine breakfast indeed.

Antonius - yeah, I'm out here. Mmm. Corsican Feta.

About breakfast I am enthusiastic and omniverous. An anarchist. I am the Emma Goldman (or perhaps the Sacco and Vanzetti) of breakfast.

I don't really stand on principle one way or the other. I can eat it sweet, savory, either or both at once. Out at a coffee shop or at home.

My only strong dislikes are the yup-scale, over-sweet 'creations' that involve pecan praline pancakes in bourbon sauce topped with berries whipped cream and powdered sugar.

I also cannot, try as I might, get excited about a big steaming bowl of pho to start my day. It just doesn't hit my breakfast spot.

I love breakfast out, actually. Especially a good, greek coffee shop breakfast. A typical greek omelet, made on the grill (flat, not, God forbid thick, dried out and puffed up under the salamander). GWiv-style hash browns. Ham off the bone or good sausage. Yum.

What I really love about eating breakfast out is having it brought to me from a kitchen that's up and running. At home, I may have the ingredients, but I don't have the prep crew, the griddle, and everything hot and waiting for me to throw it on the fire. I have to start from scratch, and that just takes to damn long. Also, I just can't make decent hashbrowns at home no matter how hard I try, or how hot the oil. It just needs a professional short-order person's touch.

I also love Eldon's version. All savory and pungent.

Or the more commercial 'lox plate' such as Frances' might produce, with toasted bagel, schmear, cucumber slices, red onion, a few olives, capers, etc.

I also love the cold, congealed, contents of a doggie bag from the night before, be it pizza, Chinese spare ribs, some stir-fried whatever. (Though I have to say that cold left-over remains of squid dishes, don't do much for me.)

Sometimes while the coffee is a-brewing, I'll stick a fork into a jar of kimchee just to kill the time.

As a side note: when I worked at Crate & Barell, the maintenance guys were all Polish. Their regular lunch was dark bread, sliced onion, and a tin of sardines. The young, yups-in-training floor staff used to look on in horror and derision as these guys ate their lunch. Then they would take out their own tuna salad from Subway or whatever (loaded with its own chopped onion, etc.) and I thought - "whatsamatta? The sardines aren't abstract enough for you? What do you think that tuna looked like before it was in the can?"

tho i rarely eat it for breakfast, when i do have it, i like cold pizza or cold chinese/thai/vietnamese... in the morning. that got me to wondering, why is it that those items, while delicious in their own rights when served traditionally hot, also taste great, in a very different way, cold.

i guess i'm curious about the science of the matter, and i'm too dumb to figure it out on my own. i tried some google searches, but i could not find satisfactory info. i stumbled across this link -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/scotland/692122.stm -- but it seems only to address why pizza does not get soggy when cold, not why it tastes good cold.

It's quite possible that American breakfast habits were influenced by nineteenth-century food faddism. For example, the whole dry-breakfast-cereal market goes back to the likes of Sylvester Graham and the Kellogg brothers who, among other things, believed that teenage boys who ate their concoctions would stop masturbating (I am *not* making this up; it sounds unbelievable, but such were the workings of the Victorian mind).They had all sorts of weird theories about digestion, which people were inclined to believe because they were squeamish about the subject and didn't want to think of it much (I suspect that some of the taboo about savory breakfasts may represent a fear that they would cause flatulence).

Over on the usenet group alt.support.diabetes, the breakfast taboos are frequently debunked (because of hormonal fluctuations related to diurnal rhythms, any food eaten shortly after waking is going to raise the blood sugar more than it would if eaten later in the day, and typical American breakfast is about as bad as you can get when it comes to causing blood-sugar spikes). People there often describe their breakfasts (arrived at based on glucose monitoring) which usually sound a lot like the ones described in this thread.

Sylvester Graham brought us the graham cracker, which was originally a bland cracker meant as a nutritional supplement. It wasn't until 1925 that honey-sweetened graham crackers were introduced by the National Baking Co otherwise known as Nabisco, which was founded in Chicago in the old Maxwell Street neighborhood.

Pie was a frequently breakfast for many in America. In the age of Graham, Kellogg and Post, there emerged the new science of nutrition.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America wrote:The New Nutritionist, as they came to be called, found a tireless advocate in Sara Tyson Rorer, a noted cooking teacher and the food editor of the influential Ladies Home Journal. In article after article, she expressed the forward-thinking virtues of the new science and warned her middle-class readers about consuming food that took a lot of energy to digest, which often resulted in nervous prostration and headaches. She expressed particular indignation about pies and took pain to condemn them at every opportunity.

Pie consumption dropped in this country under Sara Tyson Rorer's tutelage.

I've always enjoyed Bill Cosby's justification of Chocolate Cake as a solid breakfast option: flour, eggs, sugar, milk ... what's wrong with that? I'm just not sure he convinced his wife.

I fall into the camp of not enjoying traditional breakfast foods too much in the morning. Leftovers is a favored option. Bread and cheese sandwich with hot tea is another, though I do this for short periods then months before my next. Every few years I go on a Congee rampage for breakfast.

It just occured to me that my issue with traditional breakfast foods is the sameness day-in and day-out. I like variety, so traditional foods fits as long as it is a choice amongst many other options. The daily breakfast of the same-old-stuff doesn't work for me.

In keeping with this thread I thought I'd post breakfast this morning. Toasted Baltic Bakery pumpernickel, home made hummus from last nights dinner, pan fried halloumi cheese and a just barely hard egg.



Healthy and fortifying for my journey into the wilds of East Dubuque, IL.

Enjoy,
Gary

And a shot of Chalfonte in the coffee?

Amata wrote:And a shot of Chalfonte in the coffee?

I was out of sugar.

Hi,

As I have advised before, I do like the McDonald's Steak and Egg Bagel. For comparison purposes, I had a nibble of a new Dunkin' Donuts Steak and Egg Bagel.

My niece and I agreed we prefer McDonalds with the onions (and black pepper) was a much better sandwich. In a pinch Dunkin' Donuts was acceptable, but it wasn't destination dining, more like eating on the hoof location, location, location dining.

Cathy2 wrote:In a pinch Dunkin' Donuts was acceptable, but it wasn't destination dining, more like eating on the hoof location, location, location dining.

So is the implication that McDonald's is "destination dining" for it's steak bagel? And by the way, I'm completely with you on this. The McDonald's steak bagel sandwich has been a favorite of mine for years now. The grease & goo factor on this is extraordinary; I love the fact that the fatty steak, scrambled egg and American cheese are not enough; no, they smear flavored mayo (sort of a poor man's hollandaise) on top of it all. I eat breakfast maybe twice a month; usually, one of those two includes a McDonald's steak bagel sandwich. And the bagels are actually pretty good, too. I'd wager in 99% of America, the bagels served at McDonald's are the best bagels in town.

Jim,

Thanks for your effusive agreement on the Steak Bagel. My default, watch my calories, breakfast is the Egg McMuffin at 290 calories. If I am eating breakfast extremely early or late and likely to skip lunch, then I go full throttle on the Steak Bagel sandwich. Otherwise, my friend Helen and I will split one because the taste does take you far.

Once I was accidentally served the ham and egg bagel, no good, boring with no knock your socks off taste like the Steak Bagel. I totally understand the grease and goo factor, there really can be something said about the goodness of grease, when it packs that much flavor. Do you think they cook the onions in suet? I don't try too many McD's sandwiches beyond the Big Mac or Filet-o-Fish, do they use those tasty onions on any other sandwich?

Is it destination dining? In a sense yes, though I don't have to go very far with one very close to home.

I guess I showed my hand on the steak bagel, didn't I? But it's hard not to be effusive on this one. McDonald's is not regarded by anyone (anyone sane, that is) as source of culinary innovation or even general food design competence. But as my dad says, even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while; the steak bagel sandwich is one of McDonald's biggest and best acorns, however they may have stumbled upon it. Regarding the onions, I don't think they are using them on anything else right now, although a few years ago they did put them on a "specialty" burger; I think it had a BBQ theme to it. The steak bagel is precisely the sort of thing that McDonald's would usually have "for a limited time only," (like the goddawful McRib Sandwich) but they have kept it on the menu continuously for over 5 years now, I think. I don't know how many they sell, but God bless them for not discontinuing this one.

This discussion of the steak bagel is fascinating to me. I've done a lot of work with McDonald's over the past year(s), and the steak bagel has been completely off my radar. Frankly, I didn't even know it was on the menu, but I'm hitting the road tomorrow and will seek it out (shouldn't be hard).

Incidentally, there was a report issued today that specificed the McDonald's Egg McMuffin and hash browns as an "exceptionally unhealthy" breakfast...but, that estimation was based on eating two Egg McMuffins and two hash browns for breakfast. Not many of us do that. The whole Supersize Me thing makes me barf more enthusiastically than the misguided performance artist who made that movie.

Hammond

Hi,

I don't like the hashbrown. I will offer them to someone or throw it away if I somehow ended up with one.

The Egg McMuffin is a muffin, slice of American cheese, an egg and Canadian bacon -- in moderation -- it seems to be a reasonable breakfast.

JiLS, the Filet-O-Fish was once discontinued in the early 90's, when McD's unveiled their 'Adult' sandwiches which included a fish sandwich. As quietly as it disapeered back then, it did return after a while and has never left since. I will occasionally ask for extra sauce so I can dip my fries in it.

David - I look forward to your comments on this here board tomorrow on the Steak Bagel. Glad we could enlighten you.

Regards,

David Hammond wrote:This discussion of the steak bagel is fascinating to me. I've done a lot of work with McDonald's over the past year(s), and the steak bagel has been completely off my radar. Frankly, I didn't even know it was on the menu, but I'm hitting the road tomorrow and will seek it out (shouldn't be hard).

Incidentally, there was a report issued today that specificed the McDonald's Egg McMuffin and hash browns as an "exceptionally unhealthy" breakfast...but, that estimation was based on eating two Egg McMuffins and two hash browns for breakfast. Not many of us do that. The whole Supersize Me thing makes me barf more enthusiastically than the misguided performance artist who made that movie.

Hammond

Godspeed, David. I will note that while you are certain to do well with any McDonald's outlet in the Chicago vicinity, the best steak bagel sandwich I ever had was in Tennessee. I know there is not supposed to be regionalism in McDonald's recipes (uniformity being the ideal), but it's been four years now and I still remember that particular steak bagel at an interchange off I-75 in east central Tennessee ... the grease & goo were immaculately balanced, the onions delicate yet piquant, the yellow-dyed mayo/hollandaise indescribable ... perhaps road fatigue contributed to my satori-like experience ... hope I haven't set the bar too high for you.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I don't like the hashbrown. I will offer them to someone or throw it away if I somehow ended up with one.

Cathy, I agree with you whole-heartedly on the McDonald's hash brown. Use it to pave the roads, feed it to migratory birds, whatever you wish ... just don't ask me to eat this abomination. (O.K., I'll eat it if nobody is looking.)

Cathy2 wrote:JiLS, the Filet-O-Fish was once discontinued in the early 90's, when McD's unveiled their 'Adult' sandwiches which included a fish sandwich. As quietly as it disapeered back then, it did return after a while and has never left since. I will occasionally ask for extra sauce so I can dip my fries in it.

Cathy, I refer to that time as "the dark days." The Filet 'O Fish is and always has been one of the purest expressions of pescatory artistry as expressed by the American corporate machine. I do recall, ruefully, those days during which the F 'O F was not available (at least not to those without access to the tabernacle). I also recall my foolish, youthful days (c. 1984) when I actually complained that only one half slice of Kraft American had been melted upon my F 'O F sandwich. Ah, youth. Let us be thankful that, at any time day or night, we can grab a Filet 'o Fish with minimal effort and approximately $2.25.

cơm sườn t?m kho t/u, lạp xường, hột g? ốp la

Tank Noodle's special steamed "broken rice" plate feat. a grilled marinated pork chop, a simmered marinated lobster tail, a sunny side up egg, and a Chinese sausage. It is served with a bowl of light chicken broth and nước chắm dressing.


This is about as close as I ever get to ham steak, eggs and hashbrowns.

Erik M.

*I apologize for the manner in which the subject is cropped, but the plate is nearly fourteen inches across.