bjt wrote:A french chef put it really well in a cookbook I've been reading, he said, Americans are so funny about breakfast, they think they're being healthy by eating muffins in the morning but muffins are basically little cakes without the icing. You might as well just enjoy a piece of chocolate cake . . . now I know that many folks raised in rural areas (like my mom) wouldn't bat an eye about having a big slice of apple pie for breakfast, throw in a slice of cheddar and there you go.

Any idea of when sweet breakfasts became if not the norm, half of the breakfast dichotomy ... one branch of the breakfeast bifurcation. Ah, the age old breakfast/brunch dilemma: sweet or savory?

My intuition is that it wasn't true at the turn of the century (the one before last, that is). 20s? 30s? Seems too early. At what point in time did refined sugar become dirt cheap? One straw man is the packaged cereal industry, but I feel uneasy about laying all the blame with one actor.

More importantly, I wonder what part of the American cultural fabric it comes from? Or is this a novelty that we can claim as our own? A rather dubious distinction. I suspect it has an "origin" of sorts. Here in the midwest it seems somewhat rooted in Swedish culture. I imagine that, at one time or another, sweet pancakes were the property of some culture and they spread from there.

A lot of random questions packed in here.

One last question. Any theories on why their seem to be more "taboos" about breakfast in most cultures than about other meals. In America, for example, people are ok eating pancakes at dinner or breakfast ... they (well, some) revel in breaking the rules at lunch or dinner ... but people are turned off by many breakfast ideas. Pasta, as in the spaghetti on toast example? No. Fish? With the exception of smoked or lox, no. Lots of vegetables? Usually not. Soups? Rarely. It's a very conservative meal.

Oh, and I question the referenced author's assumption that people think they're eating healthy while eating a muffin. I think people like to sometimes disguise or ignore the unhealthiness of certain eating habits. It's easier to ignore the unhealthiness of a muffin - perhaps with fruit even - than a cake. Same goes for a smoothy over a milkshake. Atkins also does this by recategorizing whole wheat bread as unhealthy and a steak coated in butter and blue cheese as healthy. There are pleasureable delusions. Or, ignorance is bliss. However you want to put it.

rien

Cathy2 wrote:

My favorite food item was my daily breakfast of Roti Telur with the curry dips provided with it. Roti is a bread type "pancake" with egg (Telur) mixed in. The dips were Curry Ikan (fish curry) and a dahl (Indian lentil). I have had it here at Penang in Chinatown and also a restaurant called My Place also in China town. Pretty tasty but just not quite the same (but it never is).

Here is a pic from when I went home. The plate on the left is the plain Roti Prata (or Canai) and the one on the right is the Roti Telur. This is served with the regular chicken curry dip (middle)

Since we are talking about breakfast...

My first breakfast when I went home to Singapore was this...



A simple sweet bread roll with cheese and sugar... oh yes... grew up on this, and everytime I go home, this is waiting for me on the table when I wake up.

My second breakfast is this



A perfectly cooked soft boiled egg, with kaya (jam made with eggs, coconut milk and sugar) on toast. And a strong cup of local java... This is a very typical Singapore breakfast at the hawker center. Cost about $2 for everything.

On the third day, I had....



Shrimp Noodles (or Prawn Mee, as we call it). Rich strong broth with perfectly cooked round rice noodles, and shrimp.... Also about USD $2

Damn, I am missing home again.

CrazyC,

Thanks for a peak into your other life.

As always, a few questions:

1. In your first post, there were two kinds of roti. CAn you explain the difference? I have to admit when I saw 'Roti Telur' it sort of suggested the white of a fried egg.

2. Your breakfast of the sweet bread with cheese and sugar was purchased and served at home. The other two breakfasts were eaten away from home, correct?

Is breakfast a meal more likely to be eaten at home than outside? The explanation I have been receiving for the relatively rare breakfasts at Asian restaurants is due to breakfast being traditionally a meal eaten at home. Yet it appears your breakfasts were largely eaten outside but were these indeed restaurants or street-type vendors?

Thanks again for the insight.

Regards,

There are two types of Roti Telur. One where the egg is mixed in when the dough is folded, and the other way is where they crack the egg and then place the folded dough over it...

Here are more pics..

The dough is stretched out, kinda like a pizza...



Then it is laid flat on the oiled counter top. This is when they will add the fillings. Traditionally it is left plain or smeared with an egg. Nowadays they have new fillings like cheese, durian, chocolate, kaya (coconut egg jam), etc.



It is then folded into a square like shaped, and placed on a hot griddle.

Here is a closeup of the Roti Telur. The one on top is the one where the egg is not smeared in the dough, then second one (peeking out from the first) is.



Here is another closeup of a plain one in a to-go wrapper....



Yes, the cheese bread was eaten at home, and the rest were eaten outside. Generally, we eat breakfast at home on work/school days, and outside on weekends. But the hawker centers are open for breakfast everyday. Many hawker centers are located in town centers where people live upstairs. So on the way to school or work, many people just go downstairs to get breakfast to go on their way to the bus or train. It's just conveinent.

Singapore has a very unique town layout in that most neighborhoods are essentially public housing and in the middle of each town you have a food center, banks, grocery stores, mom and pop shops, bus depot and a subway station. So if you live in one of these centers, all you really need to do is go downstairs and everything you need is a few steps away.

Quite some time ago my cousin opened a bagel store with a couple of partners in Singapore called Brooklyn Bagels. He is from Brooklyn and while he will probably never live in the U.S. again, he grew up around the corner from a bagel store and misses his fresh bagels. The store never really caught on the way he hoped and Starbucks bought him out a couple of years ago. Most of his customers were foreigners living in Singapore and tourists.

sdritz wrote:Quite some time ago my cousin opened a bagel store with a couple of partners in Singapore called Brooklyn Bagels. He is from Brooklyn and while he will probably never live in the U.S. again, he grew up around the corner from a bagel store and misses his fresh bagels. The store never really caught on the way he hoped and Starbucks bought him out a couple of years ago. Most of his customers were foreigners living in Singapore and tourists.

A few years ago, I went home to Singapore and saw a "Auntie Anne's Pretzels" opening... This was the first time I had seen it overseas, so I just had to try it. In front of me was 2 schoolgirls having a conversation...

SchoolGirl 1: Have you had this before?

SchoolGirl 2: No... But it is from America

SG 1: Really!!?? It must be good...

I tried very hard not to laugh. I hung around for a while after to see their reactions. They both took a bite of the pretzel (original salted), and both made a face and spat it out...

I had to leave so that they would not see me laughing...

Auntie Anne's seems to be doing better now though...

I adore nearly everything about American traditional breakfast, except the time of day one is typically expected to eat it, so I usually eat breakfast only on the weekends (at times when the meal is normally called "brunch") or at night.

On my first trip to Europe, years ago, I went to England and France and I was warned that food in England would be terrible, except breakfast, and food in France wonderful, except breakfast. (I must note that I was traveling with my mother and grandfather, neither of whom could be termed adventurous, about food or anything else, and we had a very low budget for meals.)

In fact, we enjoyed most of our meals in Britain, except the breakfasts, nearly all greasy masses of congealed eggs served with nasty stewed tomatoes, sawdusty sausages and/or cold fatty bacon and either oily fried bread or toast set out to get cold and dry in a little rack. In Paris, however, it was hard to find decent dinners at budget prices, but the complimentary hotel breakfasts were sumptuous buffets featuring perfect soft-boiled eggs, cheeses, fruits, croissants and pastries, accompanied by big cups of cafe au lait.

In the Netherlands, breakfast was typically a selection of bread and cheese, with optional accompaniments for the bread of a Nutella-like spread or chocolate jimmies. The cheese was nearly always what the Dutch call komijne kaas, a Gouda-type hard cheese studded with cumin seeds, which you sometimes see here labeled "Leyden." It was so ubiquitous that we took to calling it "ontbeit cheese," ontbeit being the Dutch word for "breakfast." (One of only two Dutch words I had occasion to use that trip; the Dutch, unlike the French, seemed to prefer speaking English to listening to foreigners' efforts to speak their language. The other word was ijsblokje, "ice cube" -- we were there during a heat wave.)

This week, breakfast is fried matzo.

I don't remember breakfast in England, it's quite possible I never ate it, but in Ireland in the mid-90s I quite enjoyed Irish breakfast at the ubiquitous B&Bs, except that there would always be one black mass of something that you had to get rid of somehow. Actually not always, a few places had figured out that the blood pudding or whatever was wasted on the Americans. (One, bless her heart, even figured out that after a week of Irish breakfast, we'd probably be ready for French toast one morning, just as a change of pace.) But the eggs, the bacon (more like ham), the Irish oatmeal was wonderfully filling and always very well made.

Coincidentally, I just heard a piece on NPR that suggested that while bacon and eggs may be the traditional Irish breakfast, it's not an authentic American tradition.

I'm going to dredge up this old topic that I stumbled upon. I am a lover of breakfasts and the worst part about it is picking between sweet and savory. I have learned to love both through the various cultures I've come in contact with. I love traditional American breakfasts, and just this week I stopped at the Golden Nugget on Western (my first time) and had an absolutely huge order of steaming golden pancakes with blueberry compote poured on top. Sublime. Then of course there's the eggs and toast breakfast that you can find just about anywhere, which is sentimental and also can be delicious.

Growing up in Indonesia brought its own tastes. Rice is the staple, including at breakfast, where we enjoyed nasi bubur (rice porridge). This is generally a rice version of oatmeal, but tends to be salty and might have bits of chicken in it. My family would tweak this to our American tastes and serve rice with warm milk and stir in cinnamon sugar to our liking.

My husband, from England, takes advantage of any time he is back in England to get a full English breakfast. He thoroughly enjoys the unsweetened baked beans and stewed tomatos that are so foreign to our tastes.

papua2001mk wrote:My husband, from England, takes advantage of any time he is back in England to get a full English breakfast. He thoroughly enjoys the unsweetened baked beans and stewed tomatos that are so foreign to our tastes.

How can you not love the fry up:



And a blog devoted to the full english http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/

HI,

I had grits on my mind for breakfast today. OFten I will eat them with some butter and grated cheddar cheese. Opened the refrigerator to find some uncooked shrimp, then sprung into action: shrimp sauteed in shallots and a bit of garlic, removed the almost cooked shrimp, added some wine, reduced, then a bit of cream.



Pretty good for first food of the day.

Regards,

C2,

If you were my neighbor I'd invite you over to cook me breakfast everyday. Those grits look divine. Alas, I'll have to stick with my can of Diet Mountain Dew instead.

Flip

Flip,

Are we ready for LTHforum: the subdivision?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Flip,

Are we ready for LTHforum: the subdivision?

Regards,

Quick, someone call the Food Network. They're in need of another reality show.

Flip

wow, I can't believe this discussion popped back up (and I can't believe I've been doing this LTHForum thing for at least 4+ years now) anyhow, before I get all misty-eyed and sign up for the reality show or purchase a plot of land in LTHAcres, I have some bad news. Starbucks has spread its (our?) wicked ways in terms of eating very sweet things for breakfast. When my Aussie friends came to visit this summer I just about fell over when I witnessed all of them wolfing down cinnamin rolls and sticky buns and scones in lieu of a "proper" breakfast of fried tomato, bangers and eggs, or baked beans on toast for that matter. When I asked what was going on (and reminded them how when I lived there, they had told me over and over again how vile it was to eat anything sugary for breakfast) they just shrugged and said, "Starbucks, they only sell sweet things with the coffee." Go figure . . .

bjt

It's so obvious I almost didn't do it, but a Wikipedia search for "breakfast" brings up this info on regional early morning fare around the globe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast#Typical_breakfasts_by_world_regions

Breakfast Is For Suckers

After reading the recent post about being charged $18 for two slices of toast and ice water or whatever it was at some recently opened joint in Andersonville, I feel compelled to return to the scene of early curmudgeonry on the subject of breakfast.

There is no place more likely to be busy in restaurantdom than a breakfast place in a popular neighborhood on Saturday or Sunday morning, and I am one of those inevitably lined up waiting to get into such places (though it is the one benefit of the kids waking up early that we usually beat the worst of the crush by a half hour or so). Am I satisfied with the simple, yet nevertheless occasionally bungled, items I get? Sometimes. Moreso than the person who got two eggs made of Superball and coffee inexplicably sweetened with Karo in that other thread, I guess. A few breakfast reports on places mostly not previously talked about here (at least for this meal):

Angel Food Bakery
The cute-as-can-be muffin place turns out to have been serving breakfast on weekends for about a year. You order at the counter, they bring it out, but despite being not so much a table service place, everything moved very efficiently. I thought a veggie scramble was rather bland, but French toast with orange marmalade syrup went over big with the kids, as did the Easy-Bake ovens and selection of kids' books (they revisited several old favorites like "In The Night Kitchen").

Milk & Honey Cafe
Another bakery and restaurant where you stand and order first. It was so packed though I resented having to fight my way to fetch my own coffee and such a bit. On the other hand I took delight in ordering bacon from the waitress wearing a "don't eat pig" T-shirt. Try and stop me, copper! Again, my savory dish (some sort of baked huevos rancheros casserole thing) was blandish and produced a substantial puddle at its bottom, but French toast or whole wheat nut something or other pancakes went over much better.

Curio Cafe
There's a lot to like about this place-- the sunny hideaway location in the middle of a residential block opposite a church, the friendly owners, the play area for little kids. It's a nice little discovery except for the fact that the food proved pretty ordinary, homemade in the "no better than I could make myself" sense more than the "warm thoughts of Mom" sense. Still, it's breakfast, order carefully to ensure non-screwupable items and you can't really get hurt.

Meli Cafe
MJN recommended this Greektown spot in one of his columns, about breakfast places better than Lou Mitchell's. Well, he has a higher tolerance for froufy breakfast than I do, naming a number of places I really don't think are worth the money (Orange, Tweet, etc.) but in this case, a high tab (over $60 for four, which borders on outrageous) was nevertheless justified by really high quality freshmade food, down to homemade preserves. If someone is staying downtown and you want to impress, this is the improvement you want over the hotel breakfast they'll suggest-- and maybe they'll be able to expense it.

Angel Food Bakery
1636 W. Montrose Ave., Chicago
(773) 728-1512

Milk and Honey Cafe
1920 W. Division Ave., Chicago
(773) 395-9434

Curio Cafe
3400 N. Lawndale, Chicago
(773) 463-2233

Meli Cafe & Juice Bar
301 S. Halsted, Chicago
(312) 454-0748

Mike G wrote:Well, he has a higher tolerance for froufy breakfast than I do, naming a number of places I really don't think are worth the money (Orange, Tweet, etc.) but in this case, a high tab (over $60 for four, which borders on outrageous) was nevertheless justified by really high quality freshmade food, down to homemade preserves.

Having recently revisited Skyway Jack'sin Tampa, this comment struck me as a real contrast between big city style breakfast and "normal" breakfast, since Skyway Jack's is a dive charging dive prices, yet supplying really good fresh made food, down to the homemade preserves (under $10 for two, which also borders on outrageous in the other extreme).

Homemade preserves probably fall under Mike G's General Economic Theory of Pie Production, which is that it's easy to find pie in the country where property is relatively cheap and so a modest place can have a big kitchen and plenty of room to make pie, while in the city, inexpensive breakfast places have to get the most out of every square foot and so the kitchen and menu are limited to a high volume grill area and what can be made on it.

Billy Goat Tavern does a tasty steak and eggs, hash browns and toast for like $6. Plus you can get a beer. Oh my, what a treat at 7 AM.

I too am not much of a traditional american breakfast guy, and if I want the eggs, hashbrowns and Bob Evans sausage links, I will make them at home better and save me a lot of hassle.

One recent discovery lately for me though has been Fado's in the morning on Sunday. Usually some futbol game on, and tasty breakfast from traditional Irish, beans on taost, various Irish inspired skillets, etc. Good quality, never crowded, under $10.

I generally don't have this problem because I stay up good 'n' late on the weekends, get up around 11, and call it brunch.

I have to put my two centavos in here -- I love breakfast. Maybe it's because of the simplicity of the food when done well is just a remarkable thing -- or maybe it's the ritual act of sitting and drinking coffee, watching the world come and go and getting my mind wrapped around another day on Planet Earth. For me it's as much about experience as it is about the food -- and while I may cluck when the price exceeds $15, I do acknowledge that I live in a city where rents are high and property taxes are exhorbitant (thank you, messrs Daley and Stroger). I might also add that i've heard tales of cheap inexpensive breakfasts but I've rarely seen them -- and I haven't always lived here. My weekend usually includes one breakfast out on Saturday and one cooked in on Sunday and I love them both with equal passion.

I think my post was the one that prompted this thread to be kicked up--the Big Jones breakfast abomination of $18 -- however it was more than just toast and water. Benedict, coffee and grits. Had it been simply toast and water, maybe it would not have been so egregiously awful. Those poached eggs still haunt me with their ickiness.

Perhaps they're why it snowed too.

s

I eat breakfast maybe once or twice a year, and typically it is after a night of drinking in Chicago, stopping in Greek Town for some gyros & eggs before heading home.

I just do not have the time monday-friday to stop and eat breakfst before going to work, so my first food of the day is @ lunch. The weekends I have the time, but no desire to go out, or cook myself breakfast, lunch is the first meal of the day on the weekends as well.

With the above said I do enjoy breakfast foods for dinner. Like tonight we are having some leftover ham I prepared on Sunday with some over -easy eggs, potatoes, and toast for dinner.

don't forget moon's:

http://www.moons.homestead.com/

earthlydesire wrote:I have to put my two centavos in here -- I love breakfast.

I love breakfast too. Part of it, yes, is for the atmosphere. Part of it, though - depending on whether I'm in the mood - is that it's the one time you can have dessert as a meal. Let's face it, many breakfast specialties such as pancakes, waffles, and French toast are really dessert. Throw your favorite dessert ingredients together - cinnamon, apples, sugar, and eggs for a Walker Brothers apple pancake, or take some French toast and stuff it with mascarpone or cream cheese, and some fruit - and it's dessert as a meal.

For breakfast and brunch I also enjoy egg dishes such as omelets, which are usually not dessert. Then again, there are those who love bacon, which leads to the "animal fat as a meal" discussion.

Sure, if your concept of breakfast is cereal or a couple of eggs, by all means you may as well stay home. But if you're looking for something creative, there are lots of restaurants doing wonderful things for breakfast and brunch. Some of which are desserts.

I love breakfast too. Part of it, yes, is for the atmosphere. Part of it, though - depending on whether I'm in the mood - is that it's the one time you can have dessert as a meal. Let's face it, many breakfast specialties such as pancakes, waffles, and French toast are really dessert.

The miracle of Fried Dough! Every culture has one and I'd bet most of those cultures eat their fried dough in the morning (I have no empirical evidence to back this up, of course but it just feels true!). You're so right, nsxtasy, dessert disguised, however flimsily, as breakfast -- is just icing on the cake of the best meal of the day.

There are some Sundays when all I can do to get on with my day is to make Ruth Reichl's pancakes (they have a stick of butter in them) and just smile smile smile...

I just love me some breakfast....

Back to the OP: is breakfast worth the bother? Not for me. This could very well be due to nearly two decades of my mom sitting me and all the sibs down at the kitchen snack bar to eat corn flakes day after day in the summer and Quaker instant oatmeal day after day in the winter. To this day I have conditioned nausea in response to the smell of brown sugar-cinnamon oatmeal, and I have not touched a corn flake in 25 years.

But that's just me.

Even if I did like breakfast in principle, it so often disappoints in practice. The last time (a week ago) I was compelled to eat at a breakfast place (IHOP), the coffee was so badly burned it made me gag and beg the waitress for a glass of milk in its place, and the fairly safe-seeming spinach crepe I ate made me, well, let's say, very sick later.

And the place was packed. So I don't think that counts for anything.

And the cost of eating breakfast out makes no sense to me. I can make a good cup of coffee at home and have a few pieces of buttered toast and/or a bowl of granola with milk and fruit (yes, I do sometimes eat breakfast) and it would cost a fourth or less than what it would cost at any restaurant. Sure, that's probably the markup for any meal. But you don't get a glass of wine with breakfast, do you?

Actually, though obviously I'm not a breakfast person, my all-time-favorite breakfast comfort food is something my dad taught me and all the sibs to love: a hard-fried egg sandwich on buttered toast, and bacon, and cheese if you still feel cholesterol-deficient. And no one in town sells anything remotely like that ... except ... yes, it's true ... McDonalds' eggamoofin.

My favorite breakfast place has become L&L Snack Shop in Des Plaines. I still love Walker Bros. pancakes, but they're so overpriced.

L&L is a little hole-in-the-wall place; I don't know their history, but they've been there for quite awhile, at least 15 years- my boyfriend would frequently go there as a teenager for a cheap breakfast with his friends. We just went last Sunday and for $15, before tip, we got 1 coffee, 1 large apple juice, 1 large milk, a wheatcakes/egg/sausage combo and a French toast/egg/bacon combo. Plus the free ham and extra eggs (more on that later!)

There's several booths and a counter and the people are so friendly. I've only ordered breakfast there (they have sandwiches, salads, soups, etc.) and it seems that no matter what you order, it comes with ham. And this is REAL ham, not from skinny pigs. They brown it a little so it has some nice caramelization going on. Even if you get it with bacon or sausage, they give you a couple pieces of ham. Order ham as the meat, and they just add more.

They're always giving you a little more- combinations that say one egg end up appearing with two. The pancakes are fabulous- they don't have that sour taste that I love at Walker Bros., but they call them "wheatcakes" and I think they're made with wheat flour or something because they're a little heartier than Walker Bros. pancakes. My boyfriend is more of a French toast fan, and from the couple bites I've had of his, it's definitely some of the best French toast I've ever had.

It really is like eating breakfast at Grandma's house. It's an older couple who seem to own it, with the husband at the grill and the wife behind the counter with a younger woman working the tables and counter.

I don't know what time they open, but they close at 2 pm on Sundays- that's the day we always go.

L & L Snack Shop
(847) 803-6767
456 E Northwest Hwy
Des Plaines, IL

Edited on 3/13/09 to add: Funny story- I went there a couple of weeks ago with my boyfriend and my mom. The older lady asked my mom if she'd been there before, and my mom said, "yes, a couple of times with them" [pointing at us]. Then the lady said, referring to my boyfriend, "oh yes, and you've been coming here for a long time! You used to come in here with your friends, those troublemakers!" We laughed- his friends in jr. high/high school were sort of troublemakers, but he swears they were always on their best behavior in there. Couldn't risk being banned! Just funny that she remembered them after all those years!