It's the most important meal of the day.

March 5, 2009 1:48 PM

The Breakfast Song.

Oh, but breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. For a bit of background, Chris Kimball of Cook's Illustrated can teach you the history of pioneer and Victorian breakfasts, which were centered around foods we still enjoy today. Donuts are a staple, as are breakfast cereals, themselves the subject of a fine and storied history. Bacon is a universe unto itself, as you surely already know.

And what about the waffle? Not just a taste senstation but namesake to one of America's great culinary joys. And it's versatile, too. Fried joy is yours with the equally versatile beignet, fried apples and, of course, the simple and elegant fried egg.

All this wonderful food, surely we must have equally wonderful drink! Coffee is a staple, as is breakfast tea. But you deny yourself some of life's great pleasures if you stop short of alcoholic breakfast drinks: mimosas, Bloody Marys, Irish coffee, or this eponymous joy built upon vodka, peach schnapps and raspberry liqueur.

posted by jbickers (40 comments total)

No mo' grits? Blasphemy.
posted by ColdChef at 1:50 PM on March 5

No mo' sugar and rice? Who eats that?
posted by ColdChef at 1:51 PM on March 5

My girlfriend is an atheist, but I'm pretty sure her idea of hell is a world without breakfast. I'm going to send her this thread and see.

I think your breakfast post would have been better served if you had not started off with the LOL Xians clip though.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:54 PM on March 5

Breakfast in America.
posted by ericb at 1:57 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

I think your breakfast post would have been better served if you had not started off with the LOL Xians clip though.

Dude, they were the inspiration for it. Do you want to live in a place without breakfast?
posted by jbickers at 1:58 PM on March 5

Best breakfast in the world: Hello Boss Iced Coffee, Spam Fried Rice, Udon soup, and blood orange juice (the ganglia in it is the best part).
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 2:00 PM on March 5

You missed the best part of the Waffle House website!
posted by JoanArkham at 2:01 PM on March 5

Douglas Keane's Banana-Bread French Toast
posted by ColdChef at 2:03 PM on March 5

What a Poet Laureate Eats for Breakfast
posted by ColdChef at 2:06 PM on March 5 [2 favorites has favorites]

um...just a recommendation, here...if you're going to be singing back-up vocals on television, you might want to start your day of with a hearty breakfast instead of say, 4-6 valiums.
posted by sexyrobot at 2:09 PM on March 5 [5 favorites has favorites]

The only breakfast song for me:

"10:30 is the time those assholes put their biscuits away."
posted by fontophilic at 2:10 PM on March 5 [3 favorites has favorites]

I like the song. I hate the arrangement, but, hey, it's local TV in Tupelo, whatcha gonna do? The song is a Sunday morning gospel shouter that sounds like it was written during the depths of Saturday night. I think that's kinda awesome. I may be biased by my pro-breakfast inclinations, however.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:20 PM on March 5

oh, i thought you meant of the things we eat.
posted by snofoam at 2:22 PM on March 5

The breakfast cereal verse was the best.

NO MO' NUTS OF GRAPES!!!!!
posted by owtytrof at 2:27 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm having grits for dinner. I've been looking forward to it all day.
posted by collocation at 2:28 PM on March 5

I always liked this: Pictures of people and what they eat for breakfast.
posted by not applicable at 2:29 PM on March 5 [7 favorites has favorites]

I'm the only person in my immediate peer group who eats a cooked breakfast regularly. It seems to be a luxury among my class (the, uh, middle class information workers? Mid-level overworked infoslaves?) who are often too frantic in their daily pace to eat something as simple as a cooked breakfast.

I am somewhat surprised by this. People I know are somewhat surprised that I cook two eggs, toast, and $some_other_protein for breakfast every single morning, and I don't have kids.

I'm also surprised that the link for "how to cook an egg" doesn't have any mention of salting the yolk. Salt changes the chemical composition of yolk, allowing it to cook up creamier, faster, using just a pinch of salt. A perfectly cooked but still liquid yolk, every time, minus the wait for low-heat methods.
posted by blixco at 2:42 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

not applicable: "I always liked this: Pictures of people and what they eat for breakfast."

That's a wonderful page.
posted by Science! at 2:42 PM on March 5

So, if you get up early, drink nothing but coffee for a few hours, and then have your first meal of the day when your coworkers go to lunch, is it still breakfast, or is it now lunch?
posted by cj_ at 2:57 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've been wondering what constitutes actual breakfast insofar as the "most important meal of the day" equation goes.

Is it..
1. The first meal you eat in a given day?
2. Anything eaten within an hour (or some other unit of time) of waking up?
3. The typically-breakfast foods (eggs, bacon, waffles, etc) themselves?

Whenever I've asked people about this, I generally get "ohh.. it's just an old saying, it's not really scientifically accurate", but that does nothing to sate my curiosity. This seems an appropriate place to inquire.
posted by revmitcz at 3:05 PM on March 5

I'd say that it must be the first meal you eat on a given day

It cant be anything eaten within a time limit, because such a thing is arbitrary & clearly this fact cannot be subsiduary to an arbitrary limit. Meanwhile it certainly isnt the eggs, bacon, waffles, etc, since the phrase is "breakfast is the most etc.etc." not "waffles are the most etc.etc."

If you dont eat breakfast until lunch, it is still the most important meal of the day. It may not be theoretically as important as the meal that you didn't eat at 9am, but that meal is rendered less important by its immateriality
posted by criticalbill at 3:15 PM on March 5

Incidentally, if you eat breakfast at lunch, it is still breakfast, although it is also lunch. Lunch is time dependent, but breakfast is merely the first meal you eat on any given day, by definition, the breaking of the fast induced by sleep, or indeed any fast that you have allocated as such, which is why it is permissible to eat breakfast cereal at any time of day, except as dessert, unless you have had a sufficient pause between courses.
posted by criticalbill at 3:18 PM on March 5

I'm gonna put myself out there and say that I'm pro-breakfast. I believe in the power of rye bread toast.

Heaven is scrambled eggs, home fries and coffee. Hot sauce, plz?
posted by defenestration at 3:29 PM on March 5

Man, the Antichrist really needs to get his act together if he wants any followers.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:32 PM on March 5

One of my favorite breakfasts is cold leftover pizza, right out of the fridge.
posted by Daddy-O at 3:51 PM on March 5 [2 favorites has favorites]

Breakfast is the first meal of the day since you've been fasting the whole night and when you finally eat you've broken the fast.
posted by hellphish at 3:59 PM on March 5

Never. Eating. Breakfast. Again.
posted by buzzdiggity at 4:25 PM on March 5

Breakfast is best in early morning, I guess.
Still, the thrill is surely born in less time-appropriate contexts:
Any time, any place, I'll take some pancakes.
posted by defenestration at 4:31 PM on March 5

One of my favorite breakfasts is cold leftover pizza, right out of the fridge.

This is the only breakfast I ever need. Well, and occasionally biscuits and gravy.

Also, the perfect egg is sunny-side up, more salt and pepper than you think you need, on top of buttered toast. But this is a dinner food.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:39 PM on March 5

One of my favorite breakfasts is cold leftover pizza, right out of the fridge.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And followed by a piece of refrigerated chocolate cake (white or dark frosting) with a glass of milk! Nectar of the gods!
posted by ericb at 4:42 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

Take out lomein is better when it's cold out of the fridge for breakfast than when it is hot and steamy in the evening.
posted by ColdChef at 4:46 PM on March 5

Destroy the pelliclast heretic.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:54 PM on March 5

Sure, breakfast is literally whatever you eat as your first meal of the day, but I think in the "most important meal of the day" equation, it is the meal that you eat before you begin work. It is given importance as fuel for your mind and body to accomplish your tasks. If you work for two hours and then eat a meal, you've missed breakfast proper.
posted by team lowkey at 5:11 PM on March 5

Jumbo Breakfast Roll former Irish number one single.

Sing along to the chorus:
Two eggs two rasher two sausage two Bacon Two puddins one Black and white
All placed like a tower on top of each other and then rolled up good and tight
If you¹re having some tea the milks over there and you’ll find sugar in the bowl
Says she Do you want some sauce on that says I, I do in my roll
posted by therubettes at 5:45 PM on March 5

In order of luxury, but not poetry:

Full Irish Breakfast (including rashers, bangers, fried tomato, beans, toast, runny fucked up fried eggs, those gnarly puddings) many mugs of strong tea, half and half, cube sugar. Steak, poached eggs, shredded homefries with lots of dried chili pepper and plenty of hot sauce (Texas Pete if possible), two mega horseradished Bloody Marys. On sunday a bagel, proper LES cream cheese, tomato, lots of fresh ground pepper and possibly a slice of onion, (maybe some lox?) fresh squeezed orange juice with ice and a dash of seltzer. Two Camel Lights and a cup of dishwater deli coffee and finally, of course, the Coyote Breakfast*.





*A piss and a look around.
posted by Divine_Wino at 6:04 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

You know who really likes breakfast? This guy.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:03 PM on March 5

It is given importance as fuel for your mind and body to accomplish your tasks

Funny, I've always thought caffeine filled that role flawlessly.
posted by cj_ at 4:11 AM on March 6

"Mornin'!" *ascends to Heaven in the sheer blue light of Nirvanic pancake trucker music*
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:59 AM on March 6

My girlfriend is an atheist, but I'm pretty sure her idea of hell is a world without breakfast. I'm going to send her this thread and see.

cjorgensen's girlfriend here...and although i am an atheist, my idea of hell is a world without breakfast. my idea of hell is also a post about breakfast that doesn't have a bunch of links to sites about the wonderful world of pancakes.

and i totally agree about the breakfast song video. that's 1:02 i'll never get back.
posted by snugglebunny at 3:39 PM on March 6

Check out the name on the bass drum, in large letters in the background: Darwin
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:12 AM on March 8