A few weeks ago, Booman asked a serious question: What’s the world’s best breakfast? My answer in that thread:
Homemade hash browns topped with leftover mojo pulled pork, topped with eggs over easy (using eggs laid by your own personal hens) and homemade hollandaise sauce (again, made with eggs laid by your own personal hens) supplemented with just a touch of jalapeno sauce. Side of grits. Toast.
That was true on that day, but today I’d rather have one of the breakfast tamales a woman in a nearby town sells from a cooler in the back of a truck by the highway. I’m not sure what’s in them besides scrambled eggs, onions, peppers and chorizo. The sauce is outstanding, and she sells them for ONE DOLLAR. Alas, she only sells these delights on weekdays.
Anyhoo, what’s your ultimate breakfast? Am I crazy to eat food sold by unlicensed vendors on the side of the road? I figure it’s at least as safe as eating at the fair…
oldster
Oatmeal, banana, soymilk. Best breakfast ever.
Washed down with many cups of coffee, of course.
Lavocat
French toast made of artisan bread w/ a generous dose of nutmeg and REAL vanilla slathered in REAL maple syrup with a chaser of French roast so strong it’ll peel paint. What a great way to greet the day.
So, there ya have it: French toast w/ French roast.
RAM
My favorite breakfast? A Country Benedict, which is two English muffin halves topped with sausage patties, two poached eggs, and covered with white pepper sausage gravy, with a side of hash browns. For obvious reasons, I only eat it once a month or so.
On another topic entirely, anybody else seen this interesting story about how Larry Summers and his merry band of vandals destroyed the world’s economy? Makes for a good story: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo
WereBear
An omelette with lox, cream cheese, capers, and shredded romaine lettuce, with the eggs from local farms and the coffee roasted locally.
Dang. Now I want to go out for breakfast at my favorite spot.
debit
Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. Nothing is better, especially if you use fresh sage in the gravy.
p.a.
Healthy: steel cut oatmeal with real maple syrup.
Not-so-healthy: chili and (american) cheese omelette with tobasco, home fries (as understood here in New England) rye toast.
Let it ride: pulled pork on cornbread covered with soft poached eggs, chipotle hollandaise. BBQ sauce to taste.
Mustang Bobby
Grapefruit juice, a slice of honeydew melon, a stack of my dad’s buttermilk pancakes with real butter and real maple syrup, several slices of bacon, and several cups of my bulging-biceps coffee with a spot of cream.
And the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.
jayackroyd
Pie.
What can I say? I’m from New England.
gene108
Ven pungal with coconut chutney and sambar on the side and a good cup of coffee.
debbie
There used to be a farmer’s breakfast at Mondo’s at Haymarket in Boston. I think you had to wait until 1:00am to get it. Way too much food, but the best of everything — freshest eggs, unbelievably tasty hash browns. It moved to a new location when they “rebranded” Faneuil Hall, and it was never the same after that.
c u n d gulag
Crabmeat omelettes, with sautéed red, green, orange, and yellow peppers, green onions, and several types of gooey cheese.
I make a killer version of this. I add just a touch of Teriyaki Sauce to the veggies when I’m sautéing them in veggie oil, and a little dash or two of hot sauce.
Btw – you can substitute any vegetables you like, for the peppers. Or, add them to the peppers.
Just don’t skimp on the crabmeat – or, lobster.
khead
Just about any breakfast from a decent diner between Philly and Baltimore.
NotMax
Not having eaten breakfast (nor lunch for that matter) since 1964, am without a horse in this race.
GregB
A Nutella omelet with Cheeto dust on top.
OK, either eggs Benedict or a Western omelet and a side hash browns with onions and a slice or two of pumpernickel.
Tons of fresh, hot coffee.
Hawes
Huevos Rancheros done right, with thick cut bacon and beans.
geg6
Not a huge breakfast eater, but I do have a couple favorites if I do decide to have breakfast. Buckwheat pancakes with real local maple syrup and applewood smoked bacon. And eggs Benedict. And I will only do breakfast out; no way I want to cook that early in the day.
tworivers
Healthy-ish: Buttered rye toast (must be good quality rye bread) and a small bowl of fresh blueberries. And coffee of course.
Not so healthy-ish: corned beef hash, cooked to a crisp, with eggs over easy on top, and a side of buttered toasted rye bread. And coffee. (Just had this breakfast at a truckstop in VT while on vacation last week. Out of this world good).
Botsplainer
Steak, A1 sauce, eggs over easy and hash browns.
beltane
@NotMax: I’m with you on this one. The only thing I dislike more than eating a meal first thing in the morning is waking up early to cook for people first thing in the morning. I do it because I have children, but it is one of the things about parenthood I dislike the most. My favorite breakfast is a good cup of coffee.
Paddy
Any variation on a hearty Irish fry up with eggs (sunny side), couple different types of sausage, fried tomato, sauteed mushrooms, homemade sturdy bread and lots of hot tea. The tomatoes are my favorite.
OzarkHillbilly
A western Omelet from the Du Kum In. Failing that, blueberry pancakes with real butter and real maple syrup. Failing that, summer sausage, spanish ham, chorizo, some good spanish cheese, and fresh fruit.
Bruce Lawton
@jayackroyd: Right on. Any berry, apple or pumpkin pie with cold milk after a couple of cups of coffee. That’s one of the “after chores” sunrise breakfasts we New England farm kids had back in the day.
Villago Delenda Est
Bowl of stale rice krispies in lukewarm milk, with a banana on top
JUST KIDDING!
Tripod
…four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crêpes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned-beef hash with diced chilies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of key lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert…
LanceThruster
Commuting to work I’d travel through Chinatown. I know of Mexican specialty breakfasts, and American, and some other cultures, but wondered about what would be considered a Chinese specialty breakfast. I asked an Asian co-worker and he said Dim Sum. The origin was that you wouldn’t dare wake the emperor to find out what he was hungry for, so you made a wide variety of items and kept them coming per his wants.
I also fondly remember the weekend brunches on the Queen Mary. I was partial to loaded shrimp omelets from the omelet bar with endless mimosa chasers.
SG
Lox and Philly cream cheese on an everything bagel that’s still warm and crisp from the oven, washed down with a tall glass of cold, freshly-squeezed orange juice. Hot coffee for dessert.
MattF
@Hawes: Definitely in the top rank. Also, eating it at the bar with a mimosa, reading the newspaper, among friends.
Schlemizel
Betty – Some of the best BBQ I have ever had came from a wagon on the side of the road by Port St. John, FL – John & Sons. Hands down the best honey mustard sauce, I never was a fan until I had his stuff on chicken and never had anything like it since. He was not always in that spot so I assume he had some others but I do miss his ribs & brisket
Some day I may pay a price for eating roadside food but that day hasn’t happened yet. I love chirizo would sure like to sample that breakfast.
MGB
Weekday AM/healthyish: PB and J on a good whole wheat bread, yogurt and a pot of french press coffee
Weekend AM/just damn good: Corned beef hash, biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs
Hope
Trinidadian Doubles – sold from the side of the road. Chickpea pancakes filled with curried channa, pepper sauce, mango chutney and chadon benne. The best
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Best breakfast is a chili cheese omelet with hash brown’s from Charlie’s Chili in Newport Beach. That was 30 years ago, I wonder if they’re still there.
ETA: Why yes, yes they are. $8.99
http://charlieschili-newportbeach.com/breakfast.htm
SiubhanDuinne
@Lavocat:
So, French troast.
jeffreyw
Mmm… breakfast
Amir Khalid
Toast with srikaya (coconut jam), two soft-boiled eggs, sweet tea. Or a packet of nasi lemak with peanuts, ikan bilis,sambal and a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in banana leaf. I think of it as the Malaysian office worker’s breakfast.
brendancalling
I will answer with the same answer I gave Booman: “Banana bread french toast, bacon or sausage, black coffee, followed with carnal relations.”
Dead Ernest
” a half-pound of cocaine
And a sixteen-year old girl
And a great big long limousine.”
Oops. Wrong thread.
schrodinger's cat
Omelet with cilantro, red onion and green chillies with buttered toast and a pot of strong tea.
Vegetarian
Pohe’ = Beaten rice cereal with onions and potatoes. I also garnish it with cilantro, a dash of lime juice and fresh grated coconut. Plus a pot of tea.
schrodinger's cat
@Hope: That sounds delicious and vaguely Indian.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Coconut jam! Never tried that, but it sounds good!
Citizen Scientist
@khead: Agreed, and said breakfast must include scrapple, dippy eggs, and/or crab meat.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Coconut has lots of fat, so like butter it makes everything better.
Suzanne
A vegetable omelette, side of feta cheese, and breakfast potatoes. And lots of hot sauce.
Or cinnamon French toast with real maple.
Depending if you need the protein or the carb freakout.
Suzanne
Might I also just note that breakfast is even better at 6pm?
TR
Eggs Benedict, new Orleans style — swap in a fried green tomato for the Canadian bacon. Cheese grits, biscuit and turkey sausage on the side.
LAC
Two eggs over easy with homemade corned beef hash, coffee and tomato juice.
Betty Cracker
@LAC: Homemade corned beef hash really is fabulous. I only have it once a year (using leftover corned beef from St. Paddy’s), which is probably a good thing.
Felonius Monk
@Suzanne:
I agree. Breakfast for supper is divine. Of course breakfast for breakfast is divine, too.
Two eggs over easy, sausage gravy & biscuits, a pecan waffle, a rasher of medium crisp bacon, a tall glass of fresh squeezed orange juice, a pot of fresh-brewed, uber strong black coffee, and a dish of fresh strawberries.
Unfortunately, I can no longer eat all that, so I’ll just dream about it.
rammalamadingdong
I truly hate eggs – can’t stand to be in the same room where they are eaten, so breakfast has never been my favorite meal. I do appreciate a good scone, homemade muffin or the real NY bagel. A good bagel will keep you full until late afternoon.
When I was a child I would eat everything in a traditional breakfast but the eggs or the grits. Love home fries, fried apples, corned beef hash. My mother made surreal homemade biscuits. My father often received 5 gallon tins of real Vermont maple syrup as gifts. The biscuits fresh out the oven with butter and syrup were to to die for.
Also a shout out to a slice of cold pizza. I prefer cold to hot.
SatanicPanic
My stepmother’s quiche + my father’s bloody Mary. Breakfast sausage. Coffee. Basically breakfast at my Dad’s.
Citizen_X
Wake-and-bake!
ruemara
depends on what I feel like making. being a singleton now, I hardly ever get the yen.
bacon makes a breakie better. bacon chocolate chip pancakes rule. the thin holiday crepes with chocolate and chestnut filling with a brandy sauce were worth busting the diet for a meal. when the ex was a better person, he made a fantastic oatmeal. we made melange of dried fruits and nuts, he’d cook the rolled oats butter and we’d add the mix in mid point so everything has sorta soft but still had texture.
Somedays, all I want is a nice walk to the farmer’s market so I can taste the sunshine and see the people.
Citizen_X
Migas. But a crabmeat omelette is pretty awesome too.
@Suzanne: Steve Albini–love him or hate him–once said a musicians’ three favorite words are Breakfast served anytime.
And for the sausage eaters, I’ll put in a plug for Old Folks’ brand. I have some of their hot sausage every Sunday with breakfast. Delicious stuff, made with quality cuts.
Mino
@c u n d gulag: I am inspired.
Joey Maloney
Cunnilingus.
Followed by a Big Island loco moco: white rice, a hamburger patty, eggs over easy, all smothered in brown gravy, with passionfruit juice and Kona coffee.
karen
IHOP’s potato pancakes (which they no longer make) or McDonald’s McGriddle with hashbrowns and orange juice.
Or heatlthy: blueberries or strawberries with vanilla Greek yogurt.
karen
@rammalamadingdong:
I hate eggs too! I hate the small of them cooking and when I’m in a restaurant, I have them put the eggs to the side so I can give them to someone else.
Nicholas
Huevos Rancheros. My folks own a restaurant in Loteto, Mexico and the local chef makes the best Huevos in the world. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Huevos are arranged like a pancake stack, with different layers of awesome. John Cole, and any front pagers can eat free anytime. Just give me a holler. Loretoislas.com
Nicholas
Huevos rancheros from my family’s restaurant in Loreto, Mexico. Best inthe world. They are arranged like a pancake stack with different layers of awesome. Home made tortillas, beans, salsa, fresh meat and eggs. God damn, I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. Any front page balloon juicers ever want to eat free give me a holler. Loretoislas.com
J R in WV
Best Breakfast I make: Cornmeal and buckwheat yeast pancakes with real maple syrup, applewood smoked thick sliced bacon, whipped cream.
Best Breakfast you can buy anywhere: New Mexico green chile gravy on crunchy fried potatoes with over easy eggs on the side, bacon if you like, but there pork in the green chile gravy.
But biscuits and sausage gravy and crisp fried potatoes is also a good breakfast here in southern W VA from Tudor’s.
jon
As it is National Waffle Day, for a patent application made in 1869, I’d be remiss in not mentioning that I love waffles. Big and fluffy, with butter and syrup. No need for more than that.
But I like my pizza with sauce and cheese, too.
Cacti
@Nicholas:
Good huevos rancheros are hard to beat.
I’m also very fond of chilaquiles and eggs with salsa verde.
Goblue72
Siu mai, har gow, cheung fan, char siu bao, chicken feet, turnip cake, egg custard, and endless cups of tea.
Best breakfast hands down is dim sum. Doubly so on a hangover.
? Martin
Eggs over easy, bacon, hashbrowns mixup, toast. Fruit. OJ. Coffee.
That breakfast should be in the Constitution somewhere. It built America.
Steeplejack
I’m pretty omniverous for breakfast, but some stand out. Currently I like breakfast (soft) tacos—scrambled egg, cheese, potatos and chorizo—from District Taco in Arlington, VA. Great salsa! But I work from home and don’t get over there as often as I would like.
The breakfast place that stands out in golden memory was a little place in Virginia-Highland in Atlanta called Eats ’n’ Sweets. It’s long gone, but it was a great diner that served fresh food and had a friendly staff (with little turnover). I miss that place.
Bob In Portland
I love grits with sunnyside up eggs and some kind of processed meat like bacon and a big mug of coffee, but I often dream about this place in San Francisco’s Mission, I think it was on Valencia, where they made the greatest breakfast burritos.
RaflW
Migas. Preferably served in a restaurant in Austin, TX (where I haven’t lived for 18 years…).
I’ve seen migas on a specials menu in Minneapolis exactly once. It was good … it was at the Bryant Lake Bowl. Yes, a bowling alley. It was also 10+ years ago. Boohoo.
I do make migas at home some times, but tortilla chips have been more or less banned from the house in the past year do to me being fat.
RSA
I don’t think much about breakfast, and it’s hard to choose a single favorite. For me, the most memorable breakfasts I’ve had are associated with specific times and places, and I haven’t even always liked the food. A few such memories:
The first morning of a trip to Marina del Rey from the east coast, I watched the sun come up (jet lag and all) with a friend while eating huevos rancheros outside a Mexican dive.
In a van riding over the amazingly pot-holed roads of Guatemala, after an early morning start, we stopped on the road by a dark, smoky hut to get some warm tortillas.
In Prague around 1990, my wife and I, along with another couple, didn’t find our bed-and-breakfast lodgings until after 2:00am. The next morning our host served us some okay rolls, some adequate cold sliced sausage meat, and some truly terrible pickled peppers. We didn’t get breakfast the next morning, and when we asked why, we were told it was because we hadn’t finished the peppers from the day before; our host assumed we didn’t want any food at all in the morning.
My first full English breakfast, in a bed and breakfast in London: poached eggs, toast, baked beans, grilled tomato, fried mushrooms, and a bit of black pudding. On a different trip, on the Devon coast, I saw kippers on the breakfast menu and thought to give them a try, remembering Bertie Wooster’s fondness for them (an alternative to b. and eggs). I didn’t expect them (a) to come in a pair that filled the plate or (b) to be quite so… fishy.
Most days at home I just drink a few cups of coffee. Maybe slice a piece of bread and toast it.
LAC
@Betty Cracker: it really is, Betty. I can’t even look at the canned stuff. The diner I used to go to used to make it from scratch Then they went to canned – yuck.
Fred
Buying from a lady by the road, crazy? If she’s there every day and the food is consistently excellent, as you say I would trust it. McDonalds dung dispenseries are licensed, have all the fancy kitchen stuff demanded by the health dept and professional trained staff, the whole nine yards. Quality has little to do with getting government approval.
c u n d gulag
@Mino:
Enjoy!
They’re easy to make and filling.
Not cheap, though, with the crab or lobster meat.
But, hey, you only live once, right?
I heat the crabmeat up in the microwave.
For me, I don’t sauté the veggies for too long. But when I have guests, I do – since not everyone likes their veggies al dente.
Me? I like just a little crunch to go along with the mush of the crab, eggs and cheese.
Oh, and shred the cheese – it melts faster. And don’t put the cheese in until the bottom of the eggs sets. Then, after the shredded cheese, put the warm veggies and crab on top of that (I put all of the stuffing on half of the omelette, so I can flip without spillage), and the omelette’s done in no time!
Oh, and it’s even better with some home-made Hollandaise Sauce on top!!!
Garnish with a few slices of orange, or avocado, and parsley – and/or dill. There’s something about dill and seafood! YUM!!!!!
LanceThruster
I just remembered my sister makes an awesome spinach and bacon quiche.
Mnemosyne
I had one of my CSA basket eggs for breakfast this morning, scrambled, with an English muffin on the side. That’s one of my favorite “everyday” breakfasts.
There used to be a fabulous place in Santa Monica called Blueberry where everything was very simple and classic but very fresh and perfectly prepared. Blueberry lemonade, pancakes, omelets, waffles, everything. But, sadly, they changed ownership and the quality plummeted, and eventually they closed down.
Now our go-to place (if we don’t mind waiting) is Julienne in San Marino. A little more upscale, but still delish. The bittersweet chocolate chip waffles and the creme brulee French toast are both delicious, but it’s at least a 45-minute wait every time.
John Smallberries
Tamales, over easy eggs, some green death (jalapeño salsa) and a couple of fire roasted corn tortillas. We had a tamale man who made the rounds of our neighborhood here in SoCal for a few years on Wednesday and always tried to be home from work early enough once a month or so to buy some. Miss him.
Long Tooth
“Am I crazy to eat food sold by unlicensed vendors on the side of the road”?
Former MLB pitcher and current color analyst for the San Francisco Giants Mike Krukow told this story.
Playing winter ball somewhere in the Caribbean, Krukow and his teammates enjoyed a vendor’s shish kabob before a game one day. He said it was super delicious, and players sang its praises. On the bus ride back to the hotel after the game they passed the vendor breaking down his kiosk, and saw him “washing” the shish kabob sticks by urinating on them. It put him off shish kabob for years.
Wyatt Derp
Props to biscuits and gravy but give me chorizo, potatoes, and eggs wrapped in a corn tortilla.
rikyrah
Tennessee Pride Hot Sausage
Softly Scrambled Eggs
Grits
Cold Glass of Milk
rikyrah
Stack of good pancakes
Side of bacon
Glass of cold milk
tybee
coffee
slice of honeydew
ice cold tomato juice
shrimp’n’grits with fresh sliced tomato
more coffee.
tommy dee
@RAM: this Summers memo is a very old story. Five-six years, maybe more.I think there’s even a wiki page about it.
Sandia Blanca
Banana pancakes from the Koa Pancake House in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Bob Munck
Get up at sunrise, pull a couple of trout out of the stream near your tent, clean them, salt, pepper, butter, maybe a little garlic and green onion, and cook them in aluminum foil in the coals of your campfire. Coffee made from cold-brew concentrate and boiling water. The love of your life to share it with.
Or go to one of those “Breakfast Anytime” places and ask for scrambled eggs during the Renaissance.
protected static
A bowl of plain jasmine rice (lightly fried if leftover), topped with a fried egg, crispy shallots, coarse salt, and a few healthy shakes of pepper vinegar.
Redshirt
Peanut Butter Captain Crunch mixed equally with Chocolate Rice Krispies, served in a generous bowl with ice cold milk.
Bloix
Pie. Pie is the best breakfast. Apple pie with a slice of cheddar. Blueberry pie with plain yoghurt. Pecan pie with creme fraiche. Pie is the best.
And strong black coffee, of course.