Today, I had leftover veggie stir-fry of broccoli, pea pods, peppers, carrots and corn with chunks of pineapple and some brown rice. There is one portion left, so I may have that tomorrow. I've got some tomatoes that need to be eaten as well. This is a very far cry from the breakfasts I grew up on and what most Americans consume to start their day.
As a kid and through my teens, breakfasts varied from cold cereal, milk and fruit to the hot offerings produced at the start of the weekday by my almost-somnolent mother who rose at 5:30 during her work week to have some quiet time and prepare food before getting dressed and making sure my eyes were open and I had at least one foot on the floor as she departed my room.
We were both like bears that no-one should aggrieve upon waking, so my most common breakfast of scrambled eggs and a warmed honey bun was often silent as was the ritual of my mother brushing my hair before I headed either to the bus stop or her car for the journey to school. Though as a small child I had the then-popular Pop-Tarts, Fruit Loops or Apple Jacks, I happily rejected those for healthier alternatives as my teens ended. Never a fan of oatmeal or cream of wheat, cold cereal remained my go-to in our tropical climate.
Yogurt and fresh fruit or toast with peanut butter were two frequent college repasts after my arrival in Florida, as both could be eaten and cleaned up quickly if I faced a hectic morning. Either could also be packed as a snack or enjoyed while walking to an early class.
My move to leftovers was years in the making and started as the result of shift work, a side hustle which grew and a series of lower paid positions which forced me to budget both money and time. As a younger adult, I learned to use my love of vegetables and fruits to transform my diet to one which was predominately meat-free, largely fresh and varied in texture, taste and cultural influences.
Childhood in the tropics spawned a love of a range of foods, plant-based and otherwise. We had access to traditional cuisine of the region as well as a plethora of seafood, authentic Chinese fare and, because my grandparents were transplanted Southerners, eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles and various sausages and meats, including venison, pork, beef and chicken, were the norm in their home.
My stepfather's contributions in our house included bagels, lox, herring, blintzes, latkes, matzo with eggs and jam or honey and beef tongue or corned beef. He also made a farmers salad of sour cream and cottage cheese with chopped green onion and sliced radish that I've never seen anywhere else and because he grew up in Maryland, the man could shuck oysters or crack open a shell at the speed of light and definitely knew his way around a crab cake.
Survivors of the Depression, I often saw either or both maternal grandparents take the heels of bread loaves and soak them in milk before eating them with a spoon and it was not at all unusual for both of them to eat grits, fried eggs and bacon all cut up and mixed together. Neither was it strange to forego syrup with pancakes or waffles. These would instead be drowned in the mixture of sunny side up egg, bacon or sausage. I must confess that I've never seen any other persons, Southern or not, enjoy a waffle or pancake this way and have often wondered about it.
Another treat I remember was my grandfather's simple yet always perfect fried egg sandwich. Cooked in drippings kept beside the stove, the egg was almost always sunny side up with a hint of light brown surrounding the very edge of the egg white. Lifted onto a piece of warm toast with just the right amount of butter, and covered by same, it was heaven and could easily eclipse any other version served today from a fast food window or a grocer's freezer.
Alas, I rarely make eggs this way, preferring to poach or hard boil them and toast is rare unless I'm ill. Cooking for one often means leftovers and those are eaten before another entree is prepared. This avoids waste and keeps my costs down, Breakfast out remains a favorite, especially as part of a Sunday get-together with a friend or two.
Have you a favorite breakfast or any you fondly recall from childhood?
9 comments:
I never really warmed to breakfast. It was almost always cold cereals and toast when I was growing up. Eggs and bacan was a rare treat for much of the family, but didn't have the same appeal for me.
These days I mostly have chai, with perhaps some fruit to go with it. I know that breakfast is supposedly the most important meal of the day, but I just can't face food early.
Hooray for leftovers though - which often taste better on their second or third go round.
I don't think anything was better that an egg, over easy, with bacon and toast. I don't eat any runny yolks these days, but they were so tasty. I have seen eggs on pancakes. Not sure where, but another things in my collective memory that doesn't seem strange.
Tomorrow is my favorite and rare breakfast: pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, with lemon and sugar. But usually it's homebaked bread toast with homemade marmalade. Today cornbread toast.
I've come to dislike anything sweet for breakfast. But as a child we mostly ate cereal and milk. Rice Krispies, Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Fruit Loops.
Ugh.
Sometimes now I like a slice of bread with mozzarella and tomatoes, toasted.
That is an amazingly varied list of breakfast possibilities, e.
Although as a child I rarely could choke down breakfast, preferring to eat half my lunch sandwich at morning recess, breakfast is now my favourite meal and I eat the same toast/cheese/juice every single day. But I still remember my mom's banana pancakes with butter and molasses as a favourite on weekends when my stomach could wake up at a more leisurely pace and enjoy them :)
I have always been a bran cereal person -- every day for years and years. (Except maybe when I'm traveling.)
Your breakfast selections sound good. That Farmer's Salad was a classic in the Jewish community in the early part of the 20th century -- it was sometimes called Jewish Chop Suey! I wrote a blog post about it a few years ago:
https://maefood.blogspot.com/2010/03/farmers-chop-suey.html
best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Breakfast was usually quick and simple when I was a kid. My favourite type was when my mother would make pancakes. She regularly squeezed fresh orange juice for us, which was always nice.
My favourite breakfast is bircher muesli topped with fresh apricots - or fresh croissant from the boulanger near my house in France. As a child we used to have very dull breakfasts - and I remember at a farm where we used to stay they would only drink goats milk which was warm - YUK!
Post a Comment