290367 Sat Sep 21 07:31:22 -0700 2002 55 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1575665 Do any of you enjoy a particular weird breakfast that you would almost be willing to bet an entire months paycheck that nobody else indulges in but you? Here is one of my own. Very simply, I just cook up a box of Near East brand Couscous. This brand of Couscous comes with a variety of seasoning packets. My favorite is the Herbed Chicken, with the Roasted Garlic coming in a close second. Like the directions say, I add two tablespoons of olive oil to give it that velvety texture. However, I use two cups of water instead of the 1 1/4 cups mentioned on the box.To me, this makes a lighter and fluffier couscous. I know this doesn't sound too weird so far. But I left out one little detail. After I add the water, olive oil, and the seasoning packet, I like to shake in a few drops of Dave's Insanity Sauce. If I am out of this sauce, a few sprinkles of red hot pepper flakes will do. After the mixture comes to a boil, I let it sit off the stove for 5 to 10 minutes. Then I fluff it up with a fork, put it in a bowl, and enjoy. To me, the fluffy and velvety texture of the couscous blends well with the taste combinations of the seasoning packet, olive oil, and hot sauce. Dennis Sat Sep 21 07:31:22 -0700 2002 0 Dennis 1 1575671 Hi Dennis, My favorite weird breakfast is leftover cold pizza. While on the subject of breakfast, here's a funny observation. Many years ago, while on the road playing in a band, I had the opportunitiy to observe one particular person, who would always have the same breakfast. This was back in the days when we all had bacon, eggs, potatoes (or grits, for some, maybe?), and toast for breakfast every day. Anyway, he would get his food and then carefully and thoroughly apply ketchup. Then, with knife and fork, he would also carefully and thoroughly cut and mix this concoction. Only then would he enjoy his meal. I watched him do this again, and again, and... Sat Sep 21 11:11:36 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Ron Rosenbaum 2 1575682 I ate breakfast with a person who ordered hash browns and pancakes. Dry. He cut them up into bite sized pieces, and smashed them together into a lump of paste before eating them. Yuk. When my daughter was just starting to eat, I would boil us up some semolina and serve it with Portuguese blood sausage. Yum. I'm not home much now at breakfast, but I cook a mean porridge, 3 tablespoons whole oats, 1 tablespoon kamut, soak overnight in 1-1/4 cups water. In the morning, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until thick (takes a while). Add more water if it gets too thick before the oats break down. Salt to taste, add chopped pecans, and top with butter. Sat Sep 21 12:16:42 -0700 2002 1575671 0 ironmom 3 1575735 My favorite weird breakfast is a fresh croissant with whole anchovies, and some strong coffee or tea. By the way Sharuf, the "Bauernomelet" sounds fantastic. Any chance of getting a recipe? Sun Sep 22 10:58:15 -0700 2002 1575682 0 Maria 4 1575742 You win, Maria! Sun Sep 22 12:41:42 -0700 2002 1575735 0 Ron Rosenbaum 4 1575759 With my record of messy failures, I'm the wrong person to ask. Maybe you can locate a competent German frau who has the right touch, since I think a lot of it involves finesse. Sun Sep 22 16:44:42 -0700 2002 1575735 0 Sharuf 2 1575692 I like cold leftover pizza too. I also like cold leftover Chinese food, from the doggie bag I took home the night before. If I was out drinking the night before, I always wake up ravenous. What I especially like then is something spicy, like huevos rancheros or an omelet with monterey jack cheese and fresh chiles. Sat Sep 21 14:16:16 -0700 2002 1575671 0 ruth arcone 3 1575698 I like left over shrimp egg foo yung, but what's weird about that, its just a shrimp omelete. How about a bologna on toasted rye with mustard? Works well when you need to eat in the car on the way to work. Gotta be Oscar Meyer All Beef Bologna though. Sat Sep 21 15:53:47 -0700 2002 1575692 0 Chino Wayne 2 1575829 I like leftover cold pizza as well. I also like left over tacos from taco kits. Growing up they were composed of ground beef with taco seasoning, iceburg lettuce with diced tomatoes with chiles and parmesean cheese. mmmm. Now I tend to make tacos more in the manner that a Mexican might actually eat them. Mon Sep 23 14:22:02 -0700 2002 1575671 0 LisaLou 1 1575673 In Germany, they have a deal called "Bauernomelet" (sp?) Means "Farmer's Omelet" and it's the cheapest item on lunch menus. Anyway, it goes something like this: Home fries cooked with bits of onion, ham or bacon, and bell pepper. After this is properly crisped, raw scrambled egg gets poured over or under or something and ends up being sort of a wrapper. I've tried to recreate this, but don't seem to have the right chops. Sat Sep 21 11:35:41 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Sharuf 1 1575697 I like cold pizza, leftover chinese, huevos mexicanos{eggs scrambled with chopped up tomatoes, serranos and onions} and pie. Sat Sep 21 15:38:29 -0700 2002 1575665 0 JoanB 2 1575727 Pie -- oh, yeah. Leftover pumpkin pie is the greatest, especially if there's some whipped cream to put on it. And a cafe au lait to go with it. Sun Sep 22 06:45:37 -0700 2002 1575697 0 Sharuf 1 1575701 I like avocadoes spread on toast. Some coarse salt, and maybe some tabasco. Check out the "Breakfast Gallery" on John Thorne's website, as well as his "In Defense of a Savory Breakfast" for more on this topic. Link: http://www.outlawcook.com Sat Sep 21 16:07:30 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Tom Meg 2 1575738 Enjoying that link, Tom, thanks. I am a fan of savory breakfast, can't handle anything sweet in the morning. And I am not up to cooking at the dawn of my day, either, so if it's not leftover, it's skips. Sun Sep 22 11:11:38 -0700 2002 1575701 0 Deb Van D 2 1575745 Thanks for the site info. Love it! When I read "In Defense of . . .", I felt very lucky to have grown in the days when Moms stayed home and just joined charity organizations and political campaigns to keep themselves busy (when they weren't Chaufeur and tenastic supporter). She (or Lupe) cooked breakfast for us every morning. Savory and sweet. I did not have a bowl of cold cereal until I was about 23 (when my fiance' asked me to try it). I think I've only eaten it about 40 times in my entire lifetime. The only other "quick" breakfast mom gave us was a protein shake when Shaklee came out with their protein powders. I would always snag for breakfast the savory leftovers in the refrigerator from "parents night out" when growing up. And, as I recall, some friends (Europeans) will eat cheeses and whole grain breads (not toasted), tomatoes, and fresh fruit for breakfast at home. I had a Nicoise salad the other day for breakfast. And, I'd do it again. Sun Sep 22 15:08:40 -0700 2002 1575701 0 kc girl 1 1575705 I like cold V-8 juice over ice with ground black pepper and dry roasted peanuts. Actually, I have this about an hour after I get up. Also butterscotch pie and a glass of milk is very tasty. D. Sat Sep 21 17:46:16 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Donna - MI 1 1575706 To All: My favorite--hot unsweetened cooked oatmeal topped with a scoop (or two) of strawberry-vanilla ice cream. Doreen Sat Sep 21 18:16:21 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Doreen 1 1575711 Fresh fish: Mahi Mahi, Red Snapper, Orange Roughy, or whatever looks freshest at the store. For breakfast, I fry it up and eat it with toast. Sat Sep 21 19:49:45 -0700 2002 1575665 0 lil mikey 1 1575726 As a hardcore third-tricker of many years, I'd have to say that all of my breakfasts might be considered weird due to the fact that my day is tilted 180 degrees due to my work schedule. After getting off work at 7 AM, the last thing I want is eggs and toast (though I do on occasion). What I really want is what is considered dinner fare by most folks. Around 8 AM, I stay up a while, crack open a few beers, go out to the grill and cook a steak or brats, fire up the oven and bake some chops or fish, or pig out on burgers or sloppy joes. It's fun being in my backyard at 8 AM, beer in hand, standing over the grill waving at my work-bound neighbors with a spatula and chuckling at the "he's nuts" looks on their faces! When I'm on vacation though and observe relatively normal (to most folks) hours, my favorite real breakfast is scrambled eggs, country ham and toast with a big bowl of grits. Too bad you can't get real country ham or grits in northern Indiana. Sun Sep 22 05:59:40 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Marco 2 1575931 I knew a guy who worked 3rd and he said that he'd grab a sixer on the way home and pound a few brews while watching Good Morning America before heading off to bed. I think he had a thing for Joan Lunden.... Tue Sep 24 15:09:24 -0700 2002 1575726 0 EP 2 1575962 Here's a gross one for yu'. I like that gelatin-like stuff that forms when you leave leftover roast chicken in the frig for a few hours. I don't even know what it is exactly but I know it tastes good. If there's enough of it I like to salt it and spread it on toast. My other favorite weird breakfast (that I can't afford very often) is cold lobster with mayonaise. Wed Sep 25 00:53:52 -0700 2002 1575726 0 christina z 2 1575969 This isn't so much weird but convenient for me, a non-morning person. Besides my auto-timer coffeemaker, I've found another thing that helps get me going in the mornings are my homemade "hot pockets" which are basically scrambled eggs, bacon (sometimes ham) and cheddar in a springroll wrapper. Cheap, easy, and good, especially for someone who doesn't really have the energy to sit there and scramble eggs until after she's already eaten them. Wed Sep 25 05:56:21 -0700 2002 1575726 0 Mona Messier 1 1575728 Hi Dennis, An entire month's paycheck!? Nope! If there is anything that I've found out in my 40 years on this planet, is this: just about any food or food combination is fair game for breakfast. Personally, I love leftover curries for breakfast. Just this morning, I diced up a potato and very small onion, melted some butter in a pan, softened up the potato and onion a bit in the butter, and added in the leftover yellow Thai chicken curry from an earlier dinner this week. Simmered the mixture for about 15 minutes, and voila, a great breakfast. There is something about the heat from the curry that wakes me up better than any cuppa will, and the heartiness of the meal keeps me going even if work deprives me of a decent lunch, (which, these days, is quite often). In talking with other ex-pats here in Tokyo (especially my from-across-the-pond Brit friends), I've found that I'm not alone in partaking of this particularly enjoyable breakfast. Yoroshiku, Andy Sun Sep 22 07:56:21 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Andy P. 1 1575743 A bowl of chili and some iced coffee. Cold pizza and a glass of milk is good, too. Sun Sep 22 13:19:56 -0700 2002 1575665 0 flavrmeistr 1 1575749 I'm afraid my own breakfast choices are rather mundane, unless you think cafe au lait and bread with gorgonzola dolce and fresh tomato (when I have any in the house) is weird. However, long ago I had a housemate who would cook herself a rare hamburger in the morning. For many years, every morning without exception, my ex-sister-in-law would eat exactly three canned apricot halves and a drink a glass of hot water with powdered milk and sugar. Her explanation was that at one point she realized she didn't care for tea or coffee, what she really liked was the milk and sugar she put in it. As for the canned apricots -- just one of her numerous eccentricities. Sun Sep 22 15:21:44 -0700 2002 1575665 0 zora 1 1575760 Glad to see I'm not alone in my fondness for cold pizza! Another fave is fried rice and I'll sometimes cook extra the night before for that purpose. Also, miso soup if I'm feeling iffy. In the spring, toasted whole grain artisanal bread with chevre and arugula. In the winter, kasha cooked with potatoes and onions and topped with a poached egg. When I was a kid I ate ww toast with dijon and two slices of what we called summer sausage way back then. That was probably the first warning sign of incipient houndishness... Sun Sep 22 17:21:19 -0700 2002 1575665 0 suzannapilaf 1 1575765 I like cold pizza, cold spaghetti, and baked potatoes with grainy mustard spread on them. Sun Sep 22 19:34:37 -0700 2002 1575665 0 shari2 1 1575790 Spread nattou on top of bagel halves and toast. (ironically this fusion dish is easier to make here than in japan because the scarcity of good bagels there. depending on where you live, they may not be available at all. and now that i think about it, toaster ovens are relatively rare there too.) Mon Sep 23 10:03:53 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Minna 1 1575791 hmmm, judging from the responses here cold pizza or other leftovers is not at all wierd. Mon Sep 23 10:23:16 -0700 2002 1575665 0 another non-wierdo 1 1575799 My personal favorite is two, slightly under-cooked fried eggs on top of cold, left-over rice (ideally Uncle Ben's Mushroom Recipe) with salsa and A-1 steak sauce. I purposely save rice the night before and dream about breakfast until morning. But "weird" is my sister. Everyday for at least 12 years she had two, Chocolate Pop-Tarts with Vanilla Filling, untoasted, and a glass of milk. When she left for college, Mom sent her off with a enough boxes to last her to Thanksgiving break! Mon Sep 23 11:44:40 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Pappy 1 1575800 I haven't had this in years but I absolutely love this strange breakfast sandwich. Fry an egg (or two) broken yolk. Make a patty out of some well seasoned breakfast sausage; cook it thoroughly and drain well. Toast a really good cinammon raisin bagel. Assemble sandwich - spread mayo (not Miracle Whip) on the bagel. Top with sliced sharp cheddar, sausage patty and egg. The spicy of the sausage combined with the sweet of the bagel....the sharpness of the cheese...the creamines of the mayo......*drool* Another yummy one is a really good onion bagel toasted with cream cheese and blackberry preserves. Good quality grape jelly works too. Mon Sep 23 11:50:02 -0700 2002 1575665 0 DeeS. 1 1575803 I had a Chinese boyfriend for a couple of years who turned me on to this one: Take leftover rice from the night before and top with lots of boiling water, this watery rice becomes the base to which you add various pickled, chilied items such as radish, bamboo, etc and then my favorite, 1000 year eggs mixed with scallions, garlic and soy. This was my Sunday brunch for about a year. Mon Sep 23 12:09:55 -0700 2002 1575665 0 rockin-good 2 1575807 yeah that's what my husband eats. rotting ru fu is another common accompaniment to the hot water rice. It may be "wierd" to you, but it is not at all wierd to 1.2 billion residents of China, 1/5 of the earth's population. Mon Sep 23 12:33:27 -0700 2002 1575803 0 Wierd to whom? 3 1575813 It's not weird to me either, I think it's yummy! But I bet it's weird to most Americans. Mon Sep 23 12:48:34 -0700 2002 1575807 0 rockin-good 1 1575809 While in college, my roommate & I decided to experiment with the order of our meals. Inspired by nutritionists who advised the health value of meals that declined in calories throughout the day (the king, prince, pauper adage), we thought it would be better to eat dinner in the morning, leave lunch unchanged and eat breakfast cereal at night. We started to get up early (for college students, anyway, say 9ish) and cook meals like steak & baked potatoes or spaghetti & meatballs. Maybe you need to give your body time to adapt to the new regimen but we certainly didn't feel healthier since we had less energy and were both napping by noon. So we abandoned the idea after about two weeks. Mon Sep 23 12:44:53 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Carpetbagger 2 1575825 That's interesting it did not work for you. Unless you just sat around after eating. In American, the biggest meal of the day is dinner, but this is a rare pattern among the rest of the world, and it is not uncommon to run into people abroad who like to comment on how wierd this custom of ours is. It is probably one reason we are so fat, because your reasoning was correct-- it is not a healthy eating pattern and does not make sense when you think about how energy is consumerd throughout the day and not at night. If I recall correctly, America used to eat like the rest of the world- bigger breakfast and lunch. But then urban commuting patterns changed and so did people's diets. Fathers started driving to work, no longer worked near the home, so they could not come back to join the family for lunch, the main meal of the day, and then return to the office or factory. Convenience became paramount in breakfast too-- so now we Americans mainly eat processed grains and refined sugars in some form or another. Looking at it from most of the world's point of view, the normal American breakfast of cereal or muffins or the like is very wierd. Mon Sep 23 13:49:25 -0700 2002 1575809 0 Minna 3 1575884 Where in the world do they eat big breakfasts? Not in any of the following places that I have been to: - Western Europe - South America - Central America - West Africa In fact the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland are the only places that I know where substantial breakfasts are eaten. In Asia the "breakfast foods" are more like other meals, rice, fish, veggies, etc. but it is my understanding that breakfast is still rather small. Mon Sep 23 23:42:45 -0700 2002 1575825 0 StriperGuy 4 1575903 - India - East Asia - rural West Small anywhere if you dont have an appetite, including east asia. But take traditional Japan breakfast- fish, miso, veggies, and if you have a good appetite, some natto topped with raw egg for good measure are way more substantial than bagel or bowl of cereal. Or south india- sambar and idlii. To most Americans eating that would be wierder than anything posted on here as far, partly because it would be like eating a spicy dinner for breakfast. And China-- see the post on what people eat in China for breakfast in this string. Following the pattern of much of the rest of the industrialized world, Japan has changed in the latter part of the 20th C to eat smaller, Western style breakfasts, although cereal there is often put into the snack food section of grocery stores and has not caught on that much, if you ask people what they ate for breakfast, the most common response is "bread." Pastries and doughnuts and bagels are now readily available on the way to work. Antoher unreformed area of the world i worked in, Wyoming. And I'm sure other rural American locales where people farm or ranch and need lots of energy for the rest of the day. (that is, their eating customs are more like the rest of the US before auto commutes became the norm, and more recently, concern over waistlines and cholesterol) As big as every other meal and usually has all four food groups (but relatively few veggies). Tue Sep 24 10:32:41 -0700 2002 1575884 0 Minna 5 1575909 Also Israel and Holland. I really enjoyed the breakfasts we were served the summer I spent working on a dig in Israel. Tomatoes, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, bread, butter and jam, yogurt, cheese, and probably other stuff I can't remember. Of course breakfast was at 8:30. We had been up since 4:30 and working since 5:00. I don't know if I could have faced all that immediately after waking up. Tue Sep 24 11:52:31 -0700 2002 1575903 0 ruth arcone 3 1575895 sorry minna, nice theory, but its incorrect. there are lots of reason americans are fat, but its not true that eating alot before bedtime (as opposed to earlier in the day) makes one iota of difference. its just a myth. joan Tue Sep 24 08:58:22 -0700 2002 1575825 0 joan 4 1575930 um are you being sarcastic? Tue Sep 24 15:08:42 -0700 2002 1575895 0 Logical Lilly 1 1575816 Buttered Thomas' English Muffin topped with raspberry (or other red berry) jelly or jam & bacon. Grubolicious. Mon Sep 23 13:20:21 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Mr Grub 2 1575824 that reminds me of my wife's favorite whenever we're at a breakfast buffet: Bagel with cream cheese and bacon. Mon Sep 23 13:47:02 -0700 2002 1575816 0 dude 2 1575859 I had a habit for a while of getting a garlic bagel with cream cheese and raspberry jam, which seemed to genuinely offend the elderly counterman. He would look at me slantways and mumble something about "meshugeneh goyim" when he saw me slather on the jam. Mon Sep 23 20:07:45 -0700 2002 1575816 0 flavrmeistr 3 1575864 I LOVE savory bagels with jam, particularly an "everything" bagel with bitter orange marmalade (or GRAPEFRUIT marmalade, if only they were as plentiful here as they are some other places, like a certain someone's BACK YARD). Mon Sep 23 20:50:26 -0700 2002 1575859 0 GG Mora 3 1575870 Next you'll say you like lox and orange marmalade on raisin bread. Meshuggana goyem. Mon Sep 23 22:05:14 -0700 2002 1575859 0 Ron Rosenbaum 3 1575899 I'm with you. I love jam on savory bagels. I love the contrast of flavors. Tue Sep 24 09:34:23 -0700 2002 1575859 0 LisaLou 1 1575828 When I was a kid a treat for Sunday breakfast use to be sardines on onion rolls with a little lemon juice. I still love it. My MIL use to eat her rice krispies with vanilla ice cream in the summer. So there you have both the sweet and the savory possibilites. Mon Sep 23 14:20:21 -0700 2002 1575665 0 AGM/Cape Cod 1 1575835 Did any of you read Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Do you remember the passage where he describes cereal? It has been decades since I read that book, but I recall him describing cereal basically for what it is- over processed grains and refined sugars and... nothing else. It sounded quite disgusting. It was a nice description and I am not doing it justoce here. maybe someone has a better memory than me. The point being that thinking about it objectively, or from the point of view of nutrition or most of the rest of the world, Americans' "normal" breakfast fare is quite wierd. Most of the postings here have described rather untraditional from the majority American point of view (except for cold pizza and other leftovers which many people eat by the time their teenagers) but more wholesome and nutritious than what the rest of the US population eats. in other words, what breakfast should be, used to be, and what the rest of the world is eating until cereal and pop tarts and muffins take over the local breakfast market. Mon Sep 23 14:40:09 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Winny Wonka 2 1575876 Yeah, but, you know what's really good? Corn flakes w/sugar, cream and strawberries. Or, try this one--black walnut brownies dipped in half and half. Okay, one more--a Briggs half-smoke, chocolate milk and a Tastycake. Mon Sep 23 23:04:57 -0700 2002 1575835 0 flavrmeistr 3 1575988 Grape Nuts in half and half are one of my favorites! Wed Sep 25 11:50:52 -0700 2002 1575876 0 Melissa 1 1575860 So this morning I had this: 3 sauteed Amy's chicken chorizo sausages wrapped in softened, dry heated corn tortillas spread with Westbrae stone ground mustard. Nice. It's fun to make things up. Mon Sep 23 20:11:23 -0700 2002 1575665 0 shoo-bee-doo 1 1575900 I have to try this couscous, it sounds delicious. And this morning I had left over Pad Thai. Tue Sep 24 09:41:31 -0700 2002 1575665 0 M. Allen 1 1575946 My two favorites are liverwurst spread on a toasted bagel with tomatoes, or leftover white rice with smoked salmon and that sesame/seaweed sprinkle stuff. Tue Sep 24 18:07:44 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Paulette 2 1575953 Mmmmmm, liverwurst...I like it on toasted rye w/Pommerey mustard and hot pepper-green tomato relish. That is a good breakfast. Tue Sep 24 19:28:03 -0700 2002 1575946 0 flavrmeistr 1 1575987 When I lunch at California Taqueria on SW Blvd in KCMO, I always get two Chile Rellenos, one spread and one to go. I eat the spread there and take the other one home, stick it in the fridge and eat it cold the next morning with my coffee. Delicious! Wed Sep 25 11:48:03 -0700 2002 1575665 0 Melissa