Would you eat Gumbo or a Shrimp Beignet for Breakfast?
I'm curious about how many people would like to eat "non-breakfast" food for breakfast.
I sure would! I am trying to convince some restaurants to offer "regular" food for breakfast, if they possibly can -- even thought they aren't "diner-style" places.
Restaurant people: Does it require a great deal of resources to offer some of your lunch fare for breakfast? I guess it really depends on how your "kitchen" rolls. What are the biggest hurdles in this regard? I'm curious from a "learning about restaurants" standpoint.
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We finished green chile tamales and fried oysters for our breakfast this morning................. Since we've just received an oyster CARE package from friends in Maryland, we'll have bacon-oyster po boys for tomorrow's breakfast.
Yesterday featured olive oil fried eggs atop fresh salsa and corn tortillas with queso fresco. We had cheesy mashed potatoes with carnitas earlier in the week. A tomatillo-green chile sauce poached egg on chorizo refried beans is not pretty to look at but delicious to eat.
Kellogs, General Mills et al don't make much money at this house.
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huiray
Mar 4, 2011 09:13 PM
Yes and yes.
This is such an old topic in a way and tons of very similar threads seem to start on this same topic frequently. :-)
Here are just a few:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/413698
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/601130
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/742323
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/756341
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/618524
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/759868If one searches for "savory breakfast" on Chowhound one gets 1,058 results as of this moment. ;-)
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re: huiray
alkapal
Mar 5, 2011 05:23 AM
yes, but i intend to show this thread to a restaurant chef who sells gumbo and beignets, but doesn't make shrimp beignet at all and doesn't serve gumbo for breakfast.
so...this thread is unique from all that other research you did. sorry you wasted your time. ;-).
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re: alkapal
huiray
Mar 5, 2011 10:32 AM
No, not a waste at all. There are several comments regarding stuff one can get or gets in a commercial place/non-home place in those threads. Nevertheless, you may notice that most of the comments here relate to personal examples and my remarks were also a commentary on that. IMO the subject itself is definitely commingled with the general notion of "non-cliché" type "non-traditional white American folks" breakfasts as reflected in the comments.
Besides, your first sentence in your OP: "I'm curious about how many people would like to eat "non-breakfast" food for breakfast" is directly and pertinently answered by all those other threads, so my posting of those links is a completely relevant answer to your first sentence in its entirety. Sorry you now seem to shrug off your own words.
I did note you were thinking of a restaurant environment and I myself am still awaiting more comments (if any more are forthcoming) from restaurateurs and other such folks. By all means do show this thread to that chef you have in mind, perhaps also those other threads, to convince him or her that there are lots of folks who hanker for stuff in the morning that is NOT bacon-and-eggs.
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Is a shrimp beignet all that different, ingredient-wise, than shrimp & grits, a breakfast classic in regions blessed with the shrimp.? Anyway, I recall a teenage son helping himself to homemade chili for breakfast while saying "This must be the best stuff in the world---I don't see the point of eating anything else as long as we have chili in the house". A good philosophy. (BTW that's the same son who often ate a hot baked sweet potato for breakfast, busted open and filled with butter and brown sugar and accompanied by three or four glasses of cold milk.)
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ipsedixit
Mar 4, 2011 08:18 PM
Like everyone else, yes, I eat just about anything for breakfast. And more often than not I have non-traditional breakfast foods to start off the day. In other words, I just eat food for breakfast.
As to your other question about why (more?) restaurants don't offer non-traditional selections during breakfast it's generally a matter of diner preferences. Most (stress, most) people tend to eat light, or lighter, for breakfast and would not take well to say gumbo, a large plate of pasta, a thick ribeye to start the day off.
The other factor is time. Most people who eat out for breakfast are sort of in a time crunch, unless it's the weekend and we're talking brunch. To make most non-breakfast items, the kitchen will need more time, at least more time vis-a-vis your traditional 2 eggs, bacon, and toast order. Waiting something like 15 or even 10 minutes for your breakfast to be plated and served just doesn't fit into most people's breakfast schedule.
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re: ipsedixit
tatamagouche
Mar 5, 2011 09:09 AM
But a bowl of gumbo or plate of pasta isn't necessarily any heavier/more caloric than an omelette with sausage and toast... With you on the time thing though.
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Will Owen
Mar 4, 2011 03:37 PM
To me this is just one more reason to love seeing "Breakfast Served Anytime" on the menu, which pretty much means every other meal as well. I adore eggs and bacon and all that, but I love mixing those with other things, and if most of the stuff on the menu is available à la carte I'm in heaven. I adore chili and eggs together - there was an old place in Nashville where you could get your chili with any number of additions, including a fried egg, yum yum - and if steak and eggs is good what's wrong with a burger and eggs? And doesn't a grilled cheese sandwich sound like a good egg-dipper?
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LorenM
Mar 3, 2011 04:12 PM
Definitely. Sometimes even cold. Cold spaghetti, cold pizza. a couple slices of lunch meat or cheese if I'm making sandwiches for my lunch- sometimes end up in my mouth. Breakfast for dinner too. Also the occasional pork rind or Spaghettios right from the can for breakfast! I have no shame!
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chef chicklet
Mar 3, 2011 02:28 PM
Not only would I, I prefer lunch/dinner foods for breakfast. Leftovers are right up my alley. Not ever caring much for sweet things, I'd eat a gumbo or a shrimp beignet for breakfast any day!
If you simply have family member that must have their eggs, I'd stuff an omelette with gumbo, and I'd figure out a way to get them their sweet stuff without wrecking the beignet. I'm really amazed we ever got into te sweet pancake,or waffle type breakfast routines, who started that anyway.
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Absolutely. I've been on a bit of a campaign recently about this. I actually made extra jambalaya the other night to have a serving for breakfast. A co-worker came by while I was eating the jambalaya at 9am and said "that looks like lunch" and I pretty much jumped down her throat asking "WHY?" and "Who decided cheerios are for breakfast and rice and beans isn't" and "Other parts of the world aren't like that" and on and on.
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Count me in the yes definitely category! I'm not a big breakfast eater, I usually need to be awake for a couple of hours before I'm ready to eat, but once I'm ready to eat I prefer savory instead of sweets. Sweet breakfasts just send me into a sugar coma & I feel terrible for the rest of the day.
I'd totally eat a non-traditional breakfast just as much as I'd eat breakfast for dinner! -
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I don't know if I'd be ready to tuck into a pot roast dinner or reuben first thing in the morning, but I would like some more savory options on breakfast menus, and some that incorporate more traditionally lunchy foods.
I'm a big fan of chicken and waffles, but even better is waffles with fried chicken livers and white gravy. I also love asian style noodle soups for breakfast - loaded with cilantro, a fresh squeeze of lime juice, a swirl of fish sauce and lots of chiles.
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tatamagouche
Mar 2, 2011 06:17 AM
I don't care for American breakfasts in general. Cheese and leftovers are my most common breakfasts.
I long had a fantasy about opening a restaurant that only served leftovers—everything would have to be made the day before and served the next morning.
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re: tatamagouche
TheHuntress
Mar 2, 2011 04:33 PM
I'd definitely go to your restaurant for leftovers :) Especially knowing I could get Diet Coke too.
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hypomyces
Mar 2, 2011 03:29 AM
When we were growing up, we alway had Kielbasa in the house. Breakfast was often rye bread, Kielbasa, cheese, and pickled herring. Today I am a total spice slut...I'll eat anything spicy for breakfast. If I had my way, I'd eat kimchi and rice for breakfast every day. A nice hot bowl of Rasam is great as well.
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RealMenJulienne
Mar 2, 2011 12:09 AM
I sure would. I'll eat anything for breakfast with the exception of sweet things, and oatmeal.
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sure why not .how many have had pizza for breakfast .i know there are times when i go out for breakfast and i really dont want eggs there really isnt alott of other things to order
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re: tnsquire
jmcarthur8
Mar 2, 2011 07:59 AM
Cold pizza... yep. There's something about eating a slice of cold pizza while wandering around the house looking for your shoes, keys, purse...
Nothing like it.-
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re: hill food
jmcarthur8
Mar 6, 2011 06:03 AM
TOO funny! I've been married so long that scenario never occurred to me.
Thanks for the morning chuckle, GHG and hill.
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Quine
Mar 1, 2011 09:47 PM
I am a mega savory, rich protein based breakfast food eater. Cold pizza rocks.
Restaurant wise, yeah it can matter. Breakfast is just that, 99.9% want that standard stuff, to derail staff and resources away for something not walking in the door to order, well, just doesn't pay the bills.
Prep is different, staff/cooks are different, eggs take minutes to make as well as pancakes and waffles, other things take more time. Breakfast people are in a hurry for the most. Many reasons.Even asked for a grilled cheese sandwich, with tomato and a over so easy egg on top? Ah! bacon side?
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Cherylptw
Mar 1, 2011 09:35 PM
I'm not a breakfast person BUT as far as foods, anything goes for me...I often eat breakfast foods for dinner and dinner leftovers for breakfast if I'm a bit hungry in the mid afternoon. As a child, one of the things I loved was a bowl of leftover warmed rice with milk & sugar for breakfast. Now, you won't find me making a steak in the morining....
I'd be happy with the gumbo as it's one of my favorites but to answer your question re: restaurant breakfast savories, no, it takes no more effort, with the right prep work, to make a gumbo or savory beignet for breakfast than it does to make eggs benny. Gumbo can (and should) be made the day before to give the flavors a chance to meld. Beignets are normally sweet pastries but it's simple to turn it into savory. The problem is that American culture has been conditioned to expect typical foods for certain meals, i.e. pastries in the morning, etc. but if you notice, other cultures like latin, asian, european groups incorporate more savory items into breakfast which are more healthy actually & utilizes more options. Another thing too, is that a lot depends on your environment & what you were raised on eating (hence my sweet rice & milk dish). Here in the south, fried fish, salmon or mackeral cakes, steak, etc are common on many a breakfast table.
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I used to work nights; so "breakfast" was my dinner, but I was the cook in the house so I made breakfast for my late wife. Eggs, hash browns, meat, toast...but she had OJ and I had a beer, thankfully she never gagged. Now, I regularly have leftovers for breakfast, but have the above on weekends, sans the beer.
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TheHuntress
Mar 1, 2011 04:34 PM
Yes!
I don't often eat breakfast, but when I do it's usually whatever is left over from dinner the night before. One of my favourite things is jumbalaya from the night before and just standing in the kitchen bleary eyed and spooning it straight from the pan into my mouth.
I can live without breakfast foods, the only 'breakfast' food that really tempts me on a menu is eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Some places can convince me to order a bircher muesli, but otherwise I'd love to order a non-breakfast food.
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Chemicalkinetics
Mar 1, 2011 04:27 PM
I would. Yeah. In fact, the question should be reversed. Who won't do it, instead of who would do it? On the other hand, I sometime like to eat breakfast foods during non-breakfast hours. Waffle is a great example. I can eat waffle any time of the day.
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hill food
Mar 1, 2011 04:26 PM
hell yes! my favorite for many years in SF was spring rolls with garlic-chili sauce and char siu bao (and maybe some siu mai and/or har gow)
NOT my mother's breakfast.
like Brianne, I really can't do sweet in the AM, just leaves me with the sugar crash and burn before lunch.
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My stomach can't tell time. What is being referred to as "breakfast food" is only breakfast food for a small partion of the world. There's nothing sacred about eating eggs or oatmeal for the first meal and ignoring them for the rest of the day. I'd rather have a good tamale or grilled ham & cheese sandwich .......... but these call for a beer (and liquid Cheerios don't always work).
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re: Sue in Mt P
goodhealthgourmet
Mar 4, 2011 08:53 PM
I also like breakfast for supper.
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as do i...and it's definitely a rarer dining-out option than savory breakfast fare.
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alliegator
Mar 1, 2011 02:36 PM
Sure! I'll eat anything at anytime if it's what I'm hungry for at the moment. That said, I don't spring right out of bed and eat breakfast, it's usually 2 hours or so after I get up. One of my favorite non breakfasty foods in the am is fried rice. Not left over from a carton, but some that I've just freshly made.
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mucho gordo
Mar 1, 2011 01:46 PM
Anything goes for me. Buck tradition; my stomach doesn't know what time it is. When I worked the 4am to noon shift at the bank the cafeteria had all sorts of goodies. Sometimes I would stop at the 24hr Thai place on the way in and get something different to eat.
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jmcarthur8
Mar 1, 2011 01:42 PM
I am a breakfast food for breakfast person, but both of my grown sons are leftovers for breakfast people. Whatever entree, soup, veggies, rice etc are in the fridge are breakfast to them. It's only a problem when we go on a road trip together and they can't find anything they like on a breakfast menu.
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Veggo
Mar 1, 2011 07:23 AM
A breakfast of fried eggs and grilled conch (not on the breakfast menu, they tolerate me ) at Los Pelicanos in Puerto Morelos, in the Yucatan, on the waters' edge as the sun rises over the Caribbean, is a magical experience. My kind of breakfast meat.
Also, a sandwich of suckling pig with crispy chicharron and habanaro sauce on a crusty roll in Playa del Carmen is not a traditional breakfast, but the pig is gone by 10:30. Snooze you lose. -
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I would eat either of the two items you suggested......however, from a restaurants standpoint, it has to do with production of the kitchen and whether it is set up to do everything simultaneously, or in shifts, i,e,, equipment, cooking line and staff. Large restaurants have larger kitchens which translates into more equipment and more staff. The preparation aspect also has to be considered.....as well as the holding time for prepared foods., e.g. Prime Rib or other roasted meats.....it is done in all restaurants for any shift service, but when does the customer's perception of your product begin to decline ? Instead of having available for a few hours...now it is doubled....In the minds of many customers, they do not want food that they consider to be leftovers.
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Brianne920
Mar 1, 2011 06:59 AM
I love non-breakfast foods for breakfast----mostly, I guess, due to college/law school poverty and eating spaghetti, soup, whatever for every meal in a given 3 day period. The habit just stuck and I embraced it.
Also, I lived in Maryland for a bit, and a crab omelette was a pretty common menu item-and a lovely one.
Funnily enough, I can't eat sweet things at breakfast or I feel sick all day! Shame.
