Breakfast: Savory or Sweet?

[3113]

Went out to a great place for breakfast this morning and it got me wondering....

I dunno how it is in other countries, but the U.S. is kinda odd in that we have so many sweet things for breakfast. Not for lunch, and even honey-baked hams or candied yams aren't common for dinner. For most afternoon and evening meals, a bit of sweet is an usual extra--a special side-dish or sauce--and we wait till dessert for the sweet (ignoring, for a moment, sodas).

But not breakfast. There's the hot chocolate, the pancakes with syrup, the French Toast with cinnamon and powdered sugar, the jams on toast, the honey-sweetened granola, heaping spoonfuls of brown-sugar on the oatmeal, raisins and sugar-coated cereals.

Which is not to everyone's taste. Outside of some hot chocolate now and then, I'm a strict savory when it comes to breakfast. The lust for maple syrup quite mystifies me and even as a kid I didn't eat sugared cereals for long--I was onto the non-sweet stuff very fast.

I have a real weakness for candy and sweets, but not for breakfast. The less sugar that time of the morning the better. What about you? Savory or sweet? And is this an American affectation--or do other countries start the day with that choice?

 

[The_Fool]

Most breakfasts are a cup of coffee. When we do big breakfasts on the weekend, it's meat, eggs, hashbrowns, toast. I still like to finish my big breakfasts with something sweet though. Toast and jam, jelly or honey.

 

[Guest]

My breakfast needs are fairly simple, almost boring. Pancakes are generally too sweet for me.

I like eggs over easy, sausage links, hash browns and toast with strawberry jam.

Coffee. Keep it coming.

I do hope Ogg drops in to list his favorite English breakfast, complete with blood pudding.

 

[iluvyou3638]

just depends on the day. sometimes i want a nice bowl of coco puffs, sometimes i want eggs on toast and a couple slices of bacon. yum yum.

 

[jomar]

Mostly savory. Typically bran flakes, skim milk and sometimes I put blueberries on it. Followed by coffee.

Sometimes on the weekend I'll have coffee when I get up, then leftover pizza about 10:30 or 11.

Sometimes a sweet breakfast on vacation or a couple of times a year at home (Christmas morning for sure). But we're more likely to have pancakes, eggs and bacon for the evening meal. Go figure.

 

[redpaint]

Not sure until I wake up that day. someday just toast or coco puffs(yeah me too).
Been known to get up in the morning and eat left over pizza.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I was going to check the "it depends" box, but I realised that I will tolerate sweet things at breakfast, but I don't prefer them. If I end up with doughnuts at breakfast, I try to peel most of the frosting away

A ginormous Espresso latte, drunk from a small soup bowl. Some kind of bread, with butter or cheese. That's breakfast most days.

Otherwise, I'd gladly join Ogg in an English brekkie of kippers, blood pudding, and all those other strongly-flavored protein-y things. The best I can do in American coffee shops is corned-beef hash and eggs...

 

[Liar]

Eveytime I'm abroad and encounter the standard hotel breakfast buffet, I'm having a heart attack just looking at some of it. Eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns.... and then honey dipped cereal, white toast with jam, cookies, pastries.... jeez.

I cant fathom chugging down anything with that much grease until lunch. Breakfast is the meal you use to trigger the digestive system for the day, not smother it. Unless you're seriously hung over. Then anything goes.

A breakfast for me consists of whatever I have home of...

Juice, tea, rye crisp, veggies, fruit, the occasional cold cut. Yoghurt with muesli or oatmeal if I actually wake up starving.

ETA: I guess that puts me in the savory bracket. Except I can't stomach any fat or protein bombs.

 

[Liar]

Oh, and another thing. Doesn't bacon, sausages and eggs mean that you'll have to actually break out the frying pan and cook stuff?

That's way too much work early in the morning. If I can't open the fridge, grab something and start chewing, it's much too elaborate.

 

[Guest]

Oh, and another thing. Doesn't bacon, sausages and eggs mean that you'll have to actually break out the frying pan and cook stuff?

That's way too much work early in the morning. If I can't open the fridge, grab something and start chewing, it's much too elaborate.

Agreed. We certainly don't do this during the week.

Kids generally have cereal, hubby and I go for toast & jam, sometimes yogurt, sometimes an instant breakfast shake.

When we have the time to go out for breakfast or when we're all home together on a Saturday or Sunday morning, that's the preferred menu.

Except that young son would kill for pancakes. Every day.

Sometimes I'll make many during a weekend big breakfast and reheat them for the next few mornings for the kids. They're in heaven.

 

[Misty_Morning]

I don't eat breakfast most of the time.

But when I do, it depends on the circumstances.

Somestimes it's just some fruit. Othertimes it's fresh blueberry pancakes, while other times it's leftover pizza.

One thinf I haven't had in quite a while....buttermilk biscuits and gravy. You know what I'm talking about....

After you fry up some saugae patties, add a little flour and milk to the grease and then crumble in a sausage patty or two. Apply generous amounts to two open faced buttermilk biscuits.

YUM!

 

[rgraham666]

Most often it's granola bars with coffee.

I would cook breakfast, used to be scrambled eggs with bacon and toast was my favorite. But where I live I can't depend on finding enough clean stuff to cook with or eat off of. And if I leave food where my roommates can get at it they'll often eat it.

 

[TE999]

Brekky at home is gallons of coffee, cereal (non-sweetened) or sausage, egg and cheese biskits, or waffles.

Eating brekky in a diner or deli, then it's eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns or home fries, pancakes or waffles and coffee.

I hardly ever eat lunch.

 

[SeaCat]

I suppose you would call me the savory type.

Bacon and Eggs or Bisquits and Gravy. Washed down with copious amounts of coffee.

Cat

 

[3113]

Juice, tea, rye crisp, veggies, fruit, the occasional cold cut. Yoghurt with muesli or oatmeal if I actually wake up starving.

ETA: I guess that puts me in the savory bracket.

Yeah. This isn't about the fat, it's about the flavor. Whether or not you love that dash of sugar in the morning, or would rather avoid it altogether.

Truth is, I really should have checked off "I don't eat breakfast" as most mornings I don't. Husband loves it, so some mornings we go out for it, but I'm a lunch person. Early in the morning, if I'm hungry, I'm like you, Liar. The less effort it takes to quiet my stomach the better. Which is why I always keep liquid yoghurt in the frige. Quick protein, no muss, no fuss.

After you fry up some saugae patties, add a little flour and milk to the grease and then crumble in a sausage patty or two. Apply generous amounts to two open faced buttermilk biscuits.

YUM!

You're going to give Liar a heart attack

 

[SeaCat]

Yeah. This isn't about the fat, it's about the flavor. Whether or not you love that dash of sugar in the morning, or would rather avoid it altogether.

Truth is, I really should have checked off "I don't eat breakfast" as most mornings I don't. Husband loves it, so some mornings we go out for it, but I'm a lunch person. Early in the morning, if I'm hungry, I'm like you, Liar. The less effort it takes to quiet my stomach the better. Which is why I always keep liquid yoghurt in the frige. Quick protein, no muss, no fuss.


You're going to give Liar a heart attack

Every time Liar reads about my diet he has a Heart Attack.

Cat

 

[sr71plt]

None of the above. Savory, but I've got to have sweetener (not real sugar) if I'm drinking coffee. And breakfast for me comes at about 1 pm.

 

[Liar]

You're going to give Liar a heart attack

Wouldn't be the first AH denizen to do that.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Actually, it's the one time of day your body is really ready and able to handle a good carb load. So bring on the home fries!

And waffles... oh god, waffles...

MMMMmmmmmmmm!

 

[carsonshepherd]

Not sweet. I don't eat a lot of sugar. I eat cereal that sometimes has a touch of honey, and put fruit on it; sometimes for brunch I might have a waffle with fruit and yogurt. But my favorite breakfast is this spinach tart I make. Cheese, onion and spinach is much more my breakfast speed. I'm a small-breakfast eater anyway - small bowl of cereal, one piece of toast and one egg. I'm definitely with Liar about the greasy things that early. Biscuits and gravy in the morning? Instant indigestion.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Rocket Man

Actually, it is another of those curious things how we categorize food as uniquely appropriate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I guess this comes mainly out of our English traditions.... but I do know we Americans have raised all this to an art form.

The basic thing for me in breakfast, is that it is pretty much the same every morning.... Just not the time of day I want to be trying different things.

I go through streaks of just cereal and juice... or yogurt drink... or while traveling the eggs and bacon thing (after a few days, I usually retreat to cereal and juice).

Living on occasion with a couple of Russian folk... okay young women... I have noticed that this food classification thing has little meaning for them.... It is mostly whatever is around, but usually not very much.

But us'in Americans and English (basically British Isles) have very specific food groups that we associate strickly with breakfast. For most folks it seems to mainly that one big breakfast on the way to lunch on Saturday or Sunday that we missed the most.

And THAT was very regional.... The British disgusting (no offense) greasy bacon and eggs and toast (yes... greasy toast) with that black pudding and cooked tomatoes on the side to render the whole thing inedible.

To be fair,.. "soft-boiled" eggs are also British and pretty good if something of a pain to eat first thing in the morning.

Northern Europeans tend to the yogurt and mueslii thing.. And oh yeah.. smoked salmon.

There was the Southern grits. and ham....

The mid-atlantic scrapple....

The mid-west rye and pumpernickle toasts....

The only thing less appealing to me than the basic English breakfast is the Japanese idea of breakfast... Can't tell you much about it, other than I try not to look at that part of the hotel breakfast buffet.

Anyway.... it was a very cultural specific thing.

-KC

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Don't like eating anything sweet until after I've had a "real meal," which is lunch for me, because I only eat bfast if doing something strenuous like skiing. So, sometimes I have to attend biz continental bfast event early, and sometimes there is only sweet - danish, fruit, stiuff like that, but no bagels. It makes me angry and want to cry.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Cigarettes and sugar.

 

[sr71plt]

The only thing less appealing to me than the basic English breakfast is the Japanese idea of breakfast... Can't tell you much about it, other than I try not to look at that part of the hotel breakfast buffet.

Guess you've never been in Harbin, China, or Madras, India, then.

 

[Guest]

Cigarettes and sugar.

No cigar?