Who's buying breakfast at Waffle House?

[shereads]

I can't sleep. I'm hungry. Not just hungry, but hungry for a specific food: diner-type waffles buried under melted butter and Log Cabin syrup. With a large orange juice. And two strips of bacon, extra-crisp.

I haven't eaten that meal in years. To whoever has a mostly sanitary Waffle House at their closest freeway exit...If you're flyin', I'm buyin'.

 

[shereads]

What do Brits and Swedes and New Zealanders and Other eat that is comparable, I wonder, to Roadside America?

Let's say you're driving along a not-so-scenic highway, and midway between Point A and Point B you crave some non-nutritious road food.

So you stop at a dubious-looking dining establishment with a reassuringly familiar franchise name. It's open all night and has formica countertops and paper placemats decorated with local landmarks, like Rock City and Bargain Outlet Shops.

What will you order?

 

[ferociouskittycat]

Okay... I can't eat this crap, but if I could...

McDonald's is the first restaurant between here and Melbourne. Some brilliant person thought of opening a restaurant in the middle of nowhere... and it's one of the busiest Macca's in SE Australia.

Otherwise there's a roadhouse a bit further down the road, that sells the greasiest looking burgers... and smell YUM!!!

Bun, beef patty, cheese, onion, egg, beetroot, pineapple, lettuce, sauce... Okay, you've got me drooling (oh, and eww, tomato)

Apart from the usual stuff, dimsims, chips, potato cakes.. great food for the kids...

Gourmet sandwiches... specialty pizza (salmon and caper, my fave), steak... The roadhouses always have a great selection of food. They get all the truckies stopping there for their mandatory sleep/pit stop.

 

[AngeloMichael]

Local Ihop has pretty good waffles and I'd enjoy your company over a meal any time Sher.

 

[snooper]

What do Brits ... eat that is comparable, I wonder, to Roadside America?
...
So you stop at a dubious-looking dining establishment with a reassuringly familiar franchise name. ...
What will you order?

First of all, although we do have several chains of the type you mention, including "Little Chef" and "Happy Eater" dotted along the roadside in the UK, they are not our idea of a "dubious-looking dining establishment". The chain 'restaurants' are clean and sell uniformly tasteless pap, including the obligatory 'healthy option'.

Our true home, for the lorry driver (US='trucker') and motorcyclist alike are called "transport caffs" (NB that is NOT a spelling mistake) and rejoice in names like "Lil's" and (one of the most famous in my youth) "Smoky Joe's".

A typical order is two eggs, two sausages, two slices of bacon, chips, black pudding, fried tomatoes, baked beans, topped with a slice of fried bread. Accompanying this epicurean delight is the English "vin du pays", a half pint (US=10 oz.) mug of tea so strong you could stand the spoon up in it. As a side item, free with this feast, comes bread and butter.

Of course 'real' men would consider this merely a snack. If they were really hungry they would go for the 'Special of the Day', invariably steak and kidney pudding with chips, or perhaps meat, suet dumplings and two veg.

 

[Guest]

First of all, although we do have several chains of the type you mention, including "Little Chef" and "Happy Eater" dotted along the roadside in the UK, they are not our idea of a "dubious-looking dining establishment". The chain 'restaurants' are clean and sell uniformly tasteless pap, including the obligatory 'healthy option'.

Our true home, for the lorry driver (US='trucker') and motorcyclist alike are called "transport caffs" (NB that is NOT a spelling mistake) and rejoice in names like "Lil's" and (one of the most famous in my youth) "Smoky Joe's".

A typical order is two eggs, two sausages, two slices of bacon, chips, black pudding, fried tomatoes, baked beans, topped with a slice of fried bread. Accompanying this epicurean delight is the English "vin du pays", a half pint (US=10 oz.) mug of tea so strong you could stand the spoon up in it. As a side item, free with this feast, comes bread and butter.

Of course 'real' men would consider this merely a snack. If they were really hungry they would go for the 'Special of the Day', invariably steak and kidney pudding with chips, or perhaps meat, suet dumplings and two veg.

Oh my.


A typical big breakfast around the Midwestern U.S. would be steak and eggs. Or sometimes biscuits and gravy. But most folks looking for big morning chow would take a couple of eggs (over easy, please), bacon, ham, or sausage, some type of fried potatoes (shredded or chunked or sliced), couple of slices of toast, sometimes pancakes or waffles or maybe a cinnamon roll, orange juice, and lots and lots of coffee.


Um - what is black pudding?

 

[OldnotDead]

I can't sleep. I'm hungry. Not just hungry, but hungry for a specific food: diner-type waffles buried under melted butter and Log Cabin syrup. With a large orange juice. And two strips of bacon, extra-crisp.

I haven't eaten that meal in years. To whoever has a mostly sanitary Waffle House at their closest freeway exit...If you're flyin', I'm buyin'.

Geez, Sher, I knew there was something on which we would agree. Just arrived to check my mail etc, after downing a couple of waffles, a rasher of bacon, coffee and oj.

I miss the Toddle House of my youth that served the best waffles anywhere. Of course being south of Mason-Dixon line, there was always a side of grits that remains elusive in these environs.

Hope you got your craving satisfied,

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Leggo my Eggo.

 

[Guest]

What's wrong with a six-pack of Bud?

 

[R. Richard]

What's wrong with a six-pack of Bud?

You omitted the key ingredient from a seven course Irish feast: the potato.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: Who's buying breakfast at Waffle House?

Geez, Sher, I knew there was something on which we would agree.

What? This is the first thing?

I thought we both agreed that I'm cute, and that the president's verbal skills coud use some work. No? Well, this is a start then.

Just arrived to check my mail etc, after downing a couple of waffles, a rasher of bacon, coffee and oj.

I miss the Toddle House of my youth that served the best waffles anywhere. Of course being south of Mason-Dixon line, there was always a side of grits that remains elusive in these environs.

Hope you got your craving satisfied,

No, I'm afraid the next time I see a Waffle House or anything similar, it'll be when I'm well out of Miami on the interstate. There are Cracker Barrels a few exits closer, but those are too precious. (No formica.)

 

[shereads]

Um - what is black pudding?

Don't ask. Trust me on this.

My ex-boss took his bride to Ireland and stayed with long-lost cousins on a farm. They loved everything except the black pudding, which was the mom's special pride and joy. Rather than hurt her feelings, they ate it. For revenge, he sent their innocent, rosy-cheeked country-bred children a gift of X-Men Comics and a Gameboy.



I'm still reeling over the Australian burger with pineapple. Godalmighty.

I just got an e-mail from a Canadian friend touring Australia. He says it's more American than British. He didn't mention there being any tropical fruit on hamburgers.

 

[shereads]

Local Ihop has pretty good waffles and I'd enjoy your company over a meal any time Sher.

I wish Ihop still called themselves the International House of Pancakes. It gave the place ambiance.

"More syrup, madame? Are the waffles prepared to your liking?"

 

[Guest]

For revenge, he sent their innocent, rosy-cheeked country-bred children a gift of X-Men Comics and a Gameboy.

 

[OldnotDead]

Re: Re: Re: Who's buying breakfast at Waffle House?

What? This is the first thing?

I thought we both agreed that I'm cute, and that the president's verbal skills coud use some work. No? Well, this is a start then.

You're right. Once again, I stand corrected.

 

[Guest]

I wish Ihop still called themselves the International House of Pancakes. It gave the place ambiance.

"More syrup, madame? Are the waffles prepared to your liking?"

The morning after we got back from vacation we ate at the IHOP. You know, no food in the house, too tired to think of shopping, can't imagine cooking, etc. Time for someone else to feed us!

Anyway, the kids ordered chocolate-chip pancakes from the children's menu. The pancake filled an entire plate, was 3/4 of an inch thick, was filled with chocolate chips and covered in a whip cream smiley face dotted with more chocolate chips. They were thrilled. I was appalled.

BUT - they dug into their respective plates and gorged. They didn't speak for half an hour.

Hubby and I had a lovely breakfast, lingered over coffee, relaxed. It was delightful.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Re: Re: Re: Who's buying breakfast at Waffle House?

There are Cracker Barrels a few exits closer, but those are too precious. (No formica.)

Mmmmm Cracker Barrel's apple dumplings.....fanfuckingtastic.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Who's buying breakfast at Waffle House?

You're right. Once again, I stand corrected.

You may be seated.

 

[snooper]

... a couple of eggs (over easy, please)....

In the transport caff you get your eggs fried in the cheapest cooking oil they can get, no frills like sunnyside or easy over.

... Um - what is black pudding?

It is a sausage, usually about two or three inches diameter which is made from blood and fat. In appearance it is black with lumps of white fat embedded. It is best eaten as sold, but some people fry it. There is a fair bit about them here.

In Ireland you would be offered white pudding also, but that isn't much seen in the UK, though the Belgians like it.

 

[Clare Quilty]

I like diners, especially ones constructed from old train cars, but I cannot abide the mop water they call coffee.

 

[shereads]

In Ireland you would be offered white pudding also, but that isn't much seen in the UK, though the Belgians like it.

Is it black pudding with just fat and no blood?

<<Eeeee. My teeth hurt!>>

 

[Clare Quilty]

Is it black pudding with just fat and no blood?

<<Eeeee. My teeth hurt!>>

Isn't that called spam?

 

[DirtyJJ]

Mmmm... this thread is making me hungry. One of my favorite meals out is a nice big breakfast... eggs, bacon, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, coffee... it's all good.

I haven't been to a Waffle House in ages, but I could go for some of their hash browns. And I love IHOP too - especially the thin Swedish pancakes.
Hungrily,
JJ

 

[gauchecritic]

Biscuits? Pancakes?? Potatoes??? That's not breakfast. this is breakfast.

Venita had witnessed 'full English' many times, but this halted her breath. This was FULL English. A red and orange ocean of beans with a shoal of plump tomatoes surrounded an island of white and yellow eggs; thoroughly cooked rashers of pink and brown with crozzled edging lay alongside deeply tanned torpedoes of sausage. A wreckage of sliced mushrooms littered the edges of the breakfast seascape and there, as a homage to food, stood the blood and fat monuments of black pudding.


For what it tastes like go here.

I've never understood how anyone can eat potatoes at breakfast. And now we're (UK) infested with the bloody things, everywhere we turn. I'll stick with the 'greasy spoons' thank you ever so bloody much.

Gauche

 

[OldnotDead]

Biscuits? Pancakes?? Potatoes??? That's not breakfast. this is breakfast.

Venita had witnessed 'full English' many times, but this halted her breath. This was FULL English. . . . A wreckage of sliced mushrooms littered the edges of the breakfast seascape and there, as a homage to food, stood the blood and fat monuments of black pudding.
. . .
I've never understood how anyone can eat potatoes at breakfast. And now we're (UK) infested with the bloody things, everywhere we turn. I'll stick with the 'greasy spoons' thank you ever so bloody much.

Gauche

My wife tells wonderful stories of the REAL breakfasts her Scottish grandmother would prepare for them, all the while disparaging their debilitating Yankee Breakfasts which were of no value.

Once a week we try to put on a spread here that usually precludes any more eating until well in the evening. I'm the cook and, to date, potatoes have yet to make an appearance and are not on my list for the future. I have yet to achieve anything close to an ideal, but my idea of a perfect breakfast is best reflected at one of my favorite 'nawlins eateries:
http://www.brennansneworleans.com/breakfastmenu.html

Bon Apetit!