Several years ago, my husband and I were on holiday in San Francisco. After an early up-and-down-hill walk, we stopped at a small restaurant for breakfast. The tables were all taken, so we sat at the counter. A man entered and plopped down on the stool next to me. The waitress greeted him and said, “Do you know what you want?” “Yes,” he replied. “I’d like a glass of water, 11 fried eggs and nothing else.” After the man finished his eggs and left, my husband said to the waitress, “Wasn’t that a bit unusual?” She shook her head and said, “Yes, he usually orders a dozen.”
Scientists tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It kick- starts our energy, keeps metabolism running higher and improves cognitive abilities---especially in young children. That’s why I used to tell my teenage son, “Josh, Coca Cola and cold pizza is not breakfast food.”
I’ve always been a morning person, so I have no problem rising with the sun at
5 a.m., but I have to eat breakfast before taking my morning hike. My friend, Barbara is also an early riser, but unlike me, she doesn’t eat a morsel (I eat several and then some) before her 7-mile hike. All she needs is a jolt of caffeine.
Barbara agrees with the writer, Joanne Sherman who said, “I have a ‘carpe diem’ mug and, truthfully at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet.”
Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly snacked on a pastry in front of Tiffany’s. The title of his book came from an anecdote popular among Capote’s friends. An out-of-towner was asked, “Which glamorous restaurant in New York would you like to visit?” He answered, “Well, let’s have breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
Breakfast in bed sounds about as appealing as spending a night in the hospital. Movies make it sound romantic, but in real life, breakfast in bed usually means spilled coffee and berries chasing crumbs across the sheets.
On a book tour, I was once put up in a Bed and Breakfast. The bed was comfortable, but I had to eat breakfast with a bunch of chatty strangers. The only stranger I would enjoy having breakfast with is the comedian Steven Wright. He said, “I was at this restaurant. The sign said, ‘Breakfast Anytime’. So I ordered French Toast in the Renaissance.”’
Pass the syrup
Esther Blumenfeld (“The bagel is an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis.” Beatrice and Ira Freeman)