Southern US Breakfasts

Breakfast is really the most important meal in the Southern United States, and whether or not someone goes out and runs cattle and mends fences in the morning, Southerners will still eat a large, heavy breakfast. Breakfasts normally include:

• Large amounts of coffee
• Scrambled eggs or eggs done sunny side up ('dippy eggs')
• Toast
• Bacon
• Ham
• Sausages
• Biscuits (American biscuits are like little breads)

Plus one or more of the following:

• Grits
• Cereal
• Biscuits and sausage gravy
• Omelettes
• Fruit

You won't be hungry for hours (or days!) if you do a Southern breakfast right.

Breakfast in the Big Apple

There is nothing that starts your morning off right like a fresh, warm bagel from a New York deli, with butter or a thick schmear of cream cheese. Pumpernickel is the best. Chase it with chocolate milk and you're good to go.

The 'Efficient' (Lazy) American Breakfast

For those Americans who don't skip breakfast altogether, their morning meal is usually minimal. While it's true that more rural parts are used to a hearty breakfast, that has become uncommon in modern, urban America. A traditional lazy American breakfast is:

• One bowl of cereal and/or a more condensed 'milk and cereal bar'.

• Coffee, but sometimes either milk or orange juice. Orange juice now comes in more travel-friendly cartons. Some choose caffeinated beverages.

• Maybe a convenient pastry or pocket. More and more American foods seem to be manufactured and made in pockets.

While the above are the staples of the average American breakfast, there are many more occasional foods that can accompany the main meal of the day:

• Manufactured muffins, sometimes called mini-muffins, come in a plastic pouch and are prone to taste oddly moist.

• Waffles in packs are very convenient for a lazy person, and as a general rule, lazy people tend to be patient.

• Although yogurt needs stirring, it is more or less ready to go for eating at home or travel. The difficulties include taking a spoon or spork to school or work¹.