Breakfast wars between fast food restaurants have been heating up recently from Taco Bells waffle breakfast tacos to McDonalds giving away free coffee to Burger King deciding to sell their burgers and fries during breakfast hours. Wait, what, but that's not breakfast you say. Well, I say, it kind of is, why not, and why hasn't one of the fast food giants done it before now? (As a side note, at the 24 hour Subways you can still get any of their subs first thing in the morning too.) Breakfast has a long and varied history and is eaten differently in almost every country around the world. Here we've become accustomed to eggs, cereal, bacon, sausage, yogurt, toast, etc. as part of the first meal of the day. But as these foods have slowly crept into lunch and dinner so have other foods made their way into breakfast--donuts, pastries, steak, cheese, fruit--any number of sweet and savory things are considered acceptable to start your day, so why not a burger and fries.
I've travelled many places around the world and pretty much everyone of them does something different than we do for breakfast. Sure you can find coffee, juice, toast, eggs and stuff but many times that's an adjustment made for tourists (mostly American) so they can have something familiar in a foreign country. While there's nothing wrong with that, sometimes it's good to branch and try local treats, I mean if you are going to travel the food should be a part of the experience as well as the landmarks.
When I went to China way back when, I remember thinking after the first few mornings that what they had for breakfast was pretty much what they had for lunch and dinner. I saw more than my fair share of cooked meats, rice and bok choy. After a week it felt like every where I turned there was bok choy and rice over and over again. There was even a point I reached in Beijing where I just couldn't look at another plate of rice and whatever and jumped in a cab and fumbled my way through directing the driver to an Outback Steakhouse downtown. Not the most proud moment of immersive traveling but and a funny adventure I can always look back on. In China it was the repetition of the food for all 3 meals that got old. At least in other countries they vary things up a bit.
In Turkey it was like tapas with little bites of cheese, olives, spiced meats, cucumbers, tomatoes--like a picnic lunch. In Morocco it was different chutneys, butter and different kinds of bread or better yet you could get a lamb tangine stew. In the UK it's beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, black pudding, ham and the requisite eggs and sausage--okay it was more like a heart attack on a plate but still lots of different things. In Spain it was like a churro and hot chocolate--or pretty much that. In Isreal there was hummus and pita and cheese. In Austria there was boiled sliced deli ham and cheese. In Egypt you could get falafels. But you get the point, choices are rampant and meals are food and nourishment as opposed to "I must have cereal since it's breakfast."
Though seriously, who hasn't come home from a long day at work, school or whatever and thought--f**k it--I'm just gonna have cereal for dinner. Or better yet, back in college or school days, what was better than cold pizza the next morning while you are running off to your first class. In small ways we have subverted this idea of what is acceptable for breakfast, lunch and dinner over the years, thus the idea of a hamburger and fries isn't all that far of a stretch. Think of it this way--you've got your toasted bread (the bun) you've got some cooked meat and cheese, tomato is basically a fruit and you can just think of the fries as a different version of hash browns, after all they come from the same potato. And if worse comes to worse you can always just add an egg to your burger. Not only is it the trendy thing to do these days, but it can also make you not feel guilty about having a burger to start your day.
Thus I say yeah on Burger King for dropping this new trend in the breakfast wars and I hope it catches on and all the other places will eventually follow suit and we will all be able to satisfy our cravings for Big Macs, filet-o-fish, gorditas, BK broiler, whoppers, Dorito's tacos and all the rest no matter what time of day it is.
I've travelled many places around the world and pretty much everyone of them does something different than we do for breakfast. Sure you can find coffee, juice, toast, eggs and stuff but many times that's an adjustment made for tourists (mostly American) so they can have something familiar in a foreign country. While there's nothing wrong with that, sometimes it's good to branch and try local treats, I mean if you are going to travel the food should be a part of the experience as well as the landmarks.
When I went to China way back when, I remember thinking after the first few mornings that what they had for breakfast was pretty much what they had for lunch and dinner. I saw more than my fair share of cooked meats, rice and bok choy. After a week it felt like every where I turned there was bok choy and rice over and over again. There was even a point I reached in Beijing where I just couldn't look at another plate of rice and whatever and jumped in a cab and fumbled my way through directing the driver to an Outback Steakhouse downtown. Not the most proud moment of immersive traveling but and a funny adventure I can always look back on. In China it was the repetition of the food for all 3 meals that got old. At least in other countries they vary things up a bit.
In Turkey it was like tapas with little bites of cheese, olives, spiced meats, cucumbers, tomatoes--like a picnic lunch. In Morocco it was different chutneys, butter and different kinds of bread or better yet you could get a lamb tangine stew. In the UK it's beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, black pudding, ham and the requisite eggs and sausage--okay it was more like a heart attack on a plate but still lots of different things. In Spain it was like a churro and hot chocolate--or pretty much that. In Isreal there was hummus and pita and cheese. In Austria there was boiled sliced deli ham and cheese. In Egypt you could get falafels. But you get the point, choices are rampant and meals are food and nourishment as opposed to "I must have cereal since it's breakfast."
Though seriously, who hasn't come home from a long day at work, school or whatever and thought--f**k it--I'm just gonna have cereal for dinner. Or better yet, back in college or school days, what was better than cold pizza the next morning while you are running off to your first class. In small ways we have subverted this idea of what is acceptable for breakfast, lunch and dinner over the years, thus the idea of a hamburger and fries isn't all that far of a stretch. Think of it this way--you've got your toasted bread (the bun) you've got some cooked meat and cheese, tomato is basically a fruit and you can just think of the fries as a different version of hash browns, after all they come from the same potato. And if worse comes to worse you can always just add an egg to your burger. Not only is it the trendy thing to do these days, but it can also make you not feel guilty about having a burger to start your day.
Thus I say yeah on Burger King for dropping this new trend in the breakfast wars and I hope it catches on and all the other places will eventually follow suit and we will all be able to satisfy our cravings for Big Macs, filet-o-fish, gorditas, BK broiler, whoppers, Dorito's tacos and all the rest no matter what time of day it is.
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