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On the rare instances I abandon my coffee-till-noon routine, I tend to have scrambled egg sandwiches with either Pepperdeaux sauce or Jardine's Texas Champagne -- both saltier versions of Tabasco. Eating out implies breakfast tacos - either chorizo con huevo or chorizo con owens.

We try to do something a bit more special when we've got houseguests, though, and the last attempt was a deer sausage-and-egg scramble. I'm not a huge fan of breakfast, though, so that's pretty rare.

When I'm in Virginia, on the other hand, I go for tendeloin biscuits, country ham, or the more elaborate breakfast foods you find in the rural Southeast, like oyster stew. Mmmmmm...

Woss "con owens"? And are tenderloin biscuits made of dough, meat, or both? (BTW I don't advise ordering those in San Francisco.)

What are your feelings on fried mush? We learned to like it in Kentucky, where you could buy a tube of corn "mush" in the Winn-Dixie for a dollar. In California they'd take the very same tube of cooked corn, call it "polenta," and charge you three.

I have become my mother and don't eat breakfast (actually my mother has become me it would seem-- she now eats breakfast all the time), though I would like to get back into the habit, perhaps in September as my body likes to do new things in September from being trained to go back to school that month for years. When I do eat breakfast, it's cereal. But when I eat eggs, it's inevitably scrambled. I also enjoy omlettes of various sizes and types.

So what do they call "Canadian bacon" in Canada? If merely "bacon," then what do they call the fattier bacon eaten in the U.S.?

"Con owens" is how the taco trailers around here describe a mixture of scrambled eggs and pan breakfast sausage. Probably named after the Owens brand, though I have no idea why that particular brand would get Kleenexified in Tejano Spanish.

A tenderloin biscuit is a pan-fried slice of pork loin, served in a biscuit about the size of a grocery-store hamburger bun. Other biscuit fillings are pan sausage, country ham, and butter. Heavenly things.

Never tried fried mush, nor even heard of it. Is it basically grits?

Oddly enough, country ham is almost identical to what the English refer to as bacon, though it always seemed like the UK version had been soaked before it was fried.

Forgive my ignorance but I thought grits were actually made of rice. Not?

Maybe mush is a Kentucky thing. You buy it in the store in sausage-like rolls wrapped in plastic. AFAIK it's made just like you make polenta: boil four parts water with salt; add one part coarsely broken dried corn and a little butter; simmer and stir for 20 minutes; pour out some in a bowl to eat hot; pour the rest into a bread pan or other mold and cool overnight. Slice and fry in butter for breakfast.

Our approach -- California, yes -- is to drop whole chipotles and dried tomatoes into the cooking corn, & later bake the slices with grated cheese on top. But that's not exactly breakfast.

Thx re: biscuits and "con Owens." Do you also get the fancy thick-tortilla things like tlacoyos and chalupas?

I used to favour an organic boiled egg (one must never skimp on the quality of one's eggs) with hot buttered toast. I went through a cheese omelette thing last year: edam or mild cheddar, sliced tomatoes. When I awake after an evening of compulsively convivial behaviour, I favour what I call Volcano Eggs: scrambled eggs with Encona West Indian Hot Pepper sauce. Recently a friend became obsessed with making the Encona sauce without the additives and vineagar- which in their opinion, and I agree with them, were unpleasant additions to a magic sauce. She succeeded and I am now supplied with the home made sauce, which is outstanding.
I currently favour a poached egg on toast that has been buttered, spread with Marmite, then the Hot Sauce, then a sliced tomato then the egg followed by one small twist of rock salt and a light smattering of white pepper.
I'm happy to eat a decent breakfast and not much else during the day.
Getting back to eggs. Paul Johnson, the Right wing Catholic polemicist and historian recently argued in The Spectator that the egg was so perfect in shape and nutrition that it was clear evidence of God. He countered food faddy fuddy-duddies saying that yes, eggs had a whack of cholesterol in them but he liked eating one every morning and, paraphrasing, bollocks to it; he argued risk was part of life.
All breakfasts of chilli-seasoned eggs, should be accompanied by a small glass of cold tomato juice, followed by a mug of tea made to the Golden Rules.

Cornflakes during the week. On Saturday or Sunday, either some variation on the Full Monty or steak and poached eggs with spinach and Hollandaise sauce at the local brunch place.

ROBBIE, how's this Encona stuff different from Tabasco? Sounds like something I might like to try.

Please tell me the Full Monty recipe with the twelve large organic eggs, two black puddings and eight sausages is intended to serve more than one.

Olive oil on breakfast food, really?

Well Encona is made from Scotch Bonnet Peppers and harabenero peppers. It has varieties- the Bajun one (that's from Barbados) has mustard in it. The ordianry one is the one I like. It's got a big kick to it but there are other flavours in it. It has a nice afterburn in the mouth and goes especially well spread on toast with a poached egg on top. You can also use it in other cooking and it becomes addictive. check this: http://www.enconasauces.co.uk/flavour.asp

When at home, breakfast is coffee and/or a live yoghurt drink. If feeling leisurely, I'll have brown toast with Marmite.

When recovering in a cafe, I have the vegetarian all-day breakfast: hash browns, white toast, baked beans, fried or scrambled eggs, veggie sausages, fried mushrooms. With HP sauce. One favourite biker cafe here lets me swap the fried tomatoes all cafes insist on including in their fry-ups for an extra veggie sausage.

Travelling in Europe, breakfast is always pastries and coffee. In the US, I'm a total sucker for a pancake stack with nuts, bananas and syrup. And coffee.

I go for omelettes. It's extremely rare to find a decent omelette in the US. Luckily there's a place down the street that does them perfectly. My own technique still isn't so great. Been practicing off-and-on for some time. Don't much care what's in them as long as the eggs are done right.

Otherwise scrambled eggs and chorizo.

They have biker cafes in the UK? What kind of bikers?

And what's the attraction of Marmite?

Marmite tastes good. A marketing campaign here by Marmite showed people being violently repelled by the stuff and others going mad for it. 'You either love it or hate it' was the inevitable tag.

Harley's is a biker cafe in Devon which has been around since the early 70s. Not as full of bikers as it used to be (they own a pub on my street now instead), but still good. The most famous biker cafe in the UK is the legendary Ace cafe in London: http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/

Marmite is yummy goodness: a salty, sour spread for toast loaded with vitamins.

Thanks for the link, ROBBIE. I'll have to check it out, as I've never tried anything with Scotch Bonnets.

Martha, I've never heard of a tlacoyo, and "chalupa" here is a purely tex-mex thing. From the description, they sound a bit like a gordita, but I've never seen one of those at breakfast time.

You folks are making me hungry, and you hit a nerve: breakfast and eggs. So hi nice to meet ya and sorry for the long response!

You should see the evil concoction we have in Japan known as om-rice: bland too-perfect egg over ketchupy rice, or worse, ketchupy rice with unfrozen peas. *Shudder*

Japanese rolled-omelets or rice bowls with various combinations of egg, broth and seafood or chicken, on the other hand, are heaven.

For breakfast, soft-boiled egg with tabasco is the way to go. Probably I am alone on this one so I shouldn't criticize om-rice. I do, however make a heckuva eggs benedict and huevos rancheros to die for. Migas are good too. I mean eggs with black beans and salsa, basically.

Can't tell the difference between marmite and veggiemite. They're both good anyway.

But usually? Miso soup and rice. Would do pickled herring too if I had some. You're mom is right of course, it's just that I'm 15 hours off schedule.

You really eat miso soup for breakfast? Wow.

yes i think i'll go have some now. oishiiiiiii!

I really did eat pickled herring for breakfast s'morning. Had to go to court. Couldn't face court without protein. Brushed my teeth like mad afterwards. Hope the law & motion clerk didn't mind too much.

Am feeling btw an additional necessity to point out that the wages of sin is kippers.