Mother may have eaten whatever was available for her to eat at all hours of the day. I imagine with as many children and responsibilities she had when the children were young, Mother often had very little time to feed herself. I’m sure she did what many moms do in this situation, they just cram whatever is on hand and easy to prepare, best choices are those things that require no preparation at all, like crackers, leftovers, or fruit.
Moms, then, can have no neat categories for what constitutes breakfast, lunch or dinner foods. And, this for me begs the question: why do we have these categories in general? These categories are somewhat culturally determined, like for example, fried eggs are found on various Vietnamese rice, meat and vegetables dishes served on dinner menus. In certain parts of China rice is primarily what’s eaten for breakfast and in Nigeria, corn-based porridge is enjoyed by some for their morning meal. In Trinidad, lunch is the largest meal of the day, much like what those in the U.S. would have at dinnertime.
I am fascinated by social constructions about what should be eaten when. Especially, when those choices stop people from choosing to eat what they want to, when they want to eat it. It’s an infringement on individual freedom to be told that you can’t have roast chicken at breakfast or an omelet for dinner. I would think that in the land of the free and the home of the brave, people would cringe at the thought of having their independence curtailed in any way. But, I have never heard anyone complain that she couldn’t buy her favorite Thai dish at breakfast from a restaurant. What I hear more, when I share with someone that I had my leftover Indian food for breakfast is,
“Yuck! How could you eat that for breakfast?”
That’s why this week I wanted to play with mealtime expectations by serving burgers for breakfast, the more traditional breakfast choice, hash browns and even a dessert. I enjoyed the meal alone before church and had more than enough for my beau and his friend who was joining him that morning. His friend was at first a bit put off by the fact that there were burgers for breakfast but when he ate them, he sang another tune. The burgers were soft, creamy, sweet and a little spicy with the pineapple, cheese and chopped jalapenos that were mixed into the ground meat. The zucchini tomato relish with the poached egg meant that there were no condiments needed in addition for the burger. The tomato and onion hash browns were the perfect accompaniment, a bit tart and tangy, the chopped, fresh tomatoes and fried onions, complementing each other and bringing out the best in the burgers. Having brownies for breakfast may seem wrong to some but adding goat cheese to them makes it more breakfast friendly to even the most discriminating, I think. Plus, washing it down with a mango herb smoothie is not only good for you but combining an herb with fruit in a blended breakfast drink, was to me a nod to taking something traditionally used with lunch and dinner, basil and putting it into a more typical breakfast ingredient – mango.
Maybe one day, we can recreate mealtime identity and change food culture with brunchinner foods that can be served at anytime of the day, without criticism for being the wrong food at the wrong time. The following menu, then, would be a step in that direction, towards self-determination and food freedom for all.
MENU
Tropical Burgers with Poached Eggs and Tomato Zucchini Relish
