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How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

americantable.org

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Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#81

Post by hfsktr »

jonnathanson wrote: post #35
gxs wrote: post #6

I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's amazing how many of our american "traditions" are a result of marketing. While there is nothing inherently bad about this, it definitely gives me a sense that something is not authentic when I come to learn it was the result of a marketing campaign. This bacon and eggs breakfast is just one example. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is another. Can anyone recall any othe…

Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deoderant Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmark Ex) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman%27s_lunch (UK example)

The first two are fine by me. Sadly a lot of the teens I meet (younger siblings) think that soaking themselves in Axe means they don't smell.

With a history like Listerine's I'm surprised I've never come across a chain email about it [1 (the margarine section)].

[1] http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#82

Post by debacle »

bluedino wrote: post #75
rayiner wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin has ~300 calories, which is a perfectly reasonable breakfast. The obesity epidemic has nothing to do with bacon and eggs, either home cooked or from McDonalds. They're so rich its hard to eat enough to blow your calorie budget. The problem is french fries (500 for a large order at McD's), soda (~150 per can), pasta, etc. Nobody would order their hamburger with a side of steak, but a…

>> A Bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin has ~300 calories And aside from the sodium and cholesterol that might be a reasonable breakfast. It's no bowl of oatmeal or banana, but it's not going to make you fat. On the other hand, a sausage+egg+cheese McGriddle is going to be 500 calories, two hashbrowns is another 300, and an orange juice is going to be another 200. You've hit 1,000 calories, half your allotment for the d…

Most of those calories are not from fat or protein, but from sugars, which was the GP's point.

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#83

Post by debacle »

Fuzzwah wrote: post #17

One of the most disappointing things I ran into when I moved from Australia to the US was American bacon. Oh how I miss Australian bacon: http://3hourspast.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/picture-28.png Because to me, American bacon is just the crappy bit which is attached to the awesome bit. http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/bacon.jpg

Don't buy cheap bacon? I can get hand-cut bacon at my grocery store that looks a lot better than the bacon you posted in your first picture.

America's food politics create strange ripples around our food economy which make buying locally or more healthy seem difficult or irrational, because the price of bad food that has traveled a long way is artificially deflated.

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#84

Post by debacle »

grecy wrote: post #31
Fuzzwah wrote: post #17

One of the most disappointing things I ran into when I moved from Australia to the US was American bacon. Oh how I miss Australian bacon: http://3hourspast.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/picture-28.png Because to me, American bacon is just the crappy bit which is attached to the awesome bit. http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/bacon.jpg

I'm in the same boat. Keep your eyes out for "Canadian bacon". It's not identical to Aussie bacon, but it's pretty damn close, and lots of supermarkets in the US carry it (being that it's foreign, and-all) Don't get me started on what I would do for a good meat pie, sausage roll, or fish and chips. I haven't been home in 7.5 years...

Where do you live that you can't get any of those things? Sausage rolls and meat pies are winter staples where I live (in the US).

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#85

Post by jl6 »

beachstartup wrote: post #15
binarymax wrote: post #13

Bacon is one of the few things that I refuse to eat. I don't understand how anyone likes the stuff. It makes me wonder, if the all-American breakfast was a bowl of fruit and a glass of milk, would there have been an obesity epidemic?

> I don't understand how anyone likes the stuff. i can see how someone wouldn't want to eat bacon (for a variety of reasons, health, veganism, sodium intake, religion.... lots of things), but i can't see how they "don't understand" how anyone likes bacon. it's primarily fat and salt. how is this a huge mystery to you? you REALLY don't undersatnd how a fatty, salty pork product is popular? _REALLY_?

"I don't understand" is an idiom in which the user feigns ignorance in order to paint an opinion as so irrational that the only explanation for it being held must be some unknown mitigating factor. With the holder of the opinion typically absent, no such mitigating factor is offered, and through a kind of proof by contradiction, the user hopes to score a victory for his opposing viewpoint without having to actually come up with any arguments.

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#86

Post by bane »

nsenifty wrote: post #73
bane wrote: post #42

A bit of hyperbole, but having married into an East Asian household and spent lots of time traveling around the world, I'm soundly convinced that a well defined breakfast meal, with its own traditions, foods and culinary style, is one of the greatest inventions of western civilization. I have to question this article because the American breakfast is pretty much just a local variant on the traditional full breakfast…

Have you tried Indian breakfast? https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=indian+breakfast

Thanks! I appreciate Indian food quite a bit when I can get it even if I don't know much about it.

So I took a look here http://blog.mahindrahomestays.com/a-taste-of-india-typical-i... and some of these look like they'd be nice diversions every once in a while.

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#88

Post by beachstartup »

jl6 wrote: post #85
beachstartup wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand how anyone likes the stuff. i can see how someone wouldn't want to eat bacon (for a variety of reasons, health, veganism, sodium intake, religion.... lots of things), but i can't see how they "don't understand" how anyone likes bacon. it's primarily fat and salt. how is this a huge mystery to you? you REALLY don't undersatnd how a fatty, salty pork product is popular? _REALLY_?

"I don't understand" is an idiom in which the user feigns ignorance in order to paint an opinion as so irrational that the only explanation for it being held must be some unknown mitigating factor. With the holder of the opinion typically absent, no such mitigating factor is offered, and through a kind of proof by contradiction, the user hopes to score a victory for his opposing viewpoint without having to actually c…

you generally don't say "i don't understand why..." for things that are obviously understandable. you usually use it for things that are inexplicably broken in some way.

"i don't understand why they can't move these things 2 inches to the left"

"i don't understand why the entrance to this parking garage is blocked by trash cans every tuesday"

"i don't understand why they can't make this app remember your login"

"i don't understand why you can't change the temperature on this thermostat"

"i don't understand why anyone likes bacon"

hmm.. which of these is not like the others?

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#89

Post by rayiner »

bluedino wrote: post #75
rayiner wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin has ~300 calories, which is a perfectly reasonable breakfast. The obesity epidemic has nothing to do with bacon and eggs, either home cooked or from McDonalds. They're so rich its hard to eat enough to blow your calorie budget. The problem is french fries (500 for a large order at McD's), soda (~150 per can), pasta, etc. Nobody would order their hamburger with a side of steak, but a…

>> A Bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin has ~300 calories And aside from the sodium and cholesterol that might be a reasonable breakfast. It's no bowl of oatmeal or banana, but it's not going to make you fat. On the other hand, a sausage+egg+cheese McGriddle is going to be 500 calories, two hashbrowns is another 300, and an orange juice is going to be another 200. You've hit 1,000 calories, half your allotment for the d…

Right, but out of those 1,000 calories, the sausage, egg, and cheese is probably only 200. The vast majority of the calories in that meal comes from sugar and carbs. The maple flavoring on the McGriddle is equivalent to a strip of bacon by itself. The two hash browns are another six strips of bacon, and the orange juice is another four. Nobody would add 11 strips of bacon to their sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich, but will happily add the equivalent calories in carbs and sugar.

Re: How ‘Bacon and Eggs’ Became the American Breakfast

#90

Post by bane »

oftenwrong wrote: post #79
bane wrote: post #42

A bit of hyperbole, but having married into an East Asian household and spent lots of time traveling around the world, I'm soundly convinced that a well defined breakfast meal, with its own traditions, foods and culinary style, is one of the greatest inventions of western civilization. I have to question this article because the American breakfast is pretty much just a local variant on the traditional full breakfast…

not everyone agrees http://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2010/03/in-praise-o...

Ha! Some of this looks quite a bit like what my in-laws serve for breakfast.

I don't mean to poo-poo it too much. I love this kind of food for lunch and dinner. But it starts my day off all wrong having it for breakfast.

My wife totally didn't get it, but it all came to a head one morning when we were out vacationing at the sea side and woke up with some friends to go find some breakfast. I'd try to go along and eat whatever we could scrounge up but after 14 days of cold fish and soup for breakfast I was past accommodating. We kept driving past perfectly open bakeries or places that might serve milder food stuffs and landed at pretty much the 180 degree polar opposite of a full-English, a pork-intestine soup (and some other misc pork parts) restaurant. [1]

Normally, I find this soup perfectly fine. But as a heavy lunch or dinner foodstuff. Not a breakfast thing - ever.

I lost it, I sat there in stoic fuming silence while everybody else ate their fill. My wife wondering why I wasn't eating anything -- leaving my entire meal untouched. We left, and I gave her an ear full until we stopped at a bakery where I got myself some decent pastries and some very so-so coffee. (reversing roles, my wife frequently has a similar food crisis in various countries we've visited and we've spent hours hunting down something she'll eat. Turns out there really are Chinese restaurants everywhere and that's "close enough" to get her through the day.)

When we finally made it back home to the States, I gorged myself at diners and IHOPs and all day breakfast places for 3 or 4 days until I felt like I was truly back in a civilized land.

1 - See #3 Sundaeguk http://travel.cnn.com/seoul/eat/5-korean-ways-eat-pig-231893

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