Breakfast with Griffin ease
Six-year-old Griffin spent the morning with me. His mom had a doctor’s appointment and just a couple of minutes after she left he said that he was hungry.
"What would you like to eat?" I asked him.
"Pizza!" he answered, very enthusiastically.
I carefully explained to him that it was nine o’clock in the morning and that we do not eat pizza at nine o’clock in the morning. He heard me out completely, nodding in recognition and then with a slump of his little shoulders and a sigh of defeat he said, "Okay. Hot dog."
I did not feed him pizza or hot dog, because I just couldn’t get my breakfast mindset around it. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.
Why is a hot dog so different than a link sausage and a couple of pieces of toast?
Are there things in pizza that you wouldn’t put in your omelet?
I remember as a kid that occasionally we would have "breakfast night" at my house. Instead of a typical supper, my mom would fix pancakes or biscuits and gravy. Looking back, I imagine that the breakfast nights undoubtedly coincided with the end of the month or right before payday. But as a kid I had no sense of that. And the truth is, I really like pancakes better at night than in the morning.
I guess our food choices for specific meals is more a habit than anything else. General Mills pretty much invented breakfast cereal. Prior to that, I think breakfast looked a lot like any other meal. All meals were heavy on bread and since bread took a while to bake, quick breads, like biscuits and corn pone were more typical early in the morning. That was also the time to gather eggs, so maybe it made sense to eat them early or at least to eat the ones that were cracked. Working people ate meat if they had it. And with no refrigeration, ham and bacon cured with salt or sugar was convenient for just slicing off to go in a pan.
So it seems to me that what we eat for breakfast has probably almost nothing to do with health or diet or nutrition. And has everything to do with convenience, perception and tradition.
I’m sure if Griff were sixteen instead of six, he would have argued it just that way.
"What would you like to eat?" I asked him.
"Pizza!" he answered, very enthusiastically.
I carefully explained to him that it was nine o’clock in the morning and that we do not eat pizza at nine o’clock in the morning. He heard me out completely, nodding in recognition and then with a slump of his little shoulders and a sigh of defeat he said, "Okay. Hot dog."
I did not feed him pizza or hot dog, because I just couldn’t get my breakfast mindset around it. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.
Why is a hot dog so different than a link sausage and a couple of pieces of toast?
Are there things in pizza that you wouldn’t put in your omelet?
I remember as a kid that occasionally we would have "breakfast night" at my house. Instead of a typical supper, my mom would fix pancakes or biscuits and gravy. Looking back, I imagine that the breakfast nights undoubtedly coincided with the end of the month or right before payday. But as a kid I had no sense of that. And the truth is, I really like pancakes better at night than in the morning.
I guess our food choices for specific meals is more a habit than anything else. General Mills pretty much invented breakfast cereal. Prior to that, I think breakfast looked a lot like any other meal. All meals were heavy on bread and since bread took a while to bake, quick breads, like biscuits and corn pone were more typical early in the morning. That was also the time to gather eggs, so maybe it made sense to eat them early or at least to eat the ones that were cracked. Working people ate meat if they had it. And with no refrigeration, ham and bacon cured with salt or sugar was convenient for just slicing off to go in a pan.
So it seems to me that what we eat for breakfast has probably almost nothing to do with health or diet or nutrition. And has everything to do with convenience, perception and tradition.
I’m sure if Griff were sixteen instead of six, he would have argued it just that way.
posted by Pamela Morsi | 8:34 PM
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