Morning Foods for Day and Night

Morning foods are comforting, gentle foods. Simple eggs, baked goods, warm cereals, and soft, soothing cheese dishes are foods we often associate with breakfast and morning, which is, for many people, the fragile time of day. There are also breakfast foods that are far more dynamic and sturdy, such as green chili omelets, hash, biscuits and gravy, and that sort of thing, but generally they’re for a bit later, when the day has begun to roll and you’ve already had coffee.

Probably because breakfast is soothing and familiar, it is taken at any hour. Many people I know take a certain pleasure in eating pancakes and eggs for supper—certainly my university days included innumerable midnight breakfasts at pancake houses with friends, and long road trips always include breakfast at odd hours. For some families a pancake and egg supper on Sunday night, at the close of the weekend, is a tradition. Brunch is a concept intent on confusing conventions regarding what’s eaten when. Teenagers I know don’t seem to mind eating muffins or cold cereal just before dinner—or in place of it. Conversely, some of us like eating leftover pasta or vegetable dishes for breakfast, cereal and yogurt for lunch, then a more conventional dinner. Food boundaries are really very flexible.