“You really don’t eat eggs?!”
No, I don’t. To be clear, I eat eggs cooked into foods — like cakes, bread, and pasta — but a plate of scrambled eggs, or a frittata, or a hard boiled egg is not my thing. When I explain that, most people understand that there’s a certain texture or taste turn-off to eggs. They also empathize with the fact that some people have dietary restrictions to eggs, whether it be an allergy or a lifestyle choice like veganism. But to me, there’s a bigger question. Why do eggs dominate so much of the Western breakfast menu?
Why Eggs?
There are a couple of different historic reasons on why eggs are considered a breakfast food, and most of them lead back to the history of breakfast in general. The rise of a big, full breakfast came in the 1800s with the Industrial Revolution (I’ve found that almost everything leads back to this somehow). Workers needed food that was slow to metabolize, like protein and fat, to give them enough energy to work until dinner time. The best source of protein and fat comes from meat, which is why bacon and sausage are big breakfast foods. But eggs provide the same thing, just to a lesser degree, and they were and still are much cheaper. Another idea is that chickens lay eggs in the morning, so it made sense for farmers to grab them and eat a few for breakfast.
Breakfast has always been the meal of the working class, because those who didn’t have to work could eat big, lavish meals later in the day. These two big meals were largely unnamed on a universal level until recent history — lunch is also considered a working meal, something to eat while you had a short break at work. The concept that breakfast is the most important meal of the day didn’t come until the 19th century, with the rise of cereal and the discovery of some health findings that eating at the beginning of the day is good for digestion.
The Breakfast Cultural Differences
Eating habits, like number of meals, eating times, and what is eaten at each meal, varies a lot between cultures. Lots of countries still don’t have breakfast at all — besides coffee or something small like fruit — and stick to two main meals. In Greece, lunch is the biggest meal of the day at 2 to 3 p.m. before siesta, and then dinner isn’t until 9 to 10 p.m. This is also common in a lot of South American countries and some other European countries.
For countries that have adopted breakfast, the food is still very diverse, and a lot of them don’t include eggs. In Switzerland, breakfast is usually something small and focused on dairy and grain: yogurt or milk, fruit, and oatmeal or granola. In China, breakfast is made up of Dim Sum foods: noodle soups, buns, dumplings filled with meat, and fried vegetables.
I noticed these differences growing up with a Filipino dad and a white mom. My mom fed me cereal and toast and cooked scrambled eggs topped with cheese for my sisters. But my dad and my dad’s parents were used to eating rice with every meal, so my favorite breakfast growing up was rice topped with crumbled bacon or cut up sausage.
My Breakfast Menu
When I vacationed to the United Kingdom over the summer, I was thrilled to find that I had breakfast options that extended beyond eggs. My favorite breakfast was in Edinburgh at a Pret A Manger: brie, bacon, and caramelized onion chutney toasted on ciabatta. It was basically a fancy grilled cheese, and it was amazing.
When I sit down at a diner, most of my egg-less options are limited to sweet breakfast foods, like pancakes or waffles. Or if I’m at brunch with my friends, most of the breakfast items have eggs, so I’m pushed towards the lunch options, like a burger or a chicken sandwich. I am always happy to see avocado toast on the menu, but am sometimes disappointed when it comes with a sunny side up egg on top and get too embarrassed to order it without.
I have a vendetta against “breakfast foods,” because I think it’s pointless to categorize foods to certain times of the day. My safe haven right now is a ham and cheese croissant, which I can get at Dunkin’ and most other cafes. I am completely guilty of cold pizza for breakfast, but I have no shame heating up leftovers from last night’s dinner, like pasta or chicken. To me, breakfast is about whatever fuel I need to start my day, whether it’s some fruit to hold me over until the end of class, or a bigger meal to last me through a day of sports or other activities.