Breakfast of Champions

I'm having strawberries for breakfast. Big - and I mean big - ripe, juicy, red strawberries. If there was a boy here it would be a very sexy experience, but it's just me in my jammies with a horribly stuffed up nose and incredibly puffy eyes. Damn allergies. It's not a pretty picture. At least I brushed my teeth.

As I devour my mutant strawberries, I can't help but think of how my breakfasts have changed over the years. Yes, I know it's a completely inane thing to contemplate, but at least it's keeping me somewhat lucid now that the Benadryl is starting to kick in. Breakfast is affected (or is it effected? I always get those mixed up) by many factors: age, location, finances, and of course - current trends. I'm sure there are others. Better to not get too deep with this. I'll stick with age, mostly.

When I was little, breakfast was the best meal of the day. I would race down the stairs at the crack of dawn, scamper into the kitchen, and behold the plethora of colorful cereal boxes filled with sugary goodness. Which would it be today? Crunch Berries? Count Chocula? Lucky Charms? Cheerios?!!? How did they get there?? Hmmmm...actually they aren't that bad once you dump a cup of sugar on them. Lucky Charms were my favorite. I would pick out as many of the marshmallow charms as possible so that when my brother came in he would get a bowl full of brown crunchy bits. Life was good.

In my middle and high school years, my eating habits were all over the map. I tried every diet there was to keep from going over 105 lbs. Anything over that caused complete meltdowns. All meat, all cheese, grapefruit before meals, hot water after them - whatever the current fad diet I was on was what dictated my morning meals. Until it was summer - then I would have nothing but watermelon. All watermelon all the time. Life was easy in summer.

In college, and culinary school, I was constantly surrounded by food. It became something I worked with, like clay, so I completely lost interest in actually consuming it. Unless a hangover was in play, then it was one of three things: a Dino's sub, cold pizza, or cold Chinese food. Otherwise, breakfast was the same everyday. Coffee and cigarettes. Breakfast of champions.

Now we come to the travel portion of the program - the mid 20's. Breakfast is now dictated by location. Europe pretty much followed along with college - coffee and cigarettes. Only the coffee is much stronger and the cigarettes much more expensive. Sometimes a roll was involved, but that was usually ignored. Breakfast was not only dictated by location, but also by funds. Hence the ignoring of the rolls.

Australia was a whole different story. Breakfast in Australia consisted of several choices: baked beans on toast, spaghetti on toast, Vegemite on toast, or a trip to the local fruit stand. I ate so many kiwis I'm actually allergic to them now. Things got better when I started working at the Blue Marina Cafe, then it was back to coffee and cigarettes. Again, strong and expensive. If I got to work early enough, I could attack the fresh from the oven scones. Otherwise I didn't bother with them, once you have had them fresh from the oven, you can't have them any other way.

Hong Kong is a blur. I don't really recall breakfast there. Or much else for that matter.

Now I eat whatever I feel like for breakfast. Sometimes I'm good and have Grape-Nuts and skim milk. Sometimes I'm bad and have pancakes and bacon. Sometimes I go out with my friends and have whatever strikes me at that moment. Sometimes I cook for me and my current squeeze. Cold pizza is still a big favorite, as is cold Chinese. Coffee and cigarettes - not so much now. I've given up the smokes and the caffeine seems to bother me more now that I'm older - see? Age is the key factor!

And then there are the days I just like to have a big bowl of mutant strawberries. So ....what's for lunch.....