A big hearty southern breakfast

I recall the movie My Cousin Vinny. Set in Alabama, Vinny is shocked when he sees the guy in the restaurant making breakfast with a huge laddle full of butter “Haven’t you heard of the ongoing cholesterol problem in the country” he asks. I got to experience this in reality this weekend!

I have always known that southerners are fabled to eat hearty meals. I have seen it in the movies read about it in the books but was yet to experience it! I am a light eater in the morning. Coming from a culture where the mid day meal is the heartiest packed with loads of carbs and centered around eating a lot of white rice, I have followed this all my life. I start my day with a glass of water and then rush through a small tiny bowl of cereal after an hour or maybe 1 banana and a coffee! I have never been able to eat more than that. Now my lunch is bound to have bowl after bowl of white rice with spicy concoctions and a side of vegetables. I am a vegetarian, so I have to fill up on this to survive, that is my excuse!

This Saturday however I had to make another trip on the quest for “that elusive flu vaccine ” (more on that later) and couldn’t fit a breakfast into my schedule. So after struggling with my 5 year old and that flu vaccine, we made a trip to a diner for we were famished! We were handed a 4 page bound menu for breakfast! I looked incredulously at the hubs who was struggling to understand the multitude of combo’s and sides that we could possibly have. I never knew there were so many options for breakfast trust me! The hubs likes to have a hot breakfast and it usually comprises of toast and maybe if we have the energy a couple of scrambled eggs! This is our idea of hot breakfast. On weekends I make the exception and make some rice pancakes a la Indian style and I think I have excelled myself. And here I was staring at at least a 2 dozen options for breakfast and was almost having a dizzying fit! My 5 yr old however was unfazed as he decided to have an egg and some fresh fruit!

I on the other hand ordered a combo and if I was a camel I wouldn’t have had to eat for the next 15 days. There were the grits resting in enough butter to coat all my stomach and intestine I assure you. Haven’t heard of grits? Its a porridge made of corn! Looking at the butter I raised an eyebrow at the hubs and asked if we better call emergency before we have that heart attack? This was followed by a plate of roasted potatoes that oozed oil, 3 scrambled eggs with mushrooms, spinach, cheese and grease, some buttered toast that literally melted in my mouth and a big bowl of fruits followed by a large glass of juice to help drown all that cholesterol! I refused the ham, or I would have had that resting on my plate too! And now I know what a big hearty southern breakfast is! I was left looking around in amazement at all the people who sat around me and ate that meal unfazed! I was seen peering into a lady’s plate to make sure she got all that butter too.. but I am sure they all ran home from the diner. Me, I sat in my car and went home to stretch in front of the television and try to ingest those 2000 calories of breakfast, while my rice cooker was cooking up a big bowl of rice for lunch! Sigh!

(Note: The picture courtesy of google images does not describe my hearty southern meal as the egg portion is a lot smaller as are the bread. The fruits are missing too.. ) Makes you want to try a big hearty southern meal doesn’t it? For all the cholesterol I assure you the meal tastes absolutely heavenly even if it left me with a pounding headache as my stomach tried to process all that fat for the rest of the day!

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