Pancakes, eggs, bacon & coffee. Hash browns optionals. Grits if you got 'em.

Toast, juice, milk, and yummy Cheerios.

Grits if you got 'em.

Not in the northeast.

I don't think there is a nationwide traditional American breakfast; it differs between regions of the country.

For me? Egg in a frame. (I make them 5 days a week.)

But generally, I'd say if you want the full experience with all variations: toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, milk, orange juice, coffee, and possibly grits. (I hate grits.)

I may need to go make up some pancakes, bacon, and eggs now. Hmm.

Not in the northeast. - You gotta look harder. I grew up in NW PA and my grandmother always made grits, with bacon grease on the side.

That's mid-atlantic, not northeast.

You know those sugary-cereal commercials where they say 'part of a complete breakfast'?

* Scrambled eggs with Tabasco sauce (or ketchup for the weak-tongued)
* Eggs over easy on toast with butter (and Tabasco sauce)
* Hash browns or country-fried potatoes (with Tabasco sauce and friend it butter or oil NOT shortening)
* A big stack of pancakes with lots of syrup
* Sausage AND bacon. I like the big round flat sausage by some people like the Denny's-style little fat sausages. Mix some of the egg yolk from the eggs-over-easy and the Tabasco sauce and use it as a sauce for your bacon and sausage.

My mom grew up in Chula Vista, CA, and until the age of 10 or so I thought everyone doused their eggs and sausage in Tabasco sauce...

Don't forget the biscuits and gravy.

I had oatmeal! Oatmeal is lovely for a snowy day.

The Apollo astronauts were served steak for breakfast, as is the Texas way. You could do worse.

I had Wheatina (made unAmerican by the addition of ricotta). I skipped the bacon after reading the Boss Hog link below.

I think I will have oatmeal or grits for lunch. hrm.

is there anything more american than this ? :P

Beer.

Corned Beef Hash!!!!!!!!

Alright...who was it here that mentioned Dutch Babies recently? Because I had never heard of one before, and was compelled to try my hand at making one this morning. It was awesome. So thank you to whoever introduced me to to the fluffy crusty yumminess.

You gotta look harder. I grew up in NW PA and my grandmother always made grits, with bacon grease on the side.

Ah, but where was she from?

If you grew up near me, then scrapple was a breakfast must-have (though not in my semi-kosher parents' house).

*Snowverkill*. . .as someone has named this storm. . .

My grandmother was also from NW PA. Her mother ground her own hominy. We occasionally had scrapple, but headcheese was the more common preparation with the pork organs ground into regular sausage.

I am a Maryland native. Grits are quite popular in all the little greasy spoon breakfast joints there. Cheese grits, honey grits, bacon grits, you name it. Keep in mind that Maryland is a border state, and D.C. in particular is quite Southern by influence.

Your "typical" American breakfast can and should combine some, if not most, of the following:

- 2 eggs, any style but typically over easy
- Bacon (the standard streak o' lean aka "rasher" style, not the UK or "Canadian" style smoked, sliced pork loin)
- Biscuits with "pan" gravy made from rendered bacon or sausage fat.
- Grits / hominy flavoured with butter, honey, cheese or bacon fat
- Fried potatoes of some description.
- Cheap orange mild cheddar cheese grated/melted over any / all of the above
- Pancakes with butter and maple syrup
- Toast with butter and cheap strawberry jam
- Watery, over-extracted "depression era" drip coffee
- Fresh squeezed orange juice

Regional variations and personal leanings can include: steak or "hashed" beef, any one of several dozen regional pork products, omelettes with regional filling blends and cheeses, regional fruit species (yes, Californians, that includes avocadoes), and any one of a constellation of tomato and/or chilli-based condiments.

In Colorado, for example, serving breakfast without a side of pork green chile and a bottle of Cholula is likely a felony. In California, it seems impossible to serve breakfast without avocadoes and sour cream making an appearance.

Oh man am I starving now lfr.

Actually, I'm surprised no one's mentioned French toast. That's always the backup for when people were like, "y'know, we've had pancakes 11 Sundays in a row. How about French toast?"

Mmm, French toast!

This weekend, I discovered that if I cut the bread slices into cubes, they absorbed more custard before cooking and carried more syrup after, had more of the oh-so-delicious surface area, and I could put them in a shallow bowl instead of on a plate, which meant I could write and eat French toast at the same time. It was the height of sloth and gluttony. I felt like a genius!

One regional breakfast I love is Maryland's creamed chipped beef on a waffle.

- Cheap orange mild cheddar cheese grated/melted over any / all of the above

... as well as the gravy.

I thought about French toast, but decided French toast AND pancakes was too much. Also, french toast was always something the kids could make with relative ease, so it was always a "mommy and daddy are too tired to cook you a hot breakfast" sort of food in my house.

So this is what I made, I could have done traditional New York breakfast, but I didn't have any sour cream or salmon, so ...

-home-made tiny pancakes with cooked apple chunks and heavy cream so they sank like bricks.
-Lean local bacon, overcooked of course
-Vermont grade B syrup
-Fried potatoes *in* the bacon grease smothered in herbs from my window box (chives, parley, thyme)
-One egg each, over easy, served on the top on top of buttered rye toast

it was all pretty good.

I just demolished some mini pancakes, bacon, and a cheese omelet. Nom.

Steak and eggs.