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We started importing a great chocolate and there are many good Mexican chocolates out there (oK, a few) like Mayordomo. WHat's the best way to make this drink. My memory from Mexican visits is that's it's a thickish drink, almost a gruel, with masa and chocolate. I just received the book Muy Bueno, which makes all sorts of claims about authenticity and traditionalism (danger signs, in my mind) and the recipe for champurrado is almost like a thinner than thin chocolate milk. What is the way to make it from somewhere like Oaxaca or Chiapas? (This book is pretty and well-intentioned but it's really about Mexicano-American food from a Texas family. It's not Tex Mex, it's close to Norteño but it's not all that interesting or essential. The thin champurrado and the fact that the chiles aren't toasted makes me not want to explore the rest of the book much)

It's possible I'm the last to hear about this trick, or perhaps it's really as clever as it seemed to me when I saw it yesterday. I was at a street fair for my son's school and one of the booths was selling pancakes. The chef/owner of the restaurant Kitchenette was cooking pancakes on a charcoal grill. Rather than using a cast-iron skillet or heavy cast-iron griddle, she had laid several inverted aluminum sheet pans over the grill and was using those as a griddle surface. The pancakes came out great, so the idea is valid at least in this application. Not-great cell-phone photo:

Just last night, I decided I had to have cornmeal pancakes with my dinner...don't ask me why. So I followed the recipe on a freshly opened package of Bob's Red Mill Coarse Grind cornmeal, and using that same coarse ground cornmeal, made a batch. They were okay, good even, but I felt that the coarse ground cornmeal didn't soften enough and created a texture in the pancakes that I didn't love. Then I started leafing through a few of my cookbooks (which isn't always the greatest idea, cause once I get started...). Most, if not all of the recipes I came across, call for yellow or white cornmeal, but don't specify the grind; they are, however, fairly close to the proportions on the Bob's bag. So...do you make cornmeal pancakes? Are they called flapjacks? Johnnycakes? What's your recipe? And, how do you use them? Breakfast? Sweet or savory? Tell me everything you know, please.

So, I'm a newly minted teacher and am now living in a very small town some 600km inland from Sydney, slowly getting into country town life and working out how to survive teenagers in the wild. At my new school (like at all the schools I've done professional experiences at) there is a weekly morning tea for teachers. Here it's hosted by a different faculty every Friday recess on a four week rotation and it's something we all look forward to. I would love to hear any ideas or suggestions you might have for things to bring. In the common room we have an oven and a microwave, so I can do some limited reheating, but i prefer to keep it fairly simple and not too messy, as forks and plates are at a premium! I also don't have a fully equipped kitchen here yet (most of it is still in Sydney), although I do have my kitchenaid and a mini-processor and most of my baking pans, including a brand new mini muffin tin. Some of the things I have seen here and elsewhere include sausage rolls and party pies, mini quiches, purchased biscuits/cookies and cakes, cut-up chicken, chips or crackers and dip, cut up fruit (there's been watermelon every Friday at the moment as it's grown here), cheese and a few simple cakes. And someone brought curried egg sandwiches last week which disappeared in a flash. I also have a faculty meeting every second Tuesday afternoon which I'd like to bring something too, as we are usually all starving by then! They are all interested in the fact I'm originally from Canada, so I'd especially like any suggestions that seem particularly Canadian or at least north American. Keep in mind that I can't get many north American products here (ie graham crackers, flavoured baking chips, jet-puff marshmallows) but I can usually find a substitute. Mind you, considering all roads east of us are closed due to flooding, I may not be able to get any products at all if the rain keeps up! On my list of potential candidates so far are: Buttertarts Nanaimo bars Brownies (already a hit in my staff room and at a pre-deluge BBQ) Blondies Chocolate chip cookies (I use Abra's recipe in recipe gullet) Devilled eggs Any good suggestions? Ideally I'd like to take two things along each turn, plus something on ocassional Tuesdays. In return I'm happy to let you know what does turn up on the menu (fairy bread, honey jumbles, etc).

We're throwing a small birthday party brunch for my wife's dad's 80th birthday. By small, I literally mean no more than 15 people - all family. I'm looking for some ideas to fill in the menu, which will center around all sorts of goodies from Russ & Daughters. I'm going to be serving: Smoked salmon - 2 or 3 kinds, and maybe even some belly lox ('cause that's what Sig Eater really loves), or gravalax. Pickled herring in cream sauce and plain pickled herring (hey, it's Russ & Daughters, remember?) Whitefish Salad - it's Russ & Daughters, remember? Maybe some smoked sable or sturgeon Bagels, bialys, various cream cheeses, sliced tomato, olives Pickles - because they're around the corner too. As for what I'm actually producing: Potato pancakes with creme fraiche, chives and salmon caviar Frittata of herbs and parmesan Fancy green salad Cucumber salad - you know, the pickled kind Fruit salad or just some nice sliced fruit - the strawberries from Florida and the blueberries from Chile I've been getting have actually been quite good. Now the cake...I've toyed with the idea of actually baking the cake, and it would be chocolate layer cake. My pastry and baking teacher was Nick Malgieri, and when I was in school, I was a pretty good baker. But, that was a long time ago, and the experiments I tried this past weekend led me to believe that it would be best to order the cake, which I will. The annoying thing is that I've spent about as much on baking apparatus and supplies as the darn cake will cost me - but now I'll be able to fool around with cakes for regular dinners and just for fun. I'll probably bake some cookies and was also toying with the idea of making some rugelach. Of course, there will be freshly brewed coffee and espresso, for those annoying enough to ask for it. Plenty of juices, too. So, what would you add?

Hola Gulleteers, My wife and I are opening a breakfast restaurant in Rock Hill, SC in a few weeks. The place has been closed since August and looks like it. We have a lot of clean up to do before we open and wanted to share the hard work in photo. I would love to hear ya'lls suggestions fro decor, food, etc. My background is high end though I have worke breakfast as well. I love eggs and feel like they don't get much attention so.....Ladies and Gentlemen The Yolk Cafe "A Love Affair with eggs"!!!!!!

I came across something that might interest other Mexico aficionados... http://www.gourmet.com/search/query?keyword=mexican+mornings&

Sous Vide Scrambled Eggs with Sourdough Toast. It's becoming a regular these days. Lovely texture from the eggs. I followed Mr.Myhrvold's recipe using 2 whole eggs and one yolk, with grated gruyere. (NOTE FROM MANAGEMENT: This discussion is a continuation of the original Breakfast! topic).

I think today was possibly the first time I've ever made French toast. I don't think it came out all that well. Eggy, soggy, not flavorful. Can I get a quick tutorial on the basic method? I've searched older topics that cover French toast but they're generally a lot more ambitious than what I'm looking to learn right now. I just want the basics on how to make French toast that isn't lousy.

Realized the other day while at breakfast that all pancake toppings are not created equal. Now i pose the question what do you put on your pancakes? Personaly i load up with butter and either fruit flavored syrup or jam.

I just made my first cereal milk ice cream which tasted great, but the finished product was half of what I expected. Everything looked fine for quantity until I churned it and then there was half of what I normally would have. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this and had this happen and how to fix it. Do I make a batch of twice as much, which I would have to make the ice cream in two batches, or maybe reduce the cereal? Not sure about that because the flavor is there. Would it diminish the taste if I reduce the cereal? Churn more or less? I'm really at a loss on this since this is my first cereal ice cream. I've done other ice creams and never had this happen. Thanks.

I've started to try and work out a good recipe for my own breakfast sausage but so far I've had some problems. First, my sausage always seems to come out rubbery. I am achieving primary bind with a paddle in my KA. I am fanatical about keeping everything cold and generally follow the steps in Ruhlman's breakfast sausage. I understand the importance of this step in forming a cohesive sausage but it seems to run counter to the process for forming non-rubbery patties (i.e. minimal working to maintain space within the patty). Is this just a matter of finding the right balance in the primary bind step or are there other things I should do? Would finding a larger die so that I can chop the meat coarser help? Would adding more water during the primary bind step help promote tenderness? Secondly, I am finding that most breakfast sausages contain a lot of ingredients. Is there a better way to work through a lot of permutations than just making a lot of microbatches and changing one ingredient at a time? I was thinking maybe cooking up some completely unseasoned (except for salt) pork stock and then adding different ratios of ingredients until I found a good mix. If I found the right ratio between the ingredients, then it would just be a matter of finding the right ratio of ingredient mix to ground pork.

So what's the difference? I have a couple of specimens of each here and mostly it just seems like the Irish breakfast is stronger. Is there an official position?

I am a southern American and thus have a very specific idea of what breakfast should be. I need eggs, some form of cured pork, a bread item, and preferably grits. Period. Having pastries or a brioche muffin is about as far as I can go outside my norm and still enjoy it. I view cereal as something I can eat in addition to the eggs etc... if I'm really hungry. I never eat cereal by itself at breakfast time. I am a very adventurous eater and enjoy foods from all over the world yet I find myself completely intransigent at breakfast time. It is completely offputting to me to think about having soup (as some Asian cultures do) or beans (like is often seen in the UK) at that time of day. I didn't even eat cold pizza for breakfast as many of my friends in college did. I know I'm not alone in this because when talking to friends who are coming back from abroad, they always mention how much they missed breakfast and don't understand how this or that culture eats _______ for breakfast. Why is breakfast different from other meals in terms of people's willingness to try something outside their regional norm? Edited to Clarify

This bowl of cinnamon Life is delicious -- for about three minutes, at which point it goes from crunchy to soggy with amazing speed. I love it for those three minutes, but some mornings I want something that lasts a bit longer. It seems to me that there are dozens of these sorts of rapidly soggifying breakfast cereals out there. But what are your go-to brands for long-lasting crunch?

I'd really like to take my wife out for a nice breakfast on Valentines day. She loves pancakes and pattisseries and pork based based breakast options, but onlyif they're from free-range pigs (recent convert from veggie-dom). Does anyone have any good reccomendations?

I have been placed on a liquid diet for the near future. I am consuming my weight in cream of name your vegetable soups, sorbet, Ensure, and other options during the day. I am running short on ideas for breakfast. The key rules are no chunks at all, no seeds of any kind (even berry seeds can be a trip to the ER), and must be liquid enough to drink from a cup. Smoothies are an option, but I want to hear other thoughts. Thanks! Dan ETA... yes, I have a vitamix and it be well used.

I've begun appreciating the benefits of pickles at breakfast. In particular, I have been enjoying having a few pickled jalapeños with my scrambled eggs and English muffin in the morning; if there's a bit of monterey jack cheese around, I might toss that on, too. Breakfast here tends to be a pretty rich affair when it's savory, what with eggs, bacon, hash, and the like. A pickle cuts right through that as a tasty contrast. I know that the Japanese figured this pickle for breakfast thing out long ago; makes me wonder if keeping some oshinko around would be a good idea. Anyone else out there eating pickles for breakfast?

Whether it's oatmeal, 7 or 10-grain cereal or another hot cereal that I'm stovetop cooking for breakfast, I like to add in a few things while the cereal is cooking. Lately, I've been going with assorted dried fruits, cut up if needed (like apricots) or whole (like cherries, cranberries, raisins). Do you have any favorite add-ins when and if you make hot cereal?

I'm flying into Newcastle with some friends next week, and spending the night in Durham before heading to the Pennines for a week. Can anyone recommend anywhere for a good breakfast? I'm thinking primarily of a good fry-up (I've only had one since I moved to Germany two years ago), but preferably somewhere where they take more care than in the average greasy spoon. And other suggestions are also very much appreciated, if the food makes a visit worthwhile. Alternatively, since we're not pushed for time and have use of a relatively well-equipped kitchen, can anyone recommend a good butcher's or other source of good-quality eggs and meat? It's years since I had a good-quality, oatmeal-based black pudding. In both cases, recommendations in easy reach (by foot) of the city centre would be much appreciated.

My kids are just like me. We'd rather have leftover curry, enchiladas, etc. for breakfast. Something savory, preferably spicy. Cold cereal (the stuff in the boxes) is advertised as breakfast food. We prefer it late at night, instead of dessert (brownies, pie, cake, etc.). Should it be topped with ice cream instead of milk, that's just fine. We, unless it's a chocolate variety like Coco Puffs, prefer an unsweetened cereal, with no added sugar. Perhaps some dried fruit, but again, sugar need not apply. Are we alone in that 10:00 pm cereal craving?

Any recommendations on a $15 per person Sunday Brunch spot in Midtown that is compatible for children before going to the Zoo? Continental Cuisine preferred.

A group of us does Father's Day brunch. Previously we've gone to The Restaurant in Hackensack (great), Arthur's Landing (great; still sad about them closing), Chart House (very good). We're thinking of Essex County this year. One of the group does not like The Manor so any other interesting ideas for a really nice brunch spot?

I'm guessing that its probably just a result of these difficult economic times. I was recently in Orlando Florida. I went to the first Waffle House I had ever been to almost forty years ago. It was on Lee Road just off of Interstate 4. I was shocked to see that it was closed. The next morning I went to the one in Sanford which I had been going to for breakfast for the better part of thirty years. It too had been closed. I have to believe that these aren't the only ones. Given the state of the economy, I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised but I was.

Of all my past experiences, I'd have to say that the one I rue the most is my involvement with the Waffle House as a Manager Trainee and then Unit manager. From the very beginning the relationship cost me more than it was worth. I had just moved to Atlanta and had moved in to the spare bedroom of my brother's apartment. As I was searching for gainful employ, I responded to an ad in the Atlanta Journal-constitution. I had at the time just separated from four years of service in the Marines as a Food Service Specialist (cook) and it was the base of my experience. The ad as it turns out was from AAA Employment. I had no experience with these kinds of services and quickly found myself being taken advantage. I interviewed twice, once with a management recruiter for Waffle House and then with my future division manager Jim H. We negotiated a salary and the fee for AAA was supposedly added to it. Once I accepted the terms and had started the training program, AAA contacted me wanting their money right away. Waffle House had pulled a bait and switch! I discovered after I had started, that the "Salary" we negotiated was simply the basis upon which a hourly wage was determined while I was in training and once I actually became a Unit Manager, I would make a base salary plus a package of bonuses. AAA was adamant when I tried to explain my situation to them that I had to pay them or I could not take the job. I should have taken the “or”. So the next six weeks of hourly pay, or practically the whole training period at “Waffle House University” went to AAA and I depended heavily on my brother's good nature. In retrospect I should have seen what was coming when I had to sign a contract that essentially made me financially responsible and accountable for all food and money in the restaurant. The next chapter in this story opens with me moving out of my brother's place and into a one bedroom apartment in Lithonia, GA in order to be assigned to my first Waffle House as a prerequisite. The restaurant I was eventually assigned after working “Internships” at other Waffle Houses in Jim's division was unit #580 on Evans Mill Rd. in Lithonia. I showed up at 6:30am to discover I was replacing one of my management training classmates. I was instructed to send him to the district manager's other store which was on the opposite side of the interstate exit we were adjacent to. I then proceeded to meet the staff of my first restaurant as manager and worked the entire day with them. Unit Manager at Waffle House is pretty straight forward. You cook the first shift of the day, 7:00am to 2:00pm. You then change shifts, count out the sales from the first shift, replace the cash register drawer with the new shift, fill out a sales report and make a bank deposit for sales from the last twenty four hours. After which the manager inventories the food on the floor and replaces what was used during the last day from the commissary which is kept under lock and key. My mistake as I would later learn was that I was not properly “Checked in” to the restaurant by the district manager that morning and had thusly assumed all responsibility blindly. The district manager “Darrel” showed up at the next shift change (9pm) to do a audit of food and money. As this was all new and exciting to me and I have a habit in general to trust people, found myself being taken to the bank. Darrel audited the cash which came out just fine. Then we went to the commissary and inventoried all the food, which also came out fine. BUT, when we came back to the office we discovered we (I) had not secured the cash in the safe and after recounting discovered five hundred dollars missing. I was afforded the opportunity to replace the cash personally or it would have to be reported and I would most likely lose my job on the first day and the money would have been deducted from my pay and a bill sent to me for the remainder. Thus was the nature of the contract I had signed.