This post is in response to the daily prompt I put here.
One of my favorite southern chains, Guthrie’s, serves some of the yummiest chicken tenders. It’s what they’re famous for. So, this week when I noticed they had put up signs saying they’re now serving breakfast in the mornings, I knew I had to check it out.
Unfortunately, when we were ready for breakfast, they weren’t open yet. And since it’s a new thing, they still didn’t have a sign on the door telling when they open. Just the taunting sign saying, “Now serving breakfast!” We had the two most impatient hungry types in the world (pregnant and toddler) in the car so we opted for our backup: another Southern/Huntsville chain that specializes in BBQ but makes a mean breakfast menu too.
We went and had grits and biscuits and gravy and sausage and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I love southern cooking. Of course, they had white gravy and I prefer sausage gravy, but it was still damn good. There is one thing that we don’t have a shortage of around here: Ways to clog your arteries before noon.
What about you? Do you have your favorite breakfast foods? Have you ever tasted the angioplasty-required southern style breakfast? Did you then want to marry it? And have little southern-breakfast babies with it? No? Just me then? Okay.
Being born in the North but living in the South, I really developed a liking to grits. Then I started adding things to my southern grits like shrimp and baking it with cheese. Found a little diner dive in town that served it this way and I so loved it for about 5 years until I realized my grits filled arteries were about to close up so I switched to just plain grits once a month…
I love big huge (often Southern-ish) breakfasts, with eggs and ham or biscuits and sausage gravy. I’ve had to cut down on my breakfast eating, though, in order to lose a few pounds. It’s easily the most unhealthy part of my diet. But SO good.
Being from Oklahoma, we have grits on the breakfast menu as well, although I don’t really like them. I love sausage gravy though, and it’s fairly hard to find in the city, which sucks. My favorite breakfast biscuits are something I remember from 6th grade when I lived in Wapanucka, OK and they used to have something called ‘cathead biscuits’ where basically the trick was that bottom of the pan was coated with shortening. Talk about artery clogging, but man, they were awesome.
There is this place here in Chicago that serves a “Country skillet” that is out of this world… first in the skillet go hash browns, then squares of chicken-fried steak, then two eggs any style (I go for over hard) and then they pour sausage gravy over the whole thing. Oh my god it is soooooo good. I just had it this morning and my mouth waters thinking about how good it was.
Bacon is my only artery clogging indulgence once in awhile I do like biscuts but rarely have them… usually its oatmeal or half of bagel, fresh fruit coffee/tea and juice.
I love me some sausage gravy over homemade biscuits with some cheese grits on the side. Also, Shit on a Shingle! I never thought I’d love something with such a gross name but..yum.
my favorites? corned-beef hash, pumpkin pancakes, hashbrown casserole. butter with some grits mixed in.
clogs those arteries for sure.
I live in Texas and my favorite thing is to hit the Mexican food restaurants for breakfast. I seriously can barely eat eggs that don’t have salsa or tabasco sauce on them. I love breakfast burritos with eggs, hash browns, peppers, cheese, sausage and beans in them. Or migas, you can’t go wrong with migas. The Mexican place I love to go to for breakfast gives you 2 eggs, potatos, 2 incredible vanilla bean pancakes, bacon and toast for less than 6.00. Yum!
When we visited my brother while he was living in Nashville, he took us to a little country style diner just outside of town, swearing it had the best breakfast ever. We had ham and eggs and “cow-fee” and it was indeed VERY fabulous. I’ve never had ham like that before or since.
I love all Southern food, particularly anything involving ham so salty that I have to drink water constantly for the two following days in order to avoid dehydration.
I love, love, love Guthries. I fell in love in college and wept with joy when one opened up near my house in Georgia. The breakfast biscuit with the special sauce is good stuff.
I’m also partial to the Chick-fil-a chick biscuit or the minis.
Seriously. Chick-fil-a was one of the reasons I was so excited to move back south.
When I was young I used to visit my mom’s side of the family in rural Missouri (which is south of me), and wow, they could eat. I never had grits though. Or “milk gravy” I subscribe to the idea that gravy should be silky smooth and from a can.
I do remember this restaurant that served hamburgers the size of your head. Now I’m craving one, and I haven’t eaten hamburger in ten years.
I will fully admit that I’m really weird about eating meals. I only eat one thing at a time and LORD FORBID if any of the food touches eachother.
This, however, does not apply to a southern breakfast. I want all forms of meat, egg, and cheese in one sedentary lump on my plate, and I want grits poured over them, and then I want biscuits to sop it up with.
(BTW - Bob Baumhauer’s Wings has THE BEST CHEESE GRITS I’ve ever had. If you’re into that sort of thing.)
I didn’t start eating grits until I married my husband. He is from Arkansas and loves them. When we go back to visit his family we hit a little cafe (hole in the wall place) that has the most amazing southern breakfast! I’m from Texas and tend to eat more Tex-Mex type breakfasts.
My mother and I lived in FL when I was little. I believe that’s where I got my obsession with sausage gravy and biscuits - MMMMmmmm. I could eat that on just about anything!
UNFORTUNATELY NO ONE in my house eats breakfast but me! I’d promise sexual favors to go out to breakfast once in awhile, but neither Scott nor the kids are huge breakfast eaters. Which.Totally.Bites.
Oh, and how do you pronounce Chick-fil-a - is it “A” or “UH”?
Hm, good question from Randi
I’ve never been to the South at all, and I really want to go! Though my arteries would probably never forgive me…
I’ve heard of but never had white gravy or sausage gravy or grits and “chicken fried steak” confuses me. Is it chicken or steak? Seriously I don’t know.
Yeah, I’m from Canada. Don’t think I’m trying to sound all healthy though, my usual breakfast is a latte and a smoke.
Lara - Canadians have the best meal (and us vermonters stole it) - POUTINE!
What’s a grit please?
Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out anywhere but especially in the south! OMG….everything is so good. Even places up here in PA that serve grits…they are different somehow…….and you have to have a cajun/spicy Bloody Mary with your breakfast!
it was probably evident by my comment in your last post, but i’m rarely up early enough to eat breakfast. there is this really cool place in downtown ann arbor that serves brunch though–it’s great food, crepes and delicious homemade waffles–and on any given saturday or sunday you’re likely to see half of the community eating breakfast and drinking bloody marys. and some of us even wear our pajamas!
Sadly, I’ve never had a Southern breakfast. Sounds awesome, though! I’m jealous.
I’m not a huge breakfast person. Mostly I just drink coffee and have the occassional bagel or McDonalds breakfast sandwich…hehehe
Biscuits, biscuits, and more biscuits please. Best ones? The Loveless Cafe in Nashville. The second best ones? The Waysider in Tuscaloosa. Wait. Scratch that. My biscuits are my favorite, followed by those others.
But most any biscuit will do in a pinch.
I soooooo love the southern breakfasts, that i want to marry it as well. there is a place just across the street from my house and i go there so freakin much I need to take stock out in the place. I love it.
totally off topic but i saw someone that looked like you in NOLA yesterday….and the guy she was with kinda looked like your hubby!!
Lynne, grits are basically corn porridge. Its kind of like malt o meal or cream of wheat, but with grits. I love them, too!
That said, there is nothing like biscuits and gravy. I don’t eat pork, so I actually love the places that have a nonsausage gravy! When I make it at home I use morningstar farms breakfast sausage or patties and crush them up into the gravy with mesquite seasoning and pepper… mmmmm
Our big find since we moved to Memphis is Brother Junipers. If anyone is ever in Memphis for bfast, you HAVE to go to BJs. I’ve not had a single thing there that I didn’t adore (their cheese grits are to die for) and its cheaper than a diner!
Not big on grits, but love biscuits. But that is about as good as you can expect coming from a country where it is bread, bread and bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner… So I have really embraced American breakfast: pancakes, waffles, bacon and eggs, and of course: Donuts!!!
I love all kinds of fatty breakfast foods: buttermilk pancakes, grits, eggs with cheese, homemade full-fat home fries…
The mister, whose family is from the south, likes that white gravy stuff they serve sometimes but I can’t get into that.
Now I’m hungry.
OMG…when I moved here from California I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I love biscuits and gravy (sausage)…and I discovered that I really love grits. There BBQ is AWESOME here. We don’t have a Guthries here though.
It’s all good!
Hubby and I live for big ole southern breakfasts! Before having children it was the only reason we ever got out of bed before noon on the weekends. Just this morning we went out to a breakfast buffet and ate embarrassing amounts of delicious artery-clogging food. This particular buffet was *seriously* southern, because in addition to the basics like ham, bacon, sausage, biscuits, grits, gravy, etc., they also had fried bologna and whole catfish! The catfish were a little much for me at 9:00am, but the guy sittin’ next to me had a couple with his eggs and grits, along with a glass of sweet tea!
I just moved to the South and miss my standard breakfast eateries. I don’t do sausage gravy (gasp - I know). I want french toast or an omelet and a big old blueberry muffin. I miss Eat N Park. We have 2 dozen Waffle Houses (haven’t tried it yet) and a Cracker Barrel but no other breakfast places I’ve discovered yet.
Oh, how I love grits! Even though I live *this* close to the South, the only Southern-style breakfast option I have is Cracker Barrel. I could eat breakfast there every day…
Um, what are grits?
This is disgusting, but I love it when you buy a vegetarian burger (they make them with onion rings) from Burger King, keep it overnight in the fridge, and then eat it for breakfast either cold or heated up. I’m sick.
I’m from SC. My yankee honey LOVES Sunday - aka Southern breakfast day in this house
His fave: hash and eggs and bacon OR home made biscuits, sausage white gravy and strong coffee.
One of the things I love most about the South is festival food. My friend Reed and I visited the Giant Omlette Celebration today and watched as 5,023 eggs were turned into an “omelette” — with crawfish! We both posted about it if you’re interested. (Reed is http://www.itsjustradical.blogspot.com)
I live in the south and have still never tried grits. But Arby’s here serves breakfast and you can get breakfast sandwiches on croissants. HEAVEN.
I love eggs over easy and dipping my toast in the yolks, breakfast potatoes and bacon with syrup on both, Crepes!
As a fellow southerner, I totally get what you are saying. I LOVE SOUTHERN FOOD with a mad passion. Just thinking about it has made me want a snack!
And when I was pregnant? You better get the hell outta my way!
Mmmm, sausage gravy…and biscuits…
Oooh, I forgot to mention my love affair with fried green tomatoes.
Nectar of the gods. I really loved them both times I was pregnant. It was sad. With ranch dressing. Or not!
I have strange eating habits. I can eat anything at any time of the day. I think it is because of my insomnia. When I do eat breakfast, what I eat is dictated by my mood.
Oh and I love southern cooking. Yum!
Yummy! We had IHOP for breakfast on Saturday & Sunday, I think I could eat pancakes everyday mmmmmm!
Having just moved to Florida from many years living in NC I am very desperate for Sweet Ice Tea. They do not make brewed sweet tea here, they have flavored tea which is nice, they have instant ice tea - which is an abomination, they have ice tea minus the sweet. As any true southerner knows adding sugar to cold tea is NOT the same. Publix makes a good weet ice tea sold in gallon jugs in the deli. It is my lifeline!
I’m all about the hearty breakfast, especially on road trips. I love Bob Evans for the biscuit, eggs, sausage, potatoes approach. I’m not sure how farmers went out and went threshing after a breakfast like that. It just makes me want to curl up and sleep. But I love it and had something like it on Saturday after a sleepover — severe awesomeness!
I cannot believe the number of people who don’t know about grits or gravy.
Shocking. Y’all get on over to mah house, right away!
Crap.
And how can people NOT know about white gravy?
Seriously?
I love me some breakfast. So much that I tend to eat it for dinner as much as my husband will allow that sort of thing. And he hasn’t complained yet.
We woke up to my dad’s homemade biscuits, sausage, and gravy every Sunday morning growing up. And now that I’m in Austin, migas have become a regular thing. Mmm, migas…
I’ve never had a Southern breakfast (and what the heck is “white” gravy made with anyway?), but I’ve had a Newfoundlander breakfast, which is basically the same as a regular bacon ‘n egg breakfast except it’s fried baloney ‘n egg. Not as exotic sounding as “grits” though.
Girl…southern breakfasts are the only way to eat a breakfast. I am southern born and bred…yet my kids were born in “yankee land”…a.k.a…Indiana..yet, every weekend, I whip up a good old fashioned southern breakfast, exactly has you described..sausage, white gravy, homemade biscuits, eggs, and last but not least…grits..the nectar of the southern gods.
Glad to know you share the same culinary wonders.
Dixiechick