fusions of flavor

I ate cold cuts for breakfast this morning--cracked pepper turkey and hard salami. As I was eating, I was thinking about how odd some of my eating habits are, at least, when compared with the average person.

I've never been much for rules, whether they're written down or just cultural norms. The appropriateness of a food for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner is one of those rules that means nothing to me. If I feel like eating fried chicken for breakfast, I will...just like I did yesterday (mac 'n' cheese on the side). If I get a craving for chips and salsa at 7:30am, I will have them, as I frequently do when I'm visiting my parents, much to my youngest brother's dismay.

I haven't thought much about it, but it wouldn't surprise me if I ate breakfast foods, like eggs and bacon, more for dinner than I do for breakfast. Again, when I feel like it, I will do it.

You can learn a lot about a person from their eating habits, but trying to understand why they'll eat certain things or why they find them acceptable, if not delicious, is nearly impossible--there's no accounting for taste. When I was growing up, my mother wouldn't let us eat anything but fruit in between meals. I've never been a big fan of fruit, so this wasn't easy to accept. As such, I would frequently sneak foods out of the fridge that I could get to quickly, which would be OK to eat without using the stove or microwave. One of these foods was tortillas. Of course, an empty tortilla isn't all that great to eat, so I would put Miracle Whip from a squirt bottle on the tortilla, roll it up and eat it. Doesn't sound that great, and it wasn't, but it was better than going hungry.

Sometimes culinary experiments work out well. I believe I've seen at least two of my brothers eating macaroni with melted cheese and salsa--something I invented, but that I probably wouldn't eat now. I worked for a time at a bagel shop in my home town. At the time, we sold a jalapeno bagel, but not one with cheese. I took one of these bagels, put jalapenos on top, and then melted jack cheese on top of it in the oven. We sold some of these and they seemed very popular. Years after I quit working there, I was pleased to find on a return visit that they were still selling these bagels, and that they had become part of the regular menu.

I could really go for a burger right now. We have some that my wife barbecued the other day, but we're out of bread. Bummer.