Breakfast for Dinner 2!

As promised in my last post, ...  here is the second place I ate breakfast for dinner on my trip to Ithaca, New York.    A restaurant called Waffle Frolic.  I bet you can't guess what I had for dinner?

Chili!  Ha, ha you were expecting me to say waffles weren't you.  Ok, you're right.  I had chili served on a cornbread waffle.  Not a typical waffle but very delicious.   The other waffle was a nice normal buttermilk waffle with fried bananas and chocolate sauce on top.   It's always good to eat out with a friend, that way you can share.

I thought the name Waffle Frolic was just a cute name the owner thought up but it turns out the name is actually historic.  US President Thomas Jefferson brought back a waffle iron from France in the late 1700s and started a trend of waffle parties in the United States.  These parties were called waffle frolics.  It just goes to show you can always learn something new every day.

I hope you enjoyed learning about waffles.  Thanks for stopping by.

Breakfast for Dinner!

Certain foods in the United States are considered breakfast foods.  In other words, they are foods we eat for breakfast.  For example, eggs, toast, bagels, muffins, pancakes, waffles, hashbrowns, french toast, bacon, sausage and so on are all breakfast foods.

The funny thing is we often eat these foods for other meals.  So it's not unusual to have scrambled eggs or pancakes for dinner.  But we always call it breakfast for dinner.

But it does not work the other way around.  We don't usually eat dinner foods for breakfast.  It would be very strange for someone to eat a hamburger and french fries in the morning.

Of course there are few exceptions to this rule.  One exception is cold pizza.  If you had pizza for dinner and there is some left in the refrigerator in the morning, go ahead and eat it.  This is a favorite breakfast food for college students.

Recently I ate dinner at 2 different restaurants in Ithaca, New York dedicated to breakfast foods.  They are open all day long and serve breakfast foods any time of the day.  The first was a bagel restaurant called College Town Bagels that serves sandwiches on bagels.

The other one ....   Well, you have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that.  Thanks for sharing this Byte of America with me.  

English Central - How to Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk

Listen to me read this post


In the US when it's really hot outside we say it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.  Well, this video actually shows you how!  And as always, with English Central Videos, you will improve your English by practicing listening and pronunciation.  One thing I would like to point out though is at the end of the video there are 2 egg puns.  They say people will think you are EGG - zelent or EGG - zagerating.    They are playing with the words excellent and exagerating.  Puns use words that sound similar to make a fun or silly statement. 

Thanks for listening. This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com. 

Cooking from US recipes

Listen to me read this post


Have you ever tried to cook a recipe from a US cookbook?   I bet you noticed a few differences in the way we measure the ingredients and the temperatures that we use.   The reason for these differences is that in the US, we don't use the metric system.  So, if you want to bake a cake from a US recipe, you need to understand our measurements and how to convert them. 

One website that can help you with that is The Metric Kitchen.  There you will find tables and charts for converting a US recipe to metric measures. 

For example, if you want to bake a cake, the recipe will probably say preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  That means 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  You can use the tools on The Metric Kitchen website to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius.  So, 350 degrees Fahrenheit becomes 176.66666 degrees Celsius. 

US recipes also use abbreviations such as
tsp for teaspoon
Tbsp for Tablespoon
c for cup
lb. means pounds

Now you're ready to cook?  Try these recipes for Traditional American Food at MyRecipes.com.

And as always, thanks for listening.  This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com. 

Idioms - Bacon

Hear me read this post


All this talk about breakfast foods made me think of these 2  idioms that use the word Bacon -

1. Bring home the bacon. 

Mom takes care of the house and kids, while Dad brings home the bacon.

It means to make money at a job to support your family. 

2.  Save my bacon

Thanks for pulling me out of the way of that speeding car.  You really saved my bacon. 

It means to avoid harm or injury to your body.

Now you know 2 new ways to use the word bacon!

Thanks for listening.  This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.

A typical Breakfast in the US

Hear me read this post


In the United States, a typical breakfast is eggs, potatoes, pork and bread.  We usually have coffee, milk and juice to drink with it.     Eggs can be cooked many different ways  such as fried, scrambled, poached, or the eggs can be made into an omelette.  The potatoes are usually shredded or cut into pieces and fried.  The type of meat Americans eat most often with breakfast is pork either bacon, sausage, ham or candian bacon.  Toasted bread with butter and jam is also added to this meal or some other type of bread like a biscuit or a bagel or maybe a crossiant.   Something sweet and bread like such as pancakes or waffles served with maple syrup might also be on the breakfast menu.

Speaking of pancakes, I've included a video from the International House of Pancakes (IHOP).    IHOP is a restaurant famous for breakfast foods.  In the video you can see all types of different breakfast foods. 



Yum!  All this talk about breakfast is making me hungry.  Thanks for listening.  This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.

Breakfast Cereal

Cereal and milk is a very popular breakfast in the United States.  It's quick and easy to eat before running off to school or work.  There are many types of cereals.  Some are healthy and some are sugary and come with a toy in every box.  Guess which ones kids like best!  After the break is a video with a funny song called Milk and Cereal.  You can read the lyrics also.  Many of the lyrics include lines from cereal commercials.  For example, Lucky Charms is a type of cereal that the commercial says is magically delicious.

Videos - Breakfast Recipes

Here are 2 videos with recipes and instructions for typical American breakfast foods.

Topic of the Week - Breakfast in America

The New Topic of the Week is ...    Breakfast in America.  I've noticed that breakfast foods here in Asia are much different from what we eat in the United States, so for the next week we will take a look at what's on the menu. 


Here's a cartoon to get us started. 

Doctor Cartoon by Andertoons