People Who Photograph Food and Display the Pictures Online - The New York Times The New York Times Dining & Wine |First Camera, Then Fork Search Continue reading the main story Photo The blogger and food diarist Nora Sherman. Credit Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times (center); photographs by Nora Sherman JAVIER GARCIA, a 28-year-old neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine, was in the campus pub recently having a grilled cheese sandwich. But before he took a bite, he snapped a digital picture of it, cheese artistically oozing between toasted white bread, just as he has photographed everything he has eaten in the last five years. Every other week he posts the photos on his Web site, ejavi.com/javiDiet , providing a strangely intimate and unedited view of his life and attracting fans from as far away as Ecuador. The nearly 9,000 photos leave nothing out, not even snacks as small as a single square of shredded wheat. When he lost his iPhone while visiting New York last month, he pleaded with exasperated friends to take pictures of his food and to e-mail them to him, lest his record be incomplete. “It was a nightmare,” Mr.

Garcia said, particularly because the unfocused pictures “were not the quality I’m used to.” In 1825, the French philosopher and gourmand Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Today, people are showing the world what they eat by photographing every meal, revealing themselves perhaps more vividly than they might by merely reciting the names of appetizers and entrees. Continue reading the main story Keeping a photographic food diary is a growing phenomenon with everything from truffle-stuffed suckling pig to humble bowls of Cheerios being captured and offered for public consumption. Indeed, the number of pictures tagged “food” on the photo-sharing Web site Flickr has increased tenfold to more than six million in the last two years, according to Tara Kirchner, the company’s marketing director. One of the largest and most active Flickr groups, called “I Ate This,” includes more than 300,000 photos that have been contributed by more than 19,000 members. There would be more, but members are limited to 50 photos a month.

The same phenomena can be found on other sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Foodspotting, Shutterfly, Chowhound and FoodCandy. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Nora Sherman, 28, the deputy director of the City University of New York’s Building Performance Lab, which promotes sustainable construction, finds that the pictures she takes of her food are her most popular posts on Facebook, Twitter and on her blog, Thought for Food, ( noraleah.com ). The immediate and enthusiastic commentary on, say, an arugula and feta salad or a plate of fried okra have given her a sense of connection and community since moving to Manhattan from New Orleans in 2006. “People I have never met follow my blog and know me through the food I eat,” Ms. Sherman said. She was even introduced to her boyfriend through someone she came to know through his comments on the food pictures on her blog, and who thought the two might be a match. She said she takes pictures of at least half the meals she eats, omitting, for example, multicourse meals when it might “interrupt the flow.” But she has noticed lately that it’s becoming harder to suppress the urge to shoot.

“I get this ‘must take picture’ feeling before I eat, and what’s worse is that I hate bad pictures so I have to capture it in just the right light and at just the right angle,” Ms. Sherman said. She uses a Canon PowerShot S90 and uploads pictures to her Web site daily, sometimes several times a day, which takes at most 30 minutes a day. The camera, she said, is small but works well in low light. She doesn’t style her photos, saying, “I like to take shots that no pro would ever take — holding an oyster in my hand about to slurp it down, or a bagel with a bite out of it.” Her impulse to photograph her food and do so artistically has made her a more adventurous eater. “It’s driven me to seek out interesting, photogenic foods,” she said. She is now more likely to eat foods she would have once avoided, like beef tendon, heart and tripe at an Asian shopping mall in Flushing, Queens.

And, she said, photographing the food has kept her honest when she has started diets: “When I decided to have salad for dinner during a juice fast, I snapped and posted that.” Photos are also a means of self-motivation for Mr. Garcia, who began photographing his food after he lost 80 pounds. “It’s definitely part of my neuroticism about trying to keep thin,” he said. “It keeps you accountable because you don’t want to have to see that you ate an entire jar of peanut butter.” And, ever the scientist, he hopes to one day use the photographs to calculate how much money he spends to consume a calorie versus how much he spends in gym memberships and sports gear to burn a calorie. “People I have dated haven’t been that into it,” he said of his food photo-journaling. “But it’s never been a deal breaker.” Photo EVERY MORSEL Javier Garcia photographing his food. Every other week, he posts the pictures on his Web site. Credit Amy Dickerson for The New York Times Pamela Hollinger, 36, an independent radio programmer and announcer in Stephenville, Tex., said her husband of eight years is resigned to her taking pictures of her food.

“When we were dating, it was like, ‘What are you doing?’ ” she said. “Now it’s a quirk he’s come to accept.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Her habit began in 1997 as a way to show her mother what she ate on vacations, but she now photographs almost everything she eats, leaving out only insignificant snacks and anything unappealing looking, like a bowl of oatmeal. “I think getting an iPhone had a lot to do with it,” Ms. Hollinger said. “It’s so easy to just take a quick picture of what I’m eating and no one really notices.” Or maybe they think she is just texting at the table. She e-mails the pictures directly from her phone to a few friends and posts some of them on her Facebook page as well as on Chowhound. “I like to show off what I’m eating or something I’ve made that I’m proud of, like a pork rib-eye roast that became pulled pork sandwiches and then pork tacos and then pork salad,” she said. “I get more comments on my food pictures than anything else.

Within seconds, I get, ‘Oh, I’m jealous,’ or ‘Hey, can I come over?’ ” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy That some people are keeping photographic food diaries and posting them online does not surprise psychotherapists. “In the unconscious mind, food equals love because food is our deepest and earliest connection with our caretaker,” said Kathryn Zerbe, a psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorders and food fixations at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “So it makes sense that people would want to capture, collect, catalog, brag about and show off their food.” Photographing meals becomes pathological, however, if it interferes with careers or relationships or there’s anxiety associated with not doing it. “I’d have to ask if they would feel O.K. if they didn’t do it,” said Tracy Foose, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who treats patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders. “Could they resist the urge to do it?” Joe Catterson, the general manager of Alinea restaurant in Chicago, said that, increasingly, people can’t.

“One guy arrived with the wrong lens or something on his camera and left his wife sitting at the table for an hour while he went home to get it,” he said. Such compulsion is apparent even at restaurants where the plating is less elaborate. “They’ve got to take a picture of their pancakes and send it to their friend,” said John Vasilopoulos, the manager at the Cup & Saucer, a diner on the Lower East Side. “I don’t get it because their food gets cold, but I take it as a compliment.” Evidently aware of the trend, manufacturers like Nikon, Olympus, Sony and Fuji have within the last two years released cameras with special “food” or “cuisine” modes, costing around $200 to $600. “These functions enable close-up shots with enhanced sharpness and saturation so the food colors and textures really pop,” said Terry Sullivan, associate editor of digital imaging technologies at Consumer Reports.

This bemuses Tucker Shaw, the food critic for The Denver Post, who made do with a basic point-and-shoot digital camera to take pictures of everything he ate in 2004; he published the photos in his book, “Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth.” “It used to turn heads if you took a picture of your food, and I even got in trouble at a few restaurants,” he said. “Now it’s ubiquitous and just shows that we are in a spastic food era — we couldn’t get more obsessive.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Nonetheless, Mr. Shaw said the year he spent photographing his food (and a year was enough for him) resulted in an achingly honest account of his life that revealed far more than the fact that he ate too few leafy green vegetables: “The pictures, I realize now, are incredibly personal, and by looking at them you can probably deduce the type of person I am.” Moreover, the pictures set off memories and emotions in a way a written journal could not. “I remember every single day, who I was with, what I was feeling,” he said.

Unlike a picture of a flower or friend, a picture of a meal recalls something smelled, touched, tasted and ultimately ingested. Carl Rosenberg, 52, a Web site developer who divides his time among San Francisco; Austin, Tex.; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, photographs his food along the way with a Nikon D3. “You have more of a direct connection with your food, so it forms a more essential memory of an occasion,” he said. He often places a small stuffed animal, a sheep, which he calls the Crazy Sheep, next to his food before taking a picture; reminiscent of the globe-trotting garden gnome in the French film “Amélie.” “I think photographing food is a more accurate way to document life,” said Mr. Rosenberg, who shares photos with family and friends but does not post them. “Food isn’t going to put on a special face when you take a picture of it.” A version of this article appears in print on April 7, 2010, on Page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: First the Camera, Then the Fork.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Top 50 American food | CNN Travel More than 200 years old and still a national favorite. If life gives you limes, don’t make limeade, make a Key lime pie. The official state pie of Florida, this sassy tart has made herself a worldwide reputation, which started in -- where else? -- the Florida Keys, from whence come the tiny limes that gave the pie its name. Aunt Sally, a cook for Florida’s first self-made millionaire, ship salvager William Curry, gets the credit for making the first Key lime pie in the late 1800s. But you might also thank Florida sponge fisherman for likely originating the concoction of key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks, which could be “cooked” (by a thickening chemical reaction of the ingredients) at sea. 49. Tater tots We love French fries, but for an American food variation on the potato theme, one beloved at Sonic drive-ins and school cafeterias everywhere, consider the Tater Tot. Notice it often has the registered trademark -- these commercial hash brown cylinders are indeed proprietary to the Ore-Ida company.

If you’d been one of the Grigg brothers who founded Ore-Ida, you’d have wanted to come up with something to do with leftover slivers of cut-up potatoes, too. They added some flour and seasoning and shaped the mash into tiny tots and put them on the market in 1956. A little more than 50 years later, America is eating about 32 million kilos of these taters annually. 48. San Francisco sourdough bread Baguettes, U.S. style. Bigger, badder, sourer. Sourdough’s as old as the pyramids and not coincidentally was eaten in ancient Egypt. But the hands-down American favorite, and the sourest variety, comes from San Francisco. As much a part of NoCal culinary culture as Napa Valley wine, sourdough bread’s been a staple since Gold Rush days. Once upon a frontier time, miners (called “sourdoughs” for surviving on the stuff) and settlers carried sourdough starter (more reliable than other leavening) in pouches around their necks or on their belts.

Thank goodness that’s not the way they do it at Boudin Bakery, which has been turning out the bread that bites back in the City by the Bay since 1849. 47. Cobb salad The chef’s salad originated back East, but American food innovators working with lettuce out West weren’t going to be outdone. In 1937, Bob Cobb, the owner of The Brown Derby, was scrounging around at the restaurant’s North Vine location for a meal for Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Theater when he put together a salad with what he found in the fridge: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold chicken breast, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese, and some old-fashioned French dressing. Brown Derby lore says, “He started chopping. Added some crisp bacon, swiped from a busy chef.” The salad went onto the menu and straight into the heart of Hollywood. 46. Pot roast The childhood Sunday family dinner of baby boomers everywhere, pot roast claims a sentimental favorite place in the top 10 of American comfort foods. There’s a whole generation that would be lost without it.

Beef brisket, bottom or top round, or chuck set in a deep roasting pan with potatoes, carrots, onions, and whatever else your mom threw in to be infused with the meat’s simmering juices, the pot roast could be anointed with red wine or even beer, then covered and cooked on the stovetop or in the oven. 45. Twinkies So good, the shelf life of 25 days has never been tested. Hostess’ iconic “Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling” has been sugaring us up since James Dewar invented it at the Continental Baking Company in Schiller Park, Illinois, in 1930. The Twinkie forsook its original banana cream filling for vanilla when bananas were scarce during World War II. As if they weren’t ridiculously good enough already, the Texas State Fair started the fad of deep-frying them. Dumped in hot oil or simply torn from their packaging, Twinkies endear with their name (inspired by a billboard advertising Twinkle Toe Shoes), their ladyfinger shape (pierced three times to inject the filling), and their evocations of lunchtime recess.

Note to hoarders: supposed shelf life of decades is in truth 25 days. 44. Jerky Dehydrated meat shriveled almost beyond recognition -- an unlikely source of so much gustatory pleasure, but jerky is a high-protein favorite of backpackers, road trippers, and snackers everywhere. It's American food the way we like our wilderness grub -- tough and spicy. We like the creation myth that says it’s the direct descendant of American Indian pemmican, which mixed fire-cured meat with animal fat. Beef, turkey, chicken, venison, buffalo, even ostrich, alligator, yak, and emu. Peppered, barbecued, hickory-smoked, honey glazed. Flavored with teriyaki, jalapeno, lemon pepper, chili. Jerky is so versatile and portable and packs such nutritional power that the Army is experimenting with jerky sticks that have the caffeine equivalent of a cup of coffee. However you take your jerky -- caf or decaf; in strips, chips, or shreds -- prepare to chew long and hard. You’ve still got your own teeth, right? 43. Fajitas Yep, this is real American food.

Take some vaqueros working on the range and the cattle slaughtered to feed them. Throw in the throwaway cuts of meat as part of the hands’ take-home pay, and let cowboy ingenuity go to work. Grill skirt steak (faja in Spanish) over the campfire, wrap in a tortilla, and you’ve got the beginning of a Rio Grande region tradition. The fajita is thought to have come off the range and into popular culture when a certain Sonny Falcon began operating fajita taco stands at outdoor events and rodeos in Texas beginning in 1969. It wasn’t long before the dish was making its way onto menus in the Lone Star State and spreading with its beloved array of condiments -- grilled onions and green pepper, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, and sour cream -- across the country. Don’t forget the Altoids. 42. Banana split Like the banana makes it good for you. Still, kudos to whomever invented the variation of the sundae known as the banana split.

There’s the 1904 Latrobe, Pennsylvania, story, in which future optometrist David Strickler was experimenting with sundaes at a pharmacy soda fountain, split a banana lengthwise, and put it in a long boat dish. And the 1907 Wilmington, Ohio, story, wherein restaurant owner Ernest Hazard came up with it to draw students from a nearby college. Fame spread after a Walgreens in Chicago made the split its signature dessert in the 1920s. Whatever the history, you’ll find plenty food for thought at the Banana Split Festival the second weekend in June in Wilmington. 41. Cornbread World's easiest meal? It’s one of the pillars of Southern cooking, but cornbread is the soul food of many a culture -- black, white, and Native American -- and not just south of the Mason-Dixon. Grind corn coarsely and you’ve got grits; soak kernels in alkali, and you’ve got hominy (which we encourage you to cook up into posole). Leaven finely ground cornmeal with baking powder, and you’ve got cornbread.

Southern hushpuppies and corn pone, New England johnnycakes; cooked in a skillet or in muffin tins; flavored with cheese, herbs, or jalapeños -- cornbread in any incarnation remains the quick and easy go-to bread that historically made it a favorite of Indian and pioneer mothers and keeps it on tables across the country today. 40. GORP “Good Old Raisins and Peanuts,” GORP is the energy salvation of backpackers everywhere. Centuries before trail mix came by the bag and the bin, it was eaten in Europe, where hiking’s practically a national pastime. The thing to remember here is that the stuff is American food rocket fuel. Add all the granola, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, candied ginger, and M&Ms you want. Just be sure to store in a bear-proof canister because suspending from a branch in a nylon sack isn’t going to do it. 39. Jambalaya Tastiest way to clean out your kitchen cupboards.

Jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo … what dish could be so evocative that it inspired Hank Williams to write a party song for it in 1952 and dozens more to cover it (including everyone from Jo Stafford to Credence Clearwater Revival to Emmylou Harris)? The sweep-up-the-kitchen cousin of Spanish paella, jambalaya comes in red (Creole, with tomatoes) and brown (Cajun, without). Made with meat, vegetables (a trinity of celery, peppers, and onions), and rice, Louisiana’s signature dish might be most memorable when made with shrimp and andouille sausage. Whatever the color and secret ingredients, you can be sure of one thing when you sit down with friends to a big bowlful: son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou. 38. Biscuits ’n’ gravy An irresistible Southern favorite, biscuits and gravy would be a cliché if they weren’t so darned delicious.

The biscuits are traditionally made with butter or lard and buttermilk; the milk (or “sawmill” or country) gravy with meat drippings and (usually) chunks of good fresh pork sausage and black pepper. Cheap and requiring only widely available ingredients, a meal of biscuits and gravy was a filling way for slaves and sharecroppers to face a hard day in the fields. “The Southern way with gravies was born of privation. When folks are poor, they make do. Which means folks make gravy,” says The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook. The soul, you might say, of soul food. 37. Smithfield ham Orwell was right -- pigs do rule. “Ham, history, and hospitality.” That’s the motto of Smithfield, Virginia, the Smithfield of Smithfield Virginia ham. Notice “ham” comes before history, which really says something considering this hamlet of 8,100 was first colonized in 1634.

Epicenter of curing and production of a head-spinning number of hogs, Smithfield comes by the title Ham Capital of the World honestly: lots of ham is called Virginia, but there’s only one Smithfield, as defined by a 1926 law that says it must be processed within the city limits. The original country style American ham was dry cured for preservation; salty and hard, it could keep until soaked in water (to remove the salt and reconstitute) before cooking. The deliciously authentic cured Virginia country ham happens to have been the favorite of that famous Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. 36. Chicken fried steak A guilty pleasure if there ever was one, chicken fried steak was born to go with American food classics like mashed potatoes and black-eyed peas. A slab of tenderized steak breaded in seasoned flour and pan fried, it’s kin to the Weiner Schnitzel brought to Texas by Austrian and German immigrants, who adapted their veal recipe to use the bountiful beef found in Texas.

Lamesa, on the cattle-ranching South Texas plains, claims to be the birthplace of the dish, but John “White Gravy” Neutzling of Lone Star State cowboy town of Bandera insisted he invented it. Do you care, or do you just want to ladle on that peppery white gravy and dig in? 35. Wild Alaska salmon The slowest swimmers taste the best. Guys risk life and limb fishing for this delish superfood. Unlike Atlantic salmon, which is 99.8 percent farmed, Alaska salmon is wild, which means the fish live free and eat clean -- all the better to glaze with Dijon mustard or real maple syrup. Alaska salmon season coincides with their return to spawning streams (it’s an amazing sense of smell that guides them to the exact spot where they were born). Worry not: before fishing season, state biologists ensure that plenty of salmon have already passed upstream to lay eggs. But let’s get to that cedar plank, the preferred method of cooking for the many Pacific Northwest Indian tribes whose mythologies and diets include salmon. Use red cedar (it has no preservatives), and cook slow, for that rich, smoky flavor.

Barring that, there’s always lox and bagels. 34. California roll So much more than the gateway sushi, the California roll isn’t just for wimps who can’t go it raw. But that’s essentially the way it got its start in Los Angeles, where sushi chefs from Japan were trying to gain a beachhead in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Most credit chef Manashita Ichiro and his assistant Mashita Ichiro, at L.A.’s Tokyo Kaikan restaurant, which had one of the country’s first sushi bars, with creating the “inside out” roll that preempted Americans’ aversions by putting the nori (seaweed) on the inside of the rice and substituting avocado for toro (raw fatty tuna). The avocado-crab-cucumber roll became a hit, and from that SoCal beachhead, sushi conquered the country. After leading the charge for the sushi invasion of the 1980s, the California roll now occupies grocery stores everywhere. Wasabi anyone? 33. Meatloaf American food means meatloaf, made with the love of millions of mothers every day. The most humble of comfort food.

Who would have imagined when the recipe for “Cannelon of Beef” showed up in Fannie Farmer’s 1918 "Boston Cooking School Cook Book" that every mom in America would someday have her own version? Fannie made hers with slices of salt pork laid over the top and served it with brown mushroom sauce. (In her day, you had to cut the meat finely by hand; the advent of commercial grinders changed all that.) However your mom made it -- we’re guessing ketchup on top? -- she probably served that oh-so-reliable meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans. And you were probably made to sit there, all night if need be, if you didn’t eat all your beans. A better threat might have been no meatloaf sandwich in your lunch tomorrow. 32. Grits People who didn’t grow up eating them wonder what the heck they are. People who did grow up eating them (and that would be just about everyone in the South) wonder how anyone could live without them. Grits, beloved and misunderstood -- and American down to their Native roots.

They’re the favored hot breakfast in the so-called Grits Belt, which girdles everything from Virginia to Texas and where the dish is a standard offering on diner menus. Grits are nothing if not versatile: They can go plain, savory, or sweet; pan-fried or porridge-like. Simple and cheap, grits are also profoundly satisfying. Which might be why Charleston’s The Post and Courier opined in 1952 that “Given enough [grits], the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace.” Now don’t that just butter your grits? 31. Macaroni and cheese Nothing crafty about this Kraft phenomenon -- just great tasting grub. The ultimate comfort food, macaroni and cheese is also the salvation of many a mom placating a finicky toddler.

Nothing particularly American about pasta and cheese -- except for the fact that on a European trip, Thomas Jefferson liked a certain noodle dish so much he took notes and had it served back home at a state dinner as “macaroni pie.” Jefferson’s cousin Mary Randolph included a recipe for “macaroni and cheese” in her 1824 cookbook "The Virginia Housewife." So whether you’re eating a gourmet version by one of the countless chefs who’ve put their own spin on it, or just digging like a desperado in the pantry for that box of Kraft, give mac and cheese its patriotic props. 30. Maryland crabcakes The Chesapeake Bay yields more than just the regatta-loving suntanned class in their sock-free topsiders. It’s the home habitat of the blue crab, which both Maryland and Virginia claim as their own. Boardwalk style (mixed with fillers and served on a bun) or restaurant/gourmet style; fried, broiled, or baked, crab cakes can be made with any kind of crab, but the blue crabs of Chesapeake Bay are preferred for both tradition and taste.

When Baltimore magazine rounded up the best places to get the city’s signature food, editors declared simplicity the key, while lamenting the fact that most crabmeat doesn’t even come from home turf these days. Kind of makes you crabby, doesn’t it? 29. Potato chips One of the world's best-selling jokes. We have a high-maintenance resort guest to thank for America’s hands-down favorite snack. Saratoga Springs, New York, 1853: American Indian chef George Crum is in the kitchen at the elegant Moon Lake Lodge. A persnickety customer sends back his French fries (then highfalutin fare eaten with a fork) for being too thick. Crum makes a second, thinner, order. Still too thick for the picky diner. Annoyed, Crum makes the next batch with a little attitude, slicing the potatoes so thin, the crispy things can’t possibly be picked up with a fork. Surprise: the wafer-thin fried potatoes are a hit. Traveling salesman Herman Lay sold them out of the trunk of his car before founding Lay’s Potato Chips, the first nationally marketed brand.

Lay’s would ultimately merge in 1961 with Frito to create the snack behemoth Frito-Lay. 28. Cioppino San Francisco’s answer to French bouillabaisse, cioppino (cho-pea-no) is fish stew with an Italian flair. It’s an American food that's been around since the late 1800s, when Portuguese and Italian fishermen who settled the North Beach section of the city brought their on-board catch-of-the-day stew back to land and area restaurants picked up on it. Cooked in a tomato base with wine and spices and chopped fish (whatever was plentiful, but almost always crab), cioppino probably takes its name from the classic fish stew of Italy’s Liguria region, where many Gold Rush era fishermen came from. Get a memorable bowl at Sotto Mare in North Beach, Scoma’s on Fisherman’s Wharf, and Anchor Oyster Bar in the Castro District. Don’t feel bad about going with the “lazy man’s” cioppino -- it only means you’re not going to spend half the meal cracking shellfish. 27. Fortune cookies One thing the Chinese didn't actually invent. An American food classic.

Culinary snobs like to look down their holier-than-thou chopsticks at ABC (American-born Chinese) food, but we're not afraid to stand up for the honor of such North American favorites as General Tso's chicken, Mongolian beef, broccoli beef, lemon chicken, deep-fried spring rolls and that nuclear orange sauce that covers sweet-and-sour anything. As the seminal symbol of all great American-born Chinese grub, however, we salute the mighty fortune cookie. Almost certainly invented in California in the early 1900s (origin stories vary between San Francisco, Los Angeles and even Japan), the buttery sweet crescents are now found in Chinese joints around the world ... with the notable exception of China . That's OK -- the crunchy biscuits are still our favorite way to close out any Chinese meal. 26. Peanut butter sandwich If it's good enough for the King ... Creamy or chunky? To each his own, but everybody -- except those afflicted with the dreaded and dangerous peanut allergy and the moms who worry sick about them -- loves a good peanut butter sandwich. First served to clients at Dr.

John Harvey Kellogg’s sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan, peanut paste was improved upon when chemist Joseph Rosefield added hydrogenated vegetable oil and called his spread Skippy. That was 1922; not quite 100 years later, peanut butter is an American mainstay, often paired with jelly for that lunchbox workhorse the PB&J. For a rocking alternative, try peanut butter sandwiches the way Elvis Presley liked them: with ripe mashed bananas, grilled in butter. 25. Baked beans It’s not a cookout, potluck, or the end of a long day in the saddle without a bubbling pot full of them. Just ask the Pioneer Woman, who waxes rhapsodic about the baked-bean recipe on her site (not a version with little weenies, but how fun are they?). Yummy and plenty historical. Long before Bostonians were baking their navy beans for hours in molasses -- and earning the nickname Beantown in the process -- New England Indians were mixing beans with maple syrup and bear fat and putting them in a hole in the ground for slow cooking.

Favored on the frontier for being cheap and portable, chuck wagon, or cowboy, beans will forever live hilariously in popular culture as the catalyst behind the "Blazing Saddles" campfire scene, which you can review in unabashed immaturity on YouTube. 24. Popcorn Movie theaters have a lot to be thankful for. As the imperative on the Orville Redenbacher site urges: “All hail the super snack.” The bow-tied entrepreneur pitched his popcorn tent in Valparaiso, Indiana, which celebrates its heritage at the Valparaiso Popcorn Festival the first Saturday after Labor Day. It’s just one of several Midwestern corn belt towns that vie for the title of Popcorn Capital of the World, but centuries before Orville’s obsession aromatically inflated in microwaves or Jiffy Pop magically expanded on stovetops, Native Americans in New Mexico discovered corn could be popped — way back in 3600 B.C. According to , Americans currently consume about 15 billion liters a year; that’s 48 liters per man, woman, and child. 23.

Fried chicken and waffles Scottish immigrants brought the deep-fry method across the pond, and it was good old Colonel Saunders who really locked in on the commercial potential in 1930 when he started pressure-frying chicken breaded in his secret spices at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky, paving the way for Kentucky Fried and all the other fried chickens to come. Nuggets, fingers, popcorn, bites, patties -- one of our all-time favorite ways to eat fried chicken is with waffles. And one of our favorite places to eat it is at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Immortalized in "Pulp Fiction" and "Swingers," the L.A. institution got the soul-food seal of approval when Obama himself related to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" that he’d popped in for some wings and waffles and downed them in the presidential limo. 22. New England clam chowder Creamy, oniony, clammy ... more please. Gone are the days when Catholics religiously abstained from eating meat on Fridays, but you’ll still find clam chowder traditionally served in some East Coast locales -- not that it reminds anyone of penance these days.

There are time-honored versions of chowder from Maine to Florida, but the most famous and favorite has to be New England style: creamy white with potatoes and onions. There’s Manhattan: clear with tomatoes. And there’s even Minorcan (from around St. Augustine, Florida): spicy with hot datil pepper. The variations on East Coast clam chowder are deliciously numerous. Even the West Coast has a version (with salmon instead of pork). With your fistful of oyster crackers ready to dump in, you might stop to wonder: What were the Pilgrims thinking when they fed clams to their hogs? 21. New Mexican flat enchiladas It was the pre-Columbian Maya who invented tortillas, and apparently the Aztecs who started wrapping them around bits of fish and meat. You have only to go to any Mexican or Tex-Mex place to see what those ancients wrought when someone dipped tortillas “en chile” (hence, the name).

“Flat” (the stacked New Mexico style) or rolled, smothered in red chili sauce or green (or both, for “Christmas” style), enchiladas are the source of much cultural pride in the Land of Enchantment; they’re particularly enchanting made with the state’s famed blue-corn tortillas -- fried egg on top optional. Have a giant flat red one in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the last weekend in September at the Whole Enchilada Fiesta, where the main event is the making and partaking of the world’s biggest enchilada. 20. S’mores S'mores on frozen hot chocolate. Proust’s madeleines? We’ll go you one better on remembrance of things past: s’mores. Gooey, melty, warm and sweet -- nothing evokes family vacations and carefree camping under the stars quite like this classic American food.

Whether they were first to roast marshmallows and squish them between graham crackers with a bar of chocolate no one seems to know, but the Girl Scouts were the first to get the recipe down in the 1927 "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts," transforming many a standard-issue campfire into a quintessential experience. Celebrate sweetly on August 10: It’s National S’mores Day. Get those marshmallow sticks sharpened. 19. Lobster rolls Boiled or steamed alive -- animal cruelty some insist -- lobsters practically define a great Down East occasion. And maybe nowhere more so than in Maine, which provides 80 percent of the clawed creatures, and where lobster shacks and lobster bakes are culinary institutions. Melted butter on knuckle, claw, or tail meat -- we love it simple. But the perfect accompaniment to a salty sea air day in Vacationland would have to be the lobster roll. Chunks of sweet lobster meat lightly dressed with mayo or lemon or both, heaped in a buttered hot dog bun makes for some seriously satisfying finger food.

Fabulous finger-licking lobster time in Maine is during shack season, May to October, and every August, when Rockland puts on its annual lobster festival. Suggested soundtrack for a weekend of shacking: B-52s’ “Rock Lobster.” 18. Buffalo wings Nothing to do with buffaloes, everything to do with delicious. Long before Troy Aikman became pitchman for Wingstop, folks in Buffalo, New York, were enjoying the hot and spicy wings that most agree came into being by the hands of Teressa Bellissimo, who owned the Anchor Bar and first tossed chicken wings in cayenne pepper hot sauce and butter in 1964. According to Calvin Trillin, hot wings might have originated with John Young, and his “mambo sauce” -- also in Buffalo. Either way, they came from Buffalo, which, by the way, doesn’t call them Buffalo wings. If you think your kitchen table or couch-in-front-of-football represents the extreme in wing eating, think again: Every Labor Day weekend, Buffalo celebrates its great contribution to the nation’s pub grub with the Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival.

At the 2011 event, 85,000 people snarfed 37 tons of the things. 17. Indian frybread If you’ve had it at Indian Market in Santa Fe or to a powwow or pueblo anywhere in the country, you’re probably salivating at the very thought. Who would think that a flat chunk of leavened dough fried or deep-fried could be so addictive? Tradition says it was the Navajo who created frybread with the flour, sugar, salt, and lard given to them by the government when they were relocated from Arizona to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico, 150 years ago. Frybread’s a calorie bomb all right, but drizzled with honey or topped with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and lettuce for an Indian taco or all by its lonesome, it’s an American Indian staple not to be missed. 16. Barbecue ribs President Lyndon Johnson eats ribs the Texas way at a 1964 election victory barbecue party.

Pork or beef, slathered or smoked -- we’re not about to wade into which is more embraced, what’s more authentic, or even what needs more napkins. There are cook-offs all over the country for your own judging pleasure. But we will admit we’re partial to pork ribs. The Rib ’Cue Capital? We’re not going to touch that one with a three-meter tong, either. We’ll just follow signs of grinning pigs in the South, where the tradition of gathering for barbecues dates to before the Civil War and serious attention to the finer points of pork earn the region the title of the Barbecue Belt. Outside of the belt, Texas smokes its way to a claim as a barbecue (beef) epicenter -- check out the ’cue-rich town of Lockhart. And let’s not forget Kansas City, where the sauce is the thing. But why debate it when you can just eat it? 15. BLT How many sandwiches get to go by their initials? When tomatoes come into season, there’s hardly a better way to celebrate the bounty than with a juicy bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Food guru John Mariani says the BLT is the no.

2 favorite sandwich in the United States (after ham), and it’s no. 1 in the United Kingdom. Bread can be toasted or un, bacon crispy or limp, lettuce iceberg or other (but iceberg is preferred for imparting crunch and no interfering flavor), and mayo good quality or just forget about it. Provenance of the BLT isn’t clear, but a remarkably similar club sandwich showed up in the 1903 Good Housekeeping Everyday Cook Book. Even if the sodium level gives the health-minded pause, the BLT tastes like summer -- and who can resist that? 14. Apple pie When a pornographic scene in a delinquent movie does nothing to affect its popularity, you know a food is great. According to a pie chart (seriously) from the American Pie Council, apple really is our national favorite -- followed by pumpkin, chocolate, lemon meringue and cherry. Not to burst the patriotic bubble, but it’s not an American food of indigenous origin. Food critic John Mariani dates the appearance of apple pies in the United States to 1780, long after they were popular in England. Apples aren’t even native to the continent; the Pilgrims brought seeds.

So what’s the deal with the star-spangled association? The pie council’s John Lehndorff explains: “When you say that something is ‘as American as apple pie,’ what you're really saying is that the item came to this country from elsewhere and was transformed into a distinctly American experience.” And you’re saying Americans know something good enough to be an icon when we eat it, with or without the cheddar cheese or vanilla ice cream on top. 13. Frito pie Even the most modest chili has legions of fans. Consider Kit Carson, whose dying regret was that he didn’t have time for one more bowl. Or the mysterious “La Dama de Azul,” a Spanish nun named Sister Mary of Agreda, who reportedly never left her convent in Spain but came back from one of her astral projections preaching Christianity to Indians in the New World with their recipe for venison chili. Less apocryphally, “chili queens” in 1880s San Antonio, Texas, sold their spicy stew from stands, and the “San Antonio Chili Stand” at the 1893 Chicago world's fair secured chili’s nationwide fame.

We really love the American ingenuity that added corn chips and cheddar cheese to make Frito pie, a kitschy delight you can order served in the bag at the Five & Dime on the Santa Fe Plaza, the same physical location of the original Woolworth’s lunch counter that came up with it. 12. Po’ boy Amazing Po’ boy sausages. The muffaletta might be the signature sandwich of Crescent City, but the po’ boy is the “shotgun house of New Orleans cuisine.” The traditional Louisiana sub is said to have originated in 1929, when Bennie and Clovis Martin -- both of whom had been streetcar conductors and union members before opening the coffee shop that legend says became the birthplace of the po’ boy -- supported striking streetcar motormen and conductors with food. "We fed those men free of charge until the strike ended,” Bennie was quoted.

“Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming, one of us would say, ‘Here comes another poor boy.’” Enjoy the beloved everyman sandwich in its seemingly infinite variety (the traditional fried oyster and shrimp can’t be beat) and fight the encroachment of chain sub shops at the annual Oak Street Po-Boy Festival in November. 11. Green chili stew Have pork and green chiles ever spent such delicious time together? Green chile stew has been called the queen of the New Mexican winter table, but we don’t need a cold winter day to eat this fragrant favorite. We like it anytime -- so long as the Hatch chiles are roasted fresh. Order them from Hatch Chile Express in Hatch, New Mexico, the Chile Capital of the World; they come already roasted, peeled, deseeded, chopped, and frozen. Better yet, make the trip to green chile stew country and order up a bowl. Whether you eat it in New Mexico at a table near a kiva fireplace or at your own kitchen table, the aroma and taste are to die for, and the comfort level remarkable on the resurrection scale. 10. Chocolate-chip cookies Chew-crunchy, yummy perfection.

Today the name most associated with the killer cookie might be Mrs. Fields, but we actually have Ruth Wakefield, who owned the Toll House Inn, a popular spot for home cooking in 1930s Whitman, Massachusetts, to thank for all spoon-licking love shared through chocolate chip cookies. Was Mrs. Wakefield making her Butter Drop Do cookies when, lacking baker’s chocolate, she substituted a cut-up Nestle’s semisweet chocolate bar? Or did the vibrations of a Hobart mixer knock some chocolate bars off a shelf and into her sugar-cookie dough? However chocolate chips ended up in the batter, a new cookie was born. Andrew Nestle reputedly got the recipe from her -- it remains on the package to this day -- and Wakefield got a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. Can you feel the serotonin and endorphins releasing? 9. Blueberry cobbler Also charmingly called slump, grunt, and buckle, cobbler got its start with early oven-less colonists who came up with the no-crust-on-the-bottom fruit dish that could cook in a pan or pot over a fire.

They might have been lofting a mocking revolutionary middle finger at the mother country by making a sloppy American version of the refined British steamed fruit and dough pudding. Cobblers become doubly American when made with blueberries, which are native to North America (Maine practically has a monopoly on them). We love blueberries for how they sex up practically any crust, dough, or batter, maybe most of all in cobblers and that other all-American favorite, the blueberry muffin. 8. Delmonico’s steak If cows weren't meant to be grilled, why did God make them sizzle so deliciously? There are steakhouses all over the country but perhaps none so storied -- with a universally acclaimed steak named for it no less -- as the original Delmonico’s in New York. The first diner called by the French name restaurant, Delmonico’s opened in 1837 with unheard-of things like printed menus, tablecloths, private dining rooms, and lunch and dinner offerings. Among other firsts, the restaurant served the “Delmonico Steak.” Whatever the excellent cut (the current restaurant uses boneless rib eye), the term Delmonico’s Steak has come to mean the best.

Lightly seasoned with salt, basted with melted butter, and grilled over a live fire, it’s traditionally served with a thin clear gravy and Delmonico’s potatoes, made with cream, white pepper, Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg -- a rumored favorite of Abraham Lincoln’s. 7. Chicago-style pizza Naples gave us the first pizza, but the City of Big Shoulders (and even bigger pizzas) gave us the deep dish. The legend goes that in 1943, a visionary named Ike Sewell opened Uno’s Pizzeria in Chicago with the idea that if you made it hearty enough, pizza, which up till then had been considered a snack, could be eaten as a meal. Whether he or his original chef Rudy Malnati originated it, one of those patron saints of pizza made it deep and piled it high, filling a tall buttery crust with lots of meat, cheese, tomato chunks, and authentic Italian spices. Thin-crust pizza made in a brick oven has its place, but if you lust for crust, nothing satisfies quite like Chicago-style. 6. Nachos For snacking perfection, just add salsa and guacamole.

The bane of diets and the boon of happy hours -- could there be a more perfect calorie-dense accompaniment to a pitcher of margaritas? Less rhetorically: why does Piedras Negras, Mexico, just over the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, host The International Nacho Festival and the Biggest Nacho in the World Contest every October? Because it was there that Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya invented nachos when a gaggle of shopping wives of American soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan arrived at the Victory Club restaurant after closing time. Maitre d’ Ignacio improvised something for the gals with what he had on hand, christening his melty creation nachos especiales. From thence they have gone forth across the border, the continent and the world. 5.

Philly cheese steak It’s a sandwich so greasy and hallowed in its hometown that the posture you must adopt to eat it without ruining your clothes has a name: “the Philadelphia Lean.” Made of “frizzled beef,” chopped while being grilled in grease, the Philly cheese steak sandwich gets the rest of its greasy goodness from onions and cheese (American, provolone, or Cheese Whiz), all of which is laid into a long locally made Amoroso bun. Pat and Harry Olivieri get the credit for making the first cheese steaks (originally with pizza sauce -- cheese apparently came later, courtesy of one of Pat’s cooks) and selling them from their hot dog stand in south Philly. Pat later opened Pat’s King of Steaks, which still operates today and vies with rival Geno’s Steaks for the title of best cheese steak in town. The 21 best breakfast spots in America - Hamburg Inn No.2, Pancake Pantry, Ann Sather, and more - Thrillist The 21 Best Breakfast Spots in America The 21 Best Grilled Cheeses in America According to doctors and the backs of cereal boxes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

And because we always agree with whatever they say on Lucky Charms boxes, we spent months eating those breakfasts at places all around the country, and then going back for more biscuits and gravy... just to make sure. At the end of it all, these 21 spots offered up our favorite breakfasts in the nation (and no, we’re not talking about places that exclusively serve that made-up weekend meal of brunch -- these places do breakfast all the time). If you disagree, or think we omitted something, or just want to tell us an unrelated anecdote because you need someone to talk to on the Internet, drop it below in the comments. But for now, just come in and sit down. Breakfast is served: 11-Worth Cafe WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Country Potato Casserole with two eggs and toast Most VIP Clubs require you to be a high roller, or, at the very least, be highly invested in wearing tight black T-shirts and sunglasses at night, but all it takes to get into the 11-Worth Cafe VIP Club is filling out a member form when you go to eat at the legendary Omaha joint run by Tony Caniglia and his family.

And when you go, you better be hungry, especially if you opt for our move, and get the #18, aka the Country Potato Casserole, aka hash browns sautéed with onion, tomato, pepper, mushroom, American & Swiss, plus chicken-fried steak, all topped with their infamous country gravy. You can get two eggs and toast on the side as well for an extra $1.50... or cheaper if you happen to know any Very Important People. Continue Reading A 1 Diner WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Blueberry pancakes Brief history lesson: back in the early 1900s, a man named Philip Duprey started the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which had the peculiar gig of just building “lunch cars” or diners. The company lasted 51 years, making over 600 in that time, including one that, since 1946, has sat in Gardiner, Maine.

As you may’ve guessed from every other clue, that is now A 1, and though the scene inside does feel a bit like a time capsule, the food is very much up-to-date, and delicious (what other diners are regularly whipping up Korean vegetable pancakes with spicy green beans, huh?!?), though -- being that it is Maine -- we prefer to keep it simple with their light, crispy local blueberry pancakes. Luckily, the nostalgia comes free. Al's Breakfast WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Bacon waffle The Dinkytown diner is only 10ft-wide, a planked shack that would look just as at home on a weathered beachside strip as it does propped up by two buildings in the narrow alleyway where it’s been wedged since 1950. Come early -- a line before the 6am opening is completely normal -- and plan to wait with stalwart regulars for one of the 14 stools. While hash browns -- cooked on a griddle so well-seasoned that Southern cast-iron skillet-wielding grandmas would be jealous -- and blueberry pancakes are also winners, trust us on the bacon waffle.

Rather than wimpy bits of crisp pork, huge chucks of salty porcine goodness are layered through this fluffy monster. Pour on syrup for a sweet-savory breakfast that’s basically a side and main baked into one. Ann Sather WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Swedish breakfast sampler & free cinnamon rolls The Chicago morning institution offers plenty of your standard breakfast fare, but you'll want to give a nod to their Swedish roots with their sampler (technically listed as a special but always available), consisting of one of their Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam, a juicy potato sausage, a Swedish meatball (weirdly tasty at breakfast time), and an egg in whatever your preferred egg-consumption method is. Normally it'd be a fairly easy breakfast to tackle, but since you will have already mowed through their icing-laden cinnamon rolls that they lay down on the table before the main course, you're walking out of here stuffed. Beachside Coffee Bar & Kitchen WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Chicken and Bacon Waffle If you knew nothing of San Francisco, and just spent an entire day in the Ocean Beach neighborhood, you would come away thinking that SF is not all that different from its more beach-focused Southern counterparts.

The hood (which obviously sits right across the Great Highway from the actual Ocean Beach) is more of a surfer’s enclave, more laid back and less bustling than the rest of the city, and offers some (relatively) undiscovered gems, Java Beach owners’ Patrick and Buffy Maguire’s Beachside Coffee Bar being one of them. Though they keep the same exacting standards with the coffee that they do at Java Beach, it's the food here that shines, from the fantastic Irish Breakfast Sandwich, to our personal favorite, the fried chicken and waffle , with their bacon-in-the-batter waffle substituted in. Courtesy of The Busy Bee Cafe BUFFALO, WY The Busy Bee Cafe WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Occidental French Toast with a side of bacon Smack in the middle of the picturesque mountain town of Buffalo, the Busy Bee is a tiny, charming cafe housed on the end of the town’s centerpiece, the historic Occidental Hotel, which also houses a saloon that hosted everyone from Buffalo Bill to Teddy Roosevelt. The modern-ish cafe specializes in huge, cowboy-tranquilizing breakfasts ranging from overstuffed breakfast burritos to baked goods and locally farmed chicken-fried steaks.

But nothing is quite as insane as the Occidental French Toast, which is actually a gigantic cinnamon roll dipped in French toast batter, fried, and soaked in maple syrup. Pair it with a side of bacon and maybe book a room in the hotel. You’re not getting up for a while. Clary's Cafe WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Corned beef hash You cannot talk about Clary’s without mentioning Clint Eastwood, which, perhaps, isn’t the best start to breakfast (or maybe it is?). But the cafe, which reached national acclaim thanks to its role in John Beredt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Eastwood’s film adaptation, was famous in Savannah decades before. Its reputation in the film as a local hangout for snagging the gossip is true, albeit there’s a lot more tourist traffic these days. While you may not know who the regulars are discussing, you can at least pretend to be part of the Southern town while housing the giant plate of corned beef hash, which is meal enough on its own, and that’s before you get to the two eggs, grits, and a biscuit.

Get your eggs fried, let the rich yolks mix with the salty, malty, oniony goodness of a forkful of hash, and layer it up on the biscuit. You may not be able to eat again all day, but maybe that’s the point. Courtesy of Found Media Group LLC AUSTIN, TX Counter Cafe WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Biscuits and gravy You can find a greasy spoon diner in any neighborhood in America, but few griddles are blessed with the level of charm as Counter Cafe. Save for a few sardine-packed tables, CC is almost all counter, and the line cooks are close enough that you'll be able to smell every single piece of bacon that comes off the grill. But what sets Counter Cafe apart is food, which nails the platonic ideal of breakfast with plates like biscuits smothered in sausage-studded gravy. The Friendly Toast WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: King Cakes The first time I went to the Toast, I was so intimidated by the menu, I think I ended up just getting a plain waffle, and it felt like everyone else in the restaurant was sad for me. FT is not a place for regular waffles (though they are made using a homemade mix and are delicious).

It is a place to get something a little outlandish (after all, their Daily Specials the other day were all based around Full House characters), like their Sklarmageddon omelet “built to kill” with sausage, bacon, ham, red-chile pecans, jalapeño-Jack & Swiss, plus a zesty maple sour cream, or my new personal favorite, the King Cakes -- two not-very-“mini” pancakes packed with chocolate chips/bananas, slathered in peanut butter, topped with whipped cream, and surrounded by bacon. Suck it, regular waffle. Courtesy of Hamburg Inn No.2 IOWA CITY, IA Hamburg Inn No.2 WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Hawkeye Hog omelet with a side of Cinnamon Roll French Toast Forget about the fact that presidents now consider it a must-stop on their way through Iowa or that we sat next to a signed picture of Roseanne and Tom Arnold from the very early '90s or that it happens to be the oldest family-owned restaurant in Iowa City.

You can even forget about the fact that No.’s 1 and 3 no longer exist, or the fact that I may’ve gotten really excited about buying a T-shirt from here on a drive back to the airport in Chicago, and only discovered it was youth size when I was 30-miles from O’Hare. But don’t forget their omelets, especially the terrifyingly unhealthy/delicious Hawkeye Hog, featuring sausage, hash browns, and American cheese, all smothered in country gravy. Or really make the state proud and make that Hawkeye Hog a Tater Topper, and then tuck griddled home fries or hash browns under it. Oh, and while your eyes are locked on Tom Arnold’s sick ‘do, you might as well get the Cinnamon Roll French Toast too (and maybe a large adult T-shirt for me).

The Laundry WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Bacon 'n Brie hotcakes Located in the Rockwellian mid-Michigan town of Fenton, The Laundry has become an institution of the downtown scene, a rock-solid bakery that doubles as a supper club, a cocktail bar, and a destination for locals and out-of-towners looking for an amazing breakfast with a side of small town charm. Most small town joints, though, aren’t rolling with upscale stacks like the Bacon ‘n Brie hotcakes, topped with apple-cinnamon compote, or highbrow takes on lowbrow fare like a skillet of chorizo-, egg-, and cheese-topped tots. Save room for pie, some of mid-Michigan’s best (which, in orchard country, is not a statement to be made lightly). Or use that room for a breakfast cocktail and take the pie with you to eat before napping on a Silver Lake beach.

John Hall Photography/Courtesy of Matt's Big Breakfast PHOENIX, AZ Matt's Big Breakfast WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Waffle and bacon When Matt and Ernie Pool first opened their breakfast spot a decade ago, it was a simple homage to the old-school diner but set inside a vamped-up 25-seater. Today, the simple formula is still working with delicious, fresh, organic meats and breads from local vendors, but the hours-long waits have forced a move a few blocks North to a 50-seater spot. The wait is still unavoidable, but you’ll forget all about it when you watch that sweet, buttermilk Belgian waffle slowly soak up the maple syrup. The real star though is the bacon. It’s thick-cut and mouthwateringly crisp, yet chewy with a peppery coating that balances the porky fat. People have been known to order more on the side, and NO ONE IS JUDGING YOU, OKAY?

Mickies Dairy Bar WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Bacon Scrambler In college, when we wanted to go to Mickie’s -- obviously never on a football Saturday, when the hours-long wait cut into precious three-story beer bonging time -- we’d have to do it when my buddy Coby was around, because he had a car. We’d head over, squeeze into a booth in what could’ve been the malt shop in a slightly more realistic Pleasantville, and order Scramblers: imposing piles of meat, potatoes, about 47 eggs, shredded cheese that’s still in the process of getting perfectly melty when it hits the table, plus about a coffee cup’s worth of gravy. We’d eat, rest, and pour on more gravy, and repeat until the deed was done, then cram back into Coby’s ‘80-something diesel Benz, stoned on protein. Walking home was simply never an option after that kind of delicious self-abuse. We lived a block and a half away.

Pancake Pantry WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Tennessee Country Ham with pancakes This mom & pop shop’s formula for success includes a lot of family tradition, regular trips East into the Great Smoky Mountains for fresh-milled TN flour, and a secret recipe base that Robert Baldwin, the current owner’s father, concocted when he opened Pancake Pantry’s doors in 1961. And, despite a half-century of growth, you’re still going there for the pancakes. Not that you could forget that, since even the huge omelet or egg-combo orders (like the 8oz ribeye steak & eggs option) also come with buttermilk cakes. Embrace the Volunteer State’s flavor and ask for the Tennessee Country Ham order -- you’ll be happily facing a whopping slice of salt-cured Southern ham, three pancakes, and two eggs. We won’t tell anyone if you round it out with a side order of cheese grits. You are in Nashville , after all. Pine State Biscuits WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: The Reggie Deluxe Portland is a town obsessed with breakfast, so much so that we could have filled this whole list with Stumptown spots and barely cracked the surface.

But among the high-end bakeries and cute date (or post-one-night-stand) spots that draw lines around the Rose City, Pine State stands tall, with a breakfast monolith that doesn’t so much bust hangovers as go back in time and murder said hangover’s ancestors. With the Reggie Deluxe, Portland’s best biscuits house a gigantic hunk of fried chicken topped with bacon, smothered in sausage gravy, and crowned with an over-easy egg, the yolk of which combines with the gravy to create a dipping sauce that more than justifies getting an extra biscuit or 12 for dipping. Pipes Cafe WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: #1 Burrito There is a reason there is a big sign next to Pipes that proclaims “NO PIPES PARKING HERE”. The place is always packed, even when I rolled in on a Wednesday at 11am two weeks ago to find the entire patio swamped by college-aged surfers, old surfers, and those people who just live in North County and kind of look like surfers by proxy.

And the food they serve is perfect to satiate someone who just ( INSERT VERY AUTHENTIC SURFER LINGO RIGHT HERE): our move is to get the #1 Burrito, a giant behemoth (just look at the damn picture) filled with fluffy eggs, sausage, avocado, cheese, and pica sauce (ask for extra pica on the side), or, if it’s later in the day... just kidding. We get that burrito no matter what time of day it is. Rise WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Fried chicken biscuit with pimento cheese & runny egg Before opening Rise, the Durham restaurateur fulfilled one of our personal dreams: he tackled a seven-city, eight-day biscuit-and-donut research tour to sample some of America’s best (he hit up some of our favs, like Gourdough’s in Austin and Pine State Biscuits in Portland ). And it absolutely paid off. While my Alabama grandmother, a staunch believer in family recipes and tradition, would question the authenticity of a not yet-two-year-old spot serving some of the country’s best biscuits, she’d be swayed with the first bite of one of the salty, flaky treats.

Specials change daily, but stick to the menu for your first time and wedge a brined and breaded fried chicken fillet between the biscuit, plus a scoop of spicy pimento cheese and a runny egg. Oh, and grab a seat on a bench outside because biscuits always taste better in Carolina sunshine. That’s just science. Shopsin's WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Breakfast Nachos The breakfast nachos are the kind of food that can drag you out of bed and have you walking zombie-style down the sidewalk before you’re aware of what’s happening, even if you are morning-after New Year’s Eve-level hungover and know full-well you’ll have to brave Kenny Shopsin & staff’s well-noted ire . Currently housed in Essex Market, there’re only a few tables and one of the house rules means your party cannot be more than four, so plan accordingly. (Also, there’re no substitutions and everyone has to order something different. NO SOUP FOR YOU!) But it’ll all be okay when you see the absurdly fluffy eggs that crown chips so thick you’ll wish your favorite Mexican joint would adopt them.

They’re loaded with cheese, grab an extra punch from fresh jalapeños that cut the cream, and also have tangy black beans in the mix. The whole thing bakes in its skillet into a hot, bubbling, gooey mess. You’ll think about getting one of the 900 other options, especially when you’re waiting in line, but don’t. You want these, and you’ll want to brave all of Kenny’s legendary “f*ck you”’s to get them. Slim Goodies WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Creole Slammer This is your Slim's game plan: grab a friend who can get there early and write your name on the clipboard -- it’ll be sitting on the stool out front. Get another friend that knows how to mix a spicy, strong batch of Bloodys and is ready to bring the plastic cups so y’all can sip while you wait out the long line on Magazine Street. Because, despite claiming a two-room space, there will be a line. And then you’ll need to be the helpful guide who directs everyone towards the Slammer section of the menu. But claim the Creole Slammer for yourself.

No matter how out-of-sorts NOLA has left you , this plateful of hash browns, over-easy and gloriously runny eggs, and subtly spicy crawfish étouffée will put you back on track. Village Coffee Shop WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: Battered French toast When they ask if it’s your first time at Boulder’s 43-year-old greasy spoon (or actually, considering the size of the portions, greasy silverware drawer), you have a choice: lie, and live with that for the rest of your life, or say “yes”, and live with that for the next three minutes. The entire staff will start waving their arms and shouting things like “Hey everybody! Hey! We got a virgin over here!!!”, and after you look at your buddy Shane and he’s like “Dude, I totally had sex last week finally”, you'll realize they’re talking about you -- the rook, the Village Virgin. On the bright side, it’s nothing compared to the shame of getting the battered French toast AND the forearm-sized egg burrito.

West Side Market Cafe WHAT YOU'RE GETTING: The creamed chipped beef Tacked onto the side of Cleveland’s massive West Side Market -- a monolithic marketplace full of farm stands, butchers, and bakers -- this chill, blue-collar joint’s simple aesthetic belies some seriously great, seriously cheap comfort food, the ingredients for which come from next door. The simple fried egg sandwich is taken up a notch with spicy bacon and a soft, fresh roll, while the normally caution-giving creamed chipped beef is a standout, with shaved sirloin doused in gravy and served over toast. The cafe isn’t just a breakfast joint. It’s Cleveland on a plate. Kevin Alexander is a national food/drink executive editor and just made a New Year’s Resolution to eat a bacon waffle every morning. Follow his inability to make resolutions on the proper dates @KAlexander03 . Liz Childers is a national food/drink editorial assistant and has been eating a bacon waffle with AT LEAST three pieces of spicy fried chicken on the side every morning since she was 3. Follow her always healthy choices at @lizchilders1 .

Question: Which nation apparently takes the most time to eat meals?
Answer: The French