Publication date:
11 July 2013Length of book:
238 pagesPublisher
AltaMira PressDimensions:
236x159mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780759121638
From corn flakes to pancakes, Breakfast: A History explores this “most important meal of the day” as a social and gastronomic phenomenon. It explains how and why the meal emerged, what is eaten commonly in this meal across the globe, why certain foods are considered indispensable, and how it has been depicted in art and media. Heather Arndt Anderson’s detail-rich, culturally revealing, and entertaining narrative thoroughly satisfies.
Modern nutritionists proclaim breakfast the day’s most important meal, yet many Americans eat it on the run, if at all, and they exhibit little consistency in the foods they consume. In that, they’re much like people the world over. Arndt-Anderson surveys the history of breakfast, finding that over the centuries ideas about breakfast foods have run the gamut from simple cereals to elaborate repasts of meat, eggs, cheese, fruits, and vegetables. She recounts the story of the Kelloggs, whose unintended invention of cornflakes made dry cereal a staple in Western culture. The Chinese have always exhibited a fondness for rice gruel as their source of morning energy. Where people consume breakfast has evolved over the years, yielding a twentieth-century architectural innovation: the breakfast nook. Today people often dine out for breakfast, so the author catalogs various breakfast settings from fast-food restaurants to elegant venues for power breakfasts. She even details breakfasts in space and on death row.