Breakfast Grub

Breakfast is an interesting time for Grub lovers. If it’s a weekday we tend to fall into one of two categories. The guy that skips breakfast or the guy who hits his favorite greasy spoon. If you fall into the first category you probably spend little time contemplating food and in the end just hit the coffee pot hard and get on with what needs to be done while looking longingly toward lunch. If you fall into the second category you typically take time away from your morning tasks or you get up early and throw back some greasy meats and undercooked eggs. And if you’re like me you may use both strategies on any given weekday. The point is; although we spend the entire week in a somewhat routine approach to breakfast… the weekend is when the true Grubber shines!

Ahh the weekend! That magical time when our habit of rising early pays off. You know what I’m talking about! How many times have you snuck off early while the rest of the family sleeps soundly through the morning? There is almost no end to the wonder or mischief you can find before momma or kids or neighbors for that matter even open their eyes. And if there is no wonder or mischief to be found, what do we do? Cause some! Man I love coming home from an early morning car wash hungry as a bear and torturing my family into the light of day. Full of exciting plans and exaggerated promises of adventure, I go from room to room eliciting curses and screams until it becomes quite obvious that sleep time is officially over in this house. With my wake up plan nearing full swing and gaining momentum… I head for the kitchen. Ah the kitchen, where all the magic really begins! Weekend breakfasts have no equal in my family’s culinary experience. Soon the wonderful aromas of fried eggs, toast, coffee and bacon are wafting through the house, working steadily into every possible nook and cranny.

It doesn’t take long before this luscious airborne assault on the senses brings my reluctant family shuffling from their various places of nocturnal retreat. By the time they begin to congregate in the den or dining room my latest breakfast offering is nearing completion. I have to say with as much humility as I can muster; I may be the absolute king of breakfast! For some reason unknown to me the first meal of the morning always brings out the true culinary explorer in me. Don’t get me wrong! I really don’t invent anything new! But I excel at shuffling existing foods around a bit, adding a twist here and there and presenting a brand new dish for my family to enjoy! Weather I’m preparing scrambled eggs or a complicated soufflé I always push the boundary of conventional cooking.

Stick with me while I relate some of my own personal breakfast recipes and anecdotes in the following pages. I’m convinced you will emerge from the experience with a whole new perspective on breakfast!

Ramen Recipes

Ramen Noodles. What can I say? Never in the history of packaged foods has there been a product developed that more fits the “Grub For Guys” lifestyle. Remember that line, and quote it often because someday it will be synonymous with a great new movement in contemporary cooking!

I know. I get carried away sometimes. But if you remember from the introduction, a spur of the moment Ramen recipe is what inspired me to seek the real meaning of grub. And that in turn is what led to the development of Grub For Guys, the next great culinary experience. But to get to the beginning of my love affair with Ramen noodles we have to go back to my teenage years.

I still remember as if it where yesterday. One morning, fresh off an outing of breaking curfew and substance abuse laws, my good friend Sonny and I decided to raid my mother’s legendary pantry. Now when I say legendary I mean it. My mom’s pantry was the size of a small bedroom. And if you took the time to dig around you could find anything from pickled eggs to fancy preserves. Don’t get the wrong idea here. We were far from well off but my mom came from a German farming family and from what I can gather these folks could put away some grub. Looking back I’m sure that my mother would stock the pantry before she paid the electric bill. And with a house full of eight or ten boys I suppose that was the only way she maintained order (full bellies do take the edge off?).

As it turned out the Nobel Foods man had just made a delivery the day before and much to our surprise it included little packages of something called Ramen Noodles. Like true dedicated “Grubbers” we checked the directions to make sure it was quick and easy to prepare. Talk about surprised! I was beside myself! And you could have knocked sonny over with a weak left jab (as usual!) Right there on the label the cooking time was estimated as 5 minutes. 5 minutes!? Wow! This was too good to be true! So we cooked up a couple bags of Chicken Ramen Noodles. The experience was unbelievable. In just five minutes we had two bowls soup that were second only to home cooking! It was so good we had to try the Beef Ramen. We cooked up a couple of bags and it was even better! We decided right then and there that this Ramen phenomenon had to be explored further. So vowing to resume the carnage in the morning, or afternoon as it were, we stumbled off, bellies full for a sound nights sleep.

Looking back now, I realize that this was the beginning of a lifelong passion for me. That wonderful chicken soup taste! In 5 freakin’ minutes! From that moment on I was driven to take every traditional recipe I enjoyed and transform it into a Grub dish. Many of the great dishes my mother and aunts fed me while I was growing up have found their way to my Grub cookbooks, many in the form of Ramen recipes.

I have over 250 Ramen recipes in my personal collection. 250! And those are just the one’s I wrote down. I have never found a recipe that could not be adapted to include or be built around Ramen noodles. From Beef Bourguignon to Pollo Picatta you can enjoy the best of dishes Grub For Guys Ramen style.

Be sure to visit often because I have decided to dedicate the next few weeks on the “Grublog” to some of my favorite Ramen stories and favorite Ramen recipes.

To kick off this tour of my World of Ramen, my Ramenation, I give you: Ramen Chicken Piccata!

~ Grubmaster