April 21, 2017 • 38 mins
Brunch has always been a meal of excess and leisure, and it's therefore associated with some ugly classist, racist, and sexist ideals. But waffles are nice! We break down the problematic yet delicious history of brunch.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogba and
I'm any and today. Uh. We figured that since our
last episode was about Bloody Mary's, we might as well
do an episode about French. Yeah. It was one of
the first topics we kind of discussed that wasn't straight
up just a food. Yeah, because it's a very specific
(00:29):
cultural phenomenon and a very like specifically Bougee one. There's
a lot of weird like class and culture kind of things,
gross ichy things like kind of wrapped up into the
concept of Brench. But it's also this joyous celebratory occasion
of having lived through Saturday night. So essentially, do you
(00:52):
do Do you like Brenches? Annie? Uh? I do. I
sometimes question myself when I do it because I do
feel be fuji about the whole thing. Um. And I
went on a like a brunch bender a couple of
years ago. Laura knows this about me, but I like
obsess about maps and cities and doing all the best
(01:14):
things in that city. Maximizing, Yes, we call it maximizing. Uh.
And I did it for Atlanta brunch. So I was
like every weekend getting a new different place. Yeah. So
I was big into it for like a very brief period,
and now I just wake up so early. I don't
like I can't wait around for brunch. You've had three
(01:36):
breakfasts already by the time of brunch rolls around exactly.
How about you? Do you like brunch? Um? I am
really bad at brunch because I shouldn't really eat whole eggs.
It's one of many things that I shouldn't really consume
for my good health. My body gets so mad at
me about various things, and whole eggs are one of them.
And so it's kind of like, well, yeah, well there
you go. Most of the menu. Probably, Yeah, I do
(01:57):
love I do love a like an egg, a dickt
or something like that. But I'm willing to order that
at any time. I mean, if a kitchen serve that
to me, like seven pm, I would definitely order it.
That runch is not as widespread as I thought it was,
and we will get back to that. But it is
a combination of breakfast and lunch. The word itself, as
a portmanteau is dictionary dot COM's word of the Day
(02:19):
a couple of days ago. Of those two things. Yes,
that's right, I get the word of the day emails.
And this is a meal that's relegated to the weekend,
typically between tennish and three pmsh, but can go as
early as eight and then it can go as late
as four, which what a night you must have had?
(02:44):
Are are you could just be hungry at for And
it's a socially acceptable ish time to drink in the
mornings and spend eighteen dollars on eggs. Yeah, and we're
all super excited to do that. It's kind of seen
is this more social relaxed meal? Um, Like, breakfast is
something I feel. You get in, you eat your food
(03:04):
and get out. But brunches like we're just gonna chill
a possibly ours and catch up on everything that we
could possibly need to catch up on, right, I mean
most people are going to brunch somebody wants yeah, a
lot of Otherwise you might just go to a diner
or something like that. Yeah, there's somebody in the group
that's like, do they serve mimosas? Are they bottomless? Exactly?
(03:27):
They sat person? Sometimes it's me and then sometimes if
that person is me, you forget that. In Atlanta, we
have liquor laws. We still have these blue laws that
are held over from from not all that long ago. Um,
and we've gotten rid of some of them. But you
still can't serve alcohol before twelve thirty pm on a Sunday, right,
which means that if you're going to brunch, and most
(03:49):
places in Atlanta don't take reservations for brunch, there's a
surge of people arriving right at twet so like minutes
of four a half hour before the weight could be
ten minutes twelve thirty two hours. Like another thing about
brunches that usually the foods are in quotes more experimental
(04:11):
kind of fusion ee ish. Sure people like to get
creative with their bunch options, so it's not just so
many omelets. You know you can get creative with omelets now,
you certainly can. And the Internet tells me there are
a lot of strong opinions about when qualifies as brunch. Yes,
I never I've never been fussed by it. I'm like,
I'm like, brunch is really more of a state of mind.
So yeah, which actually brings brings us back to the
(04:34):
point of of of brunch having this well deserved reputation
of being a completely like, lavish, unnecessary, bougie kind of thing. Yeah. Uh,
And it also has this kind of also deserved perception
as a rich white person. In particular, one of the
quotes I kept saying popping up when I was researching
(04:55):
brunches from the lead singer of The Strokes, who moved
out of New York to get away from brunch, saying
in a g Q article, quote, I don't know how
many like white people having brunch I can deal with
on a Saturday afternoon. Yeah, no, fair enough, though. That's
and it's also apparently gendered feminine, which is also apparently
(05:17):
a running sitcom joke. We're on that later two. Now
that we're talking about it, I've never had this in
my head that it was like a lady's meal, But
now that we're talking about it, I kind of, I guess,
I guess I've seen the I guess I've seen that
in pop culture, like like a lady brunch kind of thing,
like I've seen, sure, totally, But but in my personal
(05:39):
experience it's usually been you have friends of mine who
have been super excited about brunch. So I don't know. Yeah,
I've never been at a restaurant and thought to myself, wow,
it's all ladies in here. I did used to have
lady brunches with with with A Tracy V. Wilson and
our friend abey Man Labis. But she used to make
great brunch recommendations. She did. Oh yeah, oh yeah, she
(06:01):
knew about She knew about that stuff. I'm sure she
still does. She's not dead. Nothing has happened to Tracy
speaking of brunch recommendations, like, what are the kind of
general ish things you'll find on a brunch menu aside
from the aforementioned mimosas and Bloody Mary's. Um. Here in Atlanta,
(06:23):
we got things like chicken and waffles. I do like
chicken waffles. It's like a lot, it's heavy, So a
couple of bites in I usually ever regrets, but those
first couple of bites ceremonies other other than that, um,
you know, eggs, benedict, fritatos, gaos, round arrows, achiles. That's
one of my favorites, ChIL achiles. I don't even know
(06:44):
what that is. Oh, you probably couldn't need it. That's
probably true. It's delicious, sad trombone, fancy waffles and bacon,
bagels and locks, pancakes, biscuit sandwiches, home fries or otherwise
pan fried potatoes, breakfast tacos, salads and light sandw just
steaking eggs tofus skillets, eggy pasta skillets. Those are the
things that I feel like I see most places that
(07:05):
have a big old brunch menu. Yeah. Um. And I
added a note to do a future episode on why
are certain foods breakfast foods? Definitely some good stories in there.
Bake bacon is a fun one that involves propaganda and
the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Oh man, what a teaser
(07:28):
we are coming back to that. So historically speaking, where
where did brunch come from? And And actually this part
is why I wanted to do this episode because it's
a very short history. Actually, probably people who have had
leisure time and leisure money have been eating lavish late boarding,
early afternoon break fast break fast meals like like breaking
(07:52):
your fast meals for basically ever, especially in cultures of
conspicuous consumption like royalty class, Renaissance and medieval Europe and
during the Roman Empire. But the word brunch itself in
the Western traditions associated with it are so much more recent.
They're like circle Victorian kind of era. Brunch is thought
to have roots in England's hunt breakfast is um, which
(08:16):
were these larger and later than usual meals servants would
cook up right after a hunting party returned with their
catch and foods included at this sort of thing. According
to food timeline dot org, which is really a very
amazing website, UM include cold cuts, entire legs of ham, tongue,
pickled pork, fried potatoes, pork chops, veal cutlets, anchovies, ham toast.
(08:40):
Not positive what that is, but I want it. Croquettes
Is that croquettes are croquets. I think it's croquettes. Cool
that one savory pudding, savory pies, meat and jelly like
aspect kind of situations. Uh, kidneys, roast larks, royaled ducklings,
deviled turkey, calves had served cold of course, Well are
(09:03):
you gonna eat your cap hit fried fish, oysters, lobster
or partridge salad? Snap, that'd be crazy smoked fish or
meat or sausages for gra omelets and so on and
so forth. This is a very fancy assortment. Yeah. And
a lot of meat, yeah, really real, real protein heavy.
(09:25):
I'm sure that I'm sure that like pastry and stuff
was involved, but like these these are all of the
things that stood out right, And it makes sense if
the hunting party is not returning with like bread, we
have co cut the bread. We went to the bakery.
We returned victorious from a bread hunt. Actually, I've definitely
come back from bakery's feeling like that. Oh yeah, me too.
According to the Smithsonian's website, the word brunch first popped
(09:48):
up in an article from Hunter's Weekly titled quote Brunch.
The article's author, Guy Baringer, was making a case that
in the place of heavy post church lunches, uh, folks
should partake in some lighter foods and have a more
sociable meal, and doing so would be good for your temper,
(10:09):
your fellow humans, and for getting ready the week. He said,
quote branches cheerful, sociable, and inciting. It is talk compelling.
It puts you in a good temper. It makes you
satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings. It sweeps away
the worries and cobwebs of the week. It sounds lovely. Yeah,
put that way right. He was really pushing for it.
It's like a persuasive essay hero And there there was
(10:33):
a part in there that was kind of like, look
we know you've probably got up to some trouble. You're
gonna need something to stop up all that trap um.
A year later, in eight Pennsylvania paper The New Oxford
published the first known written instance of brunch in the
US UM, and that same year in English magazine Needs
(10:54):
Punch advised that this meal should be called runch when
closer to breakfast and blunch when class of the line.
I'm really glad that that's not a thing. This might
be one of those words I just adopt, like I
adopted doodles, So I don't say dude, I say doodle.
That's what I originally was. You guys like Yankee, doodle, dandy,
(11:15):
he's a dude, And yeah he's a doodle, so I say, hey, doodles.
At this point in England it was considered highly fashionable,
like almost a necessity for the elite to to brunch,
and in nineteen hundred the London publication The Academy UH
printed this just amazingly cheeky letter to the editor that
(11:37):
lists similar Portmanteo's um, including brupper, which was described as
the joyous meal you have after a very late dance,
for instance, and consists of supper which might almost be breakfast.
That is such a British word. It also goes on
(11:59):
to say, and I quote, but of course brunch is
undoubtedly far the best of all of them, and is, indeed,
as you remark, the resource of the indolent. I am wow.
I was like, goodness, my gracious, I just love I
just love that cheek in there. That's great indolent, the
resource of the indolent cool. Soon after this, brunch made
(12:23):
it to one particular demographic in the US, white male
college students um. And this is mostly because there weren't
a lot of women or minorities attending college at the time,
because they weren't allowed to. Yeah, and since it was
primarily enjoyed by hungover college kids, brunch was more commonly
known as varsity meal. Yeah. Shoving Ahead to the nineteen thirties,
(12:47):
a culmination of stuff came together to help brunch along,
and one of these things was Hollywood celebrities. They helped
popularize the meal by stopping midway through their transcontinental flights
typical in Chicago to have a late morning meal. Yep.
And like with most things, the rich and famous set
the trend, brunch was starting to take off. Towards the
(13:10):
end of prohibition see the Bloody Mirror episode, and was
seen by wealthy, powerful folk. I read this as they
wouldn't get punished for breaking the law, um as a
chance to start their day with an alcoholic beverage or several,
but in a mixed drink all sneaky like. So it
was like they wanted to drink with their late luxury meal.
(13:31):
They couldn't really unless they hit it in juice basically
a tomato juice or orange juice typically yeah. Uh In
the l A Times hosted a demonstration of this new
vogue uh quote, every woman reader of the Times is
cordially invited to attempt my goodness. Apparently. The menus they
(13:56):
demonstrated included such items as tomato juice, popovers, corned beef,
hash with eggs, fruit salad, baked stuffed, baked stuffed squab,
and two things I'm very confused about balloon potatoes, balloon
potatoes and grat billade Okay, I've got a theory on
(14:19):
the potatoes. I've got a I've got a theory on
the great billade um. Also in seven, a cookbook called Corn,
Beef and Caviare included. A many for a branch of
anchovy and chutney rolls, black bean soup, sauteed kidneys, Indian rice,
and minced celery, and a tomato and clam juice mocktail.
(14:39):
Now why a mocktail? The book said, because this is
one of those cookbooks for women from history that also
included really amazing life advice. And they're really amazing, I mean,
incredibly sexist and condescending. And so the book said that
it was only appropriate for a man to be seen
drinking during the day, and that if the cook, who
would be the hostess of a household obviously um had
(15:02):
something by herself in the kitchen, people would think she
was quote depraved, and that they quote wouldn't be wrong.
Whoa snap cookbook so you could enjoy your tomato and
clam juice mocktail. Man, I've I don't know. I've got
a lot of women. There's no way to know. It's
(15:24):
the whole point, I guess, yeah, oh man, quick questions
questions to ask to ask my grandmother. So a hotel
seized on this idea of brunch since a lot of
restaurants were closed on Sundays and um, a post World
War two dip in church attendance meant that more people
were looking for something to do with friends and family
after sleeping in on Sundays. But restaurants didn't wait long
(15:47):
before joining the hotels and offering New York Cities Tavern
on the Green, pretty famous place, began serving brunch in
the forties, and New York thinks in part perhaps to
that sex in the City thing was named best brunch
city in America by Food and Wine magazine couldn't find
a date on it. Believe it was then much to
(16:09):
the lead singer of the Stroke Sugar and another contributing
factor to brunches rise in the United States was due
to the fact that more married women were entering the
workforce after World War Two. That meant that they needed
to rest up on Sunday night, to which meant that
they needed to not cook and plan and prepare this
at the time customary huge Sunday dinner meal. This meal
(16:32):
was a big deal, like this is why Thanksgiving is
on a Thursday level of big deal because we can't
we can't plan those two big meals too close to
one another. Yes, so Thursday was the closest you could
get to Sunday, and it being weakened, like The New
York Times wrote that Sunday had become a two meal
(16:53):
day in nine and brunch was scene is a way
to save time and money. Huh uh, And the Washington
Post writer Ruth Chambers went as far to label brunch
as quote meal for professional women, another amount of those
status things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Apparently before this, women eating
(17:15):
out in public and heaven forbid without a man was
perceived as scandalous and it was heavily, heavily frowned. Okay, sure, yeah,
of course there were lawsuits about women, yeah, being allowed
to eat in public without a chaperone, bought about by
(17:36):
women some involved in the Voting Rights Act. Yeah, and uh,
this had changed once women started getting factory jobs in
cities and they didn't have the time or desire to
pack a lunch, and they didn't really have a lot
of affordable options that wouldn't possibly put them next to
a strange man at like a lunch counter. Um so,
(18:01):
even at fine restaurants, a lady was supposed to have
a chaperone. And Elizabeth Katie Stanton's daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch
and her friend Hetty Wright Graham suit a restaurant after
it refused to seat them. Even though they lost, the
tide slowly began to change. Eating out in public alone
(18:21):
was seen as a visible indicator of women's liberation, and
runch became a big part of this, so and and
and also of course that's part of the other tie
to this, being like like a white, wealthy meal. Yeah,
this is like white women's liberation tied to that. Yeah, absolutely,
(18:43):
that's that's yeah, civil rights not coming along for another
few decades. Ye. Man, Even brunch is depressing. It's it's
got some funny bits to it. It does it does something.
I mean, okay that this next one is entertaining. Yes.
In the sixties, Cosmo edit or Helen and actually Helen
(19:03):
Gurley Brown has written some of those things you read
that you're like, it's hilarious but also sad because people
believe what she was writing at the time. Yeah, anyway,
Cosmo editor Helen Curley Brown's The Single Girls Cookbook advised
women to make brunch for any guests staying the night,
which at the time flouted the social norm that women
(19:25):
didn't have any gentlemen callers. They did, They definitely did
not like broadcast it, though don't worry and any possible
uh like hint that it was okay or even partially
the norm to have a gentleman caller who might spend
the night. Despite that, the emphasis here was on getting
(19:47):
a gentleman caller to become your husband right. Um. For example,
in this book there was an entire chapter on what
to cook if you find out your man has been
cheating on you when you want him back. See that's
one of these terrible hell and girly brown man. What
what would you cook? Oh? Well, for for that specifically,
I'm not sure, but a sample of brunch menu um
(20:09):
involved in this cookbook was bloody mary eggs in ham cups,
fried apples, and a fruit jello mold. Because of course, yeah,
it was the nineteen sixties and why not. In June
of the New York Times published an article by one
Angela Taylor called and so to brunch bagels and locks
(20:30):
or strawberry strawberry omelets or dot dot dot um and
and it also I've got kind of an extended quote
that just really cements the concept of branches being this
this upper class or at the very least this this
like rising middle class kind of thing. So and I
quote it's very status ey to go out to brunch
(20:52):
on Sunday set a young single woman who lives on
the Upper East Side. But even for the bagels and
locks crowd who haven't heard from status unching out is
a pleasant way to console oneself for not being away
for the weekend. Brunch is a lot of different things
to New Yorkers. It can be the special at the
cafeteria in the Central Park Zoo are the nine dollar
and fifty cent menu, and the plaza's palm court, where
(21:14):
lesser folks stare at the well healed tourists and the
clink of good china punctuates a polite hubbub. Brench is
also the polyglot racket of a Chinatown dumpling house, where
you gorge on exotic tidbits and the check is figured
by the number of empty plates on your table. It's
champagne cocktails by candle light in Gretwich Village, or even McDonald's,
where single women sometimes hunt for divorced fathers entertaining their offspring. WHOA.
(21:38):
I did not see that coming. I was like, what
a twist. Some time I wanted to read that whole chunk.
I was like, okay, all right, Angela Taylor, thanks okay,
thanks for that look into the man, and it seems
that common menu items at the time were the kind
of things that we sort of expect today. The expnedict
(21:58):
bloody Mary's bagels and law um interesting omelets like like
a caviar and sour cream. Way, maybe that is very fancy.
I would totally eat that, like right now, despite the
fact that I shouldn't have eggs. I guess what I
mean is, I would just eat caviar and sour cream.
I'll take the car and sour cream, mamlet. Hold the eggs.
(22:20):
Brunch crystallized into its final form during the eighties, when Americans,
who now had more disposable income, welcomed with open arms
the hotel brunch buffet, and its spread from cities to towns,
from upscale restaurants to places like I Hup and A
sample menu from a contemporary nineteen eighties cookbook, Sunset Brunch.
(22:42):
Creamy scrambled eggs and baked potato boats, Oh looks really great,
fruit salad and a pineapple shell. Champagne and coffee and
also dudes were featured cooking and photos in the book
What What I don't even know. Yeah. Wow. Around this
(23:04):
time in the eighties is when breakfast started to decline.
UM data from the International Food Information Council Foundation shows
that in n of Americans ate breakfast, but by two
thousand and two that number I dropped to, which is
actually higher than I thought it would be. Yeah, I
eat breakfast time I wake up. The reason I wake
(23:24):
up is usually I'm hungry. Oh no, I put it
off as far as long as possible. I'll have like
a yogurt like around like eleven or noon. Oh my gosh.
Until then, it's just coffee and pure vim. I'm like
at six am, I'm I'm awakened, Like, when can I
eat right now? I've got to find something immediately. I
(23:48):
usually don't like up hungry. I usually have no desire
to eat for a few hours. I used to be
like that in high school, but things have changed. In
the nineteen nineties, brunch spread to Saturday, which brings us
to pretty much modern day brunch. But first, let's stop
for a quick word from our sponsor, and we're back.
(24:13):
Thank you sponsor. Yes. Yes. According to an article I
read from the Washington Post, Google searches for brunch have
gone up since two thousand four, and they pretty consistently
spiked what days are They're pretty close to each other.
They well, yeah, well it's it's it's another. It's it's
another too, like like, let's give the lady who's clearly
(24:36):
the cook a break from cooking. And so those days
are Mother's Day and Easter. Mother's Day I guessed immediately,
But Easter, yeah, I mean, I don't know what else
I would have guessed, but I wouldn't have. It's not
like Halloween. I mean, that's for those for for Mother's Day.
Brunches started popping up in newspapers around the nineties. Yeah.
(24:57):
And when brunch first started gaining momentum outside of celebrities
in the US, uh, that whole cooking and cleaning thing
took up two hours a day of a married woman's time.
But now that numbers are around five hours a week. Yeah. Um,
and outside of brunch, Mother's Day is still the most
popular day a year to eat out. And it is
(25:19):
like we said that. I mean, even in my family,
might dad would be like, let's give your mama day off.
We'll take her out somewhere, okay, which is which is sweet?
It is it's just steeped in institutionalized sexism. But I
mean it's weird. It's a weird thing because in my family, Um,
(25:40):
I feel like my mom and I would rather not
go eat out, go out to eat. Yeah, it's it's
but it's seen as like, well, we've got it. Yeah,
brunch on Mother's Day is a vaguely miserable experience like that.
It's just so, it's so, it's so much. It's complete
sensory overload. For me. I kind of can't handle being
in a restaurant with that many children. Yeah, I mean
(26:01):
kids are great. Just I've never I've never risked Mother's
Day frunch. We always go like a lunch dinner thing.
I've never tried for the mons day brunch. It sounds
very intimidating the reservation process. No, thank you. Other than you.
People who tend to not be very fond of of
(26:23):
brunch include basically the entire restaurant industry because it means
like working late Saturday night and getting up early Sunday
and figuring out a menu that has breakfast foods and
lunch foods and specialized runch fusion foods that you can
only get it runch. Yeah, all of which are right,
are are different and probably using entirely different ingredients than
(26:44):
you use on your normal lunch and dinner menus. And
on top of that, most restaurants don't get deliveries on
the weekend, so you're probably eating the not so fresh
leftovers of the week and paying so much for it. Uh.
And the staff working brunch is usually the newer which
doesn't have to be bad, but you know, they're less
(27:06):
season staff since it's the quote less busy shift and
at least like so it's like the last pick. And
even though it's expensive, it's not as much as dinner,
so waiters are not making as much in tips. It's
not particularly fun food to make. I read a lot
of the quoture a pain in the butt to cook
to temperature, especially when people are very picky about egg temperature, which,
(27:30):
to be fair, is the thing I've complained about before. Yeah, no,
it's more in the way you complain. I feel like
French crowds feel a little bit entitled because they're bouge
and your bottom was drank. They're probably almost definitely using
the cheap stuff, so yeah, I mean, I guess that's obvious,
(27:51):
but most chefs recommends just going to a breakfast place.
And first of all, note most of my favorite brunch
places in Atlanta are more like breakfast places that are
just open yeah during brunch times, I guess must a
minor as well. Um. So, apart from apart from the
price tag which we've been talking about and the entire
(28:11):
restaurant industry hating brunch, what is let's let's let's talk
about this problem, this problem that is brunch that we've
been not even tiptoeing, just bulldozing right through for this
entire episode. Um, this is a meal, that's the whole
existence is thanks to excess. It's like excess food, excess money,
(28:32):
excess time, and it's always been a meal for people
who are well off. You're not gonna do this leisurely
our plus long meal, h an expensive meal, a social
meal on the weekend unless you've got the money and
that time to do so. A lot of things I
read try and compared it to like a public culinary
(28:55):
display of money and privilege. Movements like hash by Black
Brunch have stage protests at brunch for this reason, and
recently brunch has also become associated with gentrification. Uh, it's
a meal that can be enjoyed by young professionals with
extra time and money who don't have kids to worry
about and to find affordable housing for also time to
(29:17):
waste regarding waiting when there aren't reservations. Like I said, Um,
a lot of brunch places don't take them. Yeah. I
tried to find out why. That was all I could
find is why generally restaurants don't take reservations. Um. And
this is also something I had never really thought about,
the kids thing, like all the other stuff I had considered, um,
(29:40):
but I never really thought about, like, uh, just the
time you don't have time if you've got kids. Ye, yes,
because yeah, I mean I still I still see people
with kids. They're sure. Sure, I see families out, but yeah,
but it's a whole I mean, it's definitely wre a
deal to to get especially more than one child, like
like dressed and out of the house and to this restaurant.
(30:01):
And is I mean, depending on the age of the child,
like is it is it going to be around their
meal time? Like is there going to be something the
kid's gonna want to eat? Like is it gonna like
is it gonna lead to a meltdown? Is it going
to be way less fun than just staying home would
have been for you to begin with. Yeah, yep, all
that stuff. So the data I mentioned earlier from the
(30:25):
Google trends UM actually did not find this correlation of
like gentrification UM on a state level, But it did
find a small correlation between brunch and income and the
percentage of the population living in urban areas those two
things share. That makes sense, Yeah, it was pretty small though.
(30:46):
The largest correlation was between brunch and the percentage of
the population made up of Jewish people. Biligatory disclaimer the episode. Remember,
correlation does not equal of course. Yes, um. Brunch didn't
show a correlation with any of the other religions looked at,
and that surprised me because I always kind of thought
it was like people getting out after church, We're going
(31:07):
to brunch. But I guess um a lot of churches
do like potlux. This is one explanation offered up for
why brunch may may be more popular among Jewish communities
because it's presented as an alternative to church on Sundays.
So what's the future of brunch? After the twenty sixteen
(31:27):
American election, some analysts thought the consumerism that brunch can
represent would be like the death of brunch. And I've
heard a lot of people say protest is the new brunch,
but so far that hasn't really been the case. And
there's even dog of brunch DJs. Now why is there
(31:50):
ever a DJ in a restaurant? I don't know. Um, So,
so this this is all, this is all very Western
and specifically very amy Can culture that we've been talking about,
and we do have a few notes about brunch brunch
type meals enjoyed in other cultures. But first we're going
(32:10):
to take another quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor. So uh Brench Brench
around the world. One of the first things that I
think of when I think of brunch is dim sum,
because we're very lucky here in Atlanta to have a
(32:31):
wonderful uh international population and some really good, really good
damn sum. Yeah. I love me some dim sum. When
I was kind of looking into I didn't want to
research dym sum too much because we're going to do
it's definitely a whole other episode. Yeah, it deserves its
whole this whole thing. But um, when I was looking
up like brunch around the world. Dim Sum is often
(32:54):
called the original brunch um, and the name dmn sum
referns to bite sized foods that usually come in steamer
baskets are small plates that are passed around on food
carts typically. Um. Yes, we will come back to that, absolutely, definitely.
There's also and I had never heard of this one, um,
but there's there's apparently a thing in Dubai called Friday brunch. Yes,
(33:19):
it sounds like American brunch, but on steroids. The work
weekend Dubai is Sunday to Thursday, and so Friday is
like when the weekend starts and you start your weekend
with this lavish, over the top brunch. Um. Like, for instance,
(33:40):
you need a map, a map to navigate the thirty
seven stations for all that dominates an entire floor of
this Like I think it's an office building, um, And
I looked up pictures and it it's not seven station map.
I can't imagine entering a restaurant and oh I can
(34:03):
and it's delightful. Um. Caviar and champagne are pretty common
at all of these Friday brunches. If anyone's experienced that, yeah,
let us know. Send us pictures that sounds that sounds wonderful.
So that's kind of brunch. Yeah, that's that's kind of
that's kind of what we have to say about brunch.
And you may be noticing that there's still a few
(34:24):
minutes of the podcast left, and that's because that's because
we've got we've got a fancy new listener mail segment
for you. Okay, So listener Bella wrote in with a
yogurt tale of her own. She said, story time. In
my house, three of us eat yogurt every morning for breakfast,
and we were going through approximately a court of two
(34:47):
yogurt a day to keep up with the demand. Um.
Since it's so expensive, especially the Greek variety, my parents
and I decided to invest in a Queens and Our
yogurt maker. It's a bit time consuming, but I've got
it down to a system relay. Now. Every evening I
assemble the ingredients and start the sixteen hour fermentation process.
It ferments overnight and is finished at about nine the
next morning, in time for someone typically my mother, to
(35:10):
turn it off and put the full container in the
fridge to cool and thicken. Then when I arrived home
from school, I immediately transfer the yogurt into a strainer
specifically for turning regular yogurt into Greek. About three hours later,
I take it out and scoop the now greek yogurt
into one cup portions in mason jars. I also set
aside three quarters cup for starting the next batch. I
(35:30):
drained the removed way into bottles that I later take
to school. In my lunch to drink to the jars
of yogurt, I sprinkle one tablespoon of cheese seeds on
top to eliminate any additional way that separates. Sometimes I
had frode fruit on top of seeds as well, so
it can thaw and the melted juice can gel the
seeds as well. I love that. That is so beautiful.
She's got a system down. She doesn't waste anything right.
(35:54):
That's also man way more motivated than I am. So
so high fives, like, yeah, Internet, so many Internet. You
are an inspiration. Yes, I want to try that with
the cheese seats though. Yeah, that sounds really good. Um.
Listener Rissa threw her hat into the food Sadness ruining
(36:14):
arena with this note. Oh. She wrote, Hey, Lauren and Annie,
I heard about your podcast from stuff He in history class,
and I have enjoyed every episode, especially while I'm cooking.
I am a teacher and a cake decorator, so you
two feed my educational and natural hugger. I'm writing to
you with a suggestion for a podcast on food coloring.
(36:36):
If I had to describe my cake decorating job badly,
I would say I cover sweetbread with fat, sugar, and
food coloring, all of which can kill you in large quantities. Well,
we all know that fat and sugar aren't great for
you in the long run, both of which you discussed
on the Sugar podcast. Likes all caps, but most Americans
do not realize that many color additives in our food
(37:00):
are considered toxic in Europe, the most common being red
number forty. If only they could see how much food
coloring gel is required to make red velvet cake, they
may never touch it again. I certainly don't keep up
the word. The good work ladies, and I look forward
to listening next week. Ah. That's that's the thing that
I made a red velvet cake for a friend a
(37:21):
few years back, and I was just like what, No,
I was so grossed out by it. It was really
it was really upsetting. Yeah, I've only made it from
the mix, so I've never had to like actually see,
like cope with the sheer amount of yeah it is.
Isn't it just chocolate cake? Or die? It's like it's
(37:41):
like light chocolate. It's like a it's like a mid
chocolate cake. I wouldn't I wouldn't call it full on chocolate. Okay, Okay,
Well thanks for that. So that's it for this episode. Yeah,
if you would like to get in touch with us,
as these lovely human have done. Um our Twitter account
(38:03):
is at food stuff. Hs W stands for how Stuff Works. Um.
Our Instagram account is at food stuff and our email
is food stuff at how stuff works dot com. Yes,
please write us. We'd love so much to hear from
you if you have any suggestions, any topics you'd like
to hear us cover, Yeah, absolutely, um or any any
(38:24):
corrections or just just any other interesting cultural notes about
food stuff we've talked about from from your own little
neck of the woods. Uh. Also, oh hey, thank thank
you to Noel Brown, our audio producer who is hanging
out in here with us today. Thank you all for listening.
Um we hope that you'll tune in again, and that
(38:44):
many more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogba and
I'm any and today. Uh. We figured that since our
last episode was about Bloody Mary's, we might as well
do an episode about French. Yeah. It was one of
the first topics we kind of discussed that wasn't straight
up just a food. Yeah, because it's a very specific
(00:29):
cultural phenomenon and a very like specifically Bougee one. There's
a lot of weird like class and culture kind of things,
gross ichy things like kind of wrapped up into the
concept of Brench. But it's also this joyous celebratory occasion
of having lived through Saturday night. So essentially, do you
(00:52):
do Do you like Brenches? Annie? Uh? I do. I
sometimes question myself when I do it because I do
feel be fuji about the whole thing. Um. And I
went on a like a brunch bender a couple of
years ago. Laura knows this about me, but I like
obsess about maps and cities and doing all the best
(01:14):
things in that city. Maximizing, Yes, we call it maximizing. Uh.
And I did it for Atlanta brunch. So I was
like every weekend getting a new different place. Yeah. So
I was big into it for like a very brief period,
and now I just wake up so early. I don't
like I can't wait around for brunch. You've had three
(01:36):
breakfasts already by the time of brunch rolls around exactly.
How about you? Do you like brunch? Um? I am
really bad at brunch because I shouldn't really eat whole eggs.
It's one of many things that I shouldn't really consume
for my good health. My body gets so mad at
me about various things, and whole eggs are one of them.
And so it's kind of like, well, yeah, well there
you go. Most of the menu. Probably, Yeah, I do
(01:57):
love I do love a like an egg, a dickt
or something like that. But I'm willing to order that
at any time. I mean, if a kitchen serve that
to me, like seven pm, I would definitely order it.
That runch is not as widespread as I thought it was,
and we will get back to that. But it is
a combination of breakfast and lunch. The word itself, as
a portmanteau is dictionary dot COM's word of the Day
(02:19):
a couple of days ago. Of those two things. Yes,
that's right, I get the word of the day emails.
And this is a meal that's relegated to the weekend,
typically between tennish and three pmsh, but can go as
early as eight and then it can go as late
as four, which what a night you must have had?
(02:44):
Are are you could just be hungry at for And
it's a socially acceptable ish time to drink in the
mornings and spend eighteen dollars on eggs. Yeah, and we're
all super excited to do that. It's kind of seen
is this more social relaxed meal? Um, Like, breakfast is
something I feel. You get in, you eat your food
(03:04):
and get out. But brunches like we're just gonna chill
a possibly ours and catch up on everything that we
could possibly need to catch up on, right, I mean
most people are going to brunch somebody wants yeah, a
lot of Otherwise you might just go to a diner
or something like that. Yeah, there's somebody in the group
that's like, do they serve mimosas? Are they bottomless? Exactly?
(03:27):
They sat person? Sometimes it's me and then sometimes if
that person is me, you forget that. In Atlanta, we
have liquor laws. We still have these blue laws that
are held over from from not all that long ago. Um,
and we've gotten rid of some of them. But you
still can't serve alcohol before twelve thirty pm on a Sunday, right,
which means that if you're going to brunch, and most
(03:49):
places in Atlanta don't take reservations for brunch, there's a
surge of people arriving right at twet so like minutes
of four a half hour before the weight could be
ten minutes twelve thirty two hours. Like another thing about
brunches that usually the foods are in quotes more experimental
(04:11):
kind of fusion ee ish. Sure people like to get
creative with their bunch options, so it's not just so
many omelets. You know you can get creative with omelets now,
you certainly can. And the Internet tells me there are
a lot of strong opinions about when qualifies as brunch. Yes,
I never I've never been fussed by it. I'm like,
I'm like, brunch is really more of a state of mind.
So yeah, which actually brings brings us back to the
(04:34):
point of of of brunch having this well deserved reputation
of being a completely like, lavish, unnecessary, bougie kind of thing. Yeah. Uh,
And it also has this kind of also deserved perception
as a rich white person. In particular, one of the
quotes I kept saying popping up when I was researching
(04:55):
brunches from the lead singer of The Strokes, who moved
out of New York to get away from brunch, saying
in a g Q article, quote, I don't know how
many like white people having brunch I can deal with
on a Saturday afternoon. Yeah, no, fair enough, though. That's
and it's also apparently gendered feminine, which is also apparently
(05:17):
a running sitcom joke. We're on that later two. Now
that we're talking about it, I've never had this in
my head that it was like a lady's meal, But
now that we're talking about it, I kind of, I guess,
I guess I've seen the I guess I've seen that
in pop culture, like like a lady brunch kind of thing,
like I've seen, sure, totally, But but in my personal
(05:39):
experience it's usually been you have friends of mine who
have been super excited about brunch. So I don't know. Yeah,
I've never been at a restaurant and thought to myself, wow,
it's all ladies in here. I did used to have
lady brunches with with with A Tracy V. Wilson and
our friend abey Man Labis. But she used to make
great brunch recommendations. She did. Oh yeah, oh yeah, she
(06:01):
knew about She knew about that stuff. I'm sure she
still does. She's not dead. Nothing has happened to Tracy
speaking of brunch recommendations, like, what are the kind of
general ish things you'll find on a brunch menu aside
from the aforementioned mimosas and Bloody Mary's. Um. Here in Atlanta,
(06:23):
we got things like chicken and waffles. I do like
chicken waffles. It's like a lot, it's heavy, So a
couple of bites in I usually ever regrets, but those
first couple of bites ceremonies other other than that, um,
you know, eggs, benedict, fritatos, gaos, round arrows, achiles. That's
one of my favorites, ChIL achiles. I don't even know
(06:44):
what that is. Oh, you probably couldn't need it. That's
probably true. It's delicious, sad trombone, fancy waffles and bacon,
bagels and locks, pancakes, biscuit sandwiches, home fries or otherwise
pan fried potatoes, breakfast tacos, salads and light sandw just
steaking eggs tofus skillets, eggy pasta skillets. Those are the
things that I feel like I see most places that
(07:05):
have a big old brunch menu. Yeah. Um. And I
added a note to do a future episode on why
are certain foods breakfast foods? Definitely some good stories in there.
Bake bacon is a fun one that involves propaganda and
the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Oh man, what a teaser
(07:28):
we are coming back to that. So historically speaking, where
where did brunch come from? And And actually this part
is why I wanted to do this episode because it's
a very short history. Actually, probably people who have had
leisure time and leisure money have been eating lavish late boarding,
early afternoon break fast break fast meals like like breaking
(07:52):
your fast meals for basically ever, especially in cultures of
conspicuous consumption like royalty class, Renaissance and medieval Europe and
during the Roman Empire. But the word brunch itself in
the Western traditions associated with it are so much more recent.
They're like circle Victorian kind of era. Brunch is thought
to have roots in England's hunt breakfast is um, which
(08:16):
were these larger and later than usual meals servants would
cook up right after a hunting party returned with their
catch and foods included at this sort of thing. According
to food timeline dot org, which is really a very
amazing website, UM include cold cuts, entire legs of ham, tongue,
pickled pork, fried potatoes, pork chops, veal cutlets, anchovies, ham toast.
(08:40):
Not positive what that is, but I want it. Croquettes
Is that croquettes are croquets. I think it's croquettes. Cool
that one savory pudding, savory pies, meat and jelly like
aspect kind of situations. Uh, kidneys, roast larks, royaled ducklings,
deviled turkey, calves had served cold of course, Well are
(09:03):
you gonna eat your cap hit fried fish, oysters, lobster
or partridge salad? Snap, that'd be crazy smoked fish or
meat or sausages for gra omelets and so on and
so forth. This is a very fancy assortment. Yeah. And
a lot of meat, yeah, really real, real protein heavy.
(09:25):
I'm sure that I'm sure that like pastry and stuff
was involved, but like these these are all of the
things that stood out right, And it makes sense if
the hunting party is not returning with like bread, we
have co cut the bread. We went to the bakery.
We returned victorious from a bread hunt. Actually, I've definitely
come back from bakery's feeling like that. Oh yeah, me too.
According to the Smithsonian's website, the word brunch first popped
(09:48):
up in an article from Hunter's Weekly titled quote Brunch.
The article's author, Guy Baringer, was making a case that
in the place of heavy post church lunches, uh, folks
should partake in some lighter foods and have a more
sociable meal, and doing so would be good for your temper,
(10:09):
your fellow humans, and for getting ready the week. He said,
quote branches cheerful, sociable, and inciting. It is talk compelling.
It puts you in a good temper. It makes you
satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings. It sweeps away
the worries and cobwebs of the week. It sounds lovely. Yeah,
put that way right. He was really pushing for it.
It's like a persuasive essay hero And there there was
(10:33):
a part in there that was kind of like, look
we know you've probably got up to some trouble. You're
gonna need something to stop up all that trap um.
A year later, in eight Pennsylvania paper The New Oxford
published the first known written instance of brunch in the
US UM, and that same year in English magazine Needs
(10:54):
Punch advised that this meal should be called runch when
closer to breakfast and blunch when class of the line.
I'm really glad that that's not a thing. This might
be one of those words I just adopt, like I
adopted doodles, So I don't say dude, I say doodle.
That's what I originally was. You guys like Yankee, doodle, dandy,
(11:15):
he's a dude, And yeah he's a doodle, so I say, hey, doodles.
At this point in England it was considered highly fashionable,
like almost a necessity for the elite to to brunch,
and in nineteen hundred the London publication The Academy UH
printed this just amazingly cheeky letter to the editor that
(11:37):
lists similar Portmanteo's um, including brupper, which was described as
the joyous meal you have after a very late dance,
for instance, and consists of supper which might almost be breakfast.
That is such a British word. It also goes on
(11:59):
to say, and I quote, but of course brunch is
undoubtedly far the best of all of them, and is, indeed,
as you remark, the resource of the indolent. I am wow.
I was like, goodness, my gracious, I just love I
just love that cheek in there. That's great indolent, the
resource of the indolent cool. Soon after this, brunch made
(12:23):
it to one particular demographic in the US, white male
college students um. And this is mostly because there weren't
a lot of women or minorities attending college at the time,
because they weren't allowed to. Yeah, and since it was
primarily enjoyed by hungover college kids, brunch was more commonly
known as varsity meal. Yeah. Shoving Ahead to the nineteen thirties,
(12:47):
a culmination of stuff came together to help brunch along,
and one of these things was Hollywood celebrities. They helped
popularize the meal by stopping midway through their transcontinental flights
typical in Chicago to have a late morning meal. Yep.
And like with most things, the rich and famous set
the trend, brunch was starting to take off. Towards the
(13:10):
end of prohibition see the Bloody Mirror episode, and was
seen by wealthy, powerful folk. I read this as they
wouldn't get punished for breaking the law, um as a
chance to start their day with an alcoholic beverage or several,
but in a mixed drink all sneaky like. So it
was like they wanted to drink with their late luxury meal.
(13:31):
They couldn't really unless they hit it in juice basically
a tomato juice or orange juice typically yeah. Uh In
the l A Times hosted a demonstration of this new
vogue uh quote, every woman reader of the Times is
cordially invited to attempt my goodness. Apparently. The menus they
(13:56):
demonstrated included such items as tomato juice, popovers, corned beef,
hash with eggs, fruit salad, baked stuffed, baked stuffed squab,
and two things I'm very confused about balloon potatoes, balloon
potatoes and grat billade Okay, I've got a theory on
(14:19):
the potatoes. I've got a I've got a theory on
the great billade um. Also in seven, a cookbook called Corn,
Beef and Caviare included. A many for a branch of
anchovy and chutney rolls, black bean soup, sauteed kidneys, Indian rice,
and minced celery, and a tomato and clam juice mocktail.
(14:39):
Now why a mocktail? The book said, because this is
one of those cookbooks for women from history that also
included really amazing life advice. And they're really amazing, I mean,
incredibly sexist and condescending. And so the book said that
it was only appropriate for a man to be seen
drinking during the day, and that if the cook, who
would be the hostess of a household obviously um had
(15:02):
something by herself in the kitchen, people would think she
was quote depraved, and that they quote wouldn't be wrong.
Whoa snap cookbook so you could enjoy your tomato and
clam juice mocktail. Man, I've I don't know. I've got
a lot of women. There's no way to know. It's
(15:24):
the whole point, I guess, yeah, oh man, quick questions
questions to ask to ask my grandmother. So a hotel
seized on this idea of brunch since a lot of
restaurants were closed on Sundays and um, a post World
War two dip in church attendance meant that more people
were looking for something to do with friends and family
after sleeping in on Sundays. But restaurants didn't wait long
(15:47):
before joining the hotels and offering New York Cities Tavern
on the Green, pretty famous place, began serving brunch in
the forties, and New York thinks in part perhaps to
that sex in the City thing was named best brunch
city in America by Food and Wine magazine couldn't find
a date on it. Believe it was then much to
(16:09):
the lead singer of the Stroke Sugar and another contributing
factor to brunches rise in the United States was due
to the fact that more married women were entering the
workforce after World War Two. That meant that they needed
to rest up on Sunday night, to which meant that
they needed to not cook and plan and prepare this
at the time customary huge Sunday dinner meal. This meal
(16:32):
was a big deal, like this is why Thanksgiving is
on a Thursday level of big deal because we can't
we can't plan those two big meals too close to
one another. Yes, so Thursday was the closest you could
get to Sunday, and it being weakened, like The New
York Times wrote that Sunday had become a two meal
(16:53):
day in nine and brunch was scene is a way
to save time and money. Huh uh, And the Washington
Post writer Ruth Chambers went as far to label brunch
as quote meal for professional women, another amount of those
status things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Apparently before this, women eating
(17:15):
out in public and heaven forbid without a man was
perceived as scandalous and it was heavily, heavily frowned. Okay, sure, yeah,
of course there were lawsuits about women, yeah, being allowed
to eat in public without a chaperone, bought about by
(17:36):
women some involved in the Voting Rights Act. Yeah, and uh,
this had changed once women started getting factory jobs in
cities and they didn't have the time or desire to
pack a lunch, and they didn't really have a lot
of affordable options that wouldn't possibly put them next to
a strange man at like a lunch counter. Um so,
(18:01):
even at fine restaurants, a lady was supposed to have
a chaperone. And Elizabeth Katie Stanton's daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch
and her friend Hetty Wright Graham suit a restaurant after
it refused to seat them. Even though they lost, the
tide slowly began to change. Eating out in public alone
(18:21):
was seen as a visible indicator of women's liberation, and
runch became a big part of this, so and and
and also of course that's part of the other tie
to this, being like like a white, wealthy meal. Yeah,
this is like white women's liberation tied to that. Yeah, absolutely,
(18:43):
that's that's yeah, civil rights not coming along for another
few decades. Ye. Man, Even brunch is depressing. It's it's
got some funny bits to it. It does it does something.
I mean, okay that this next one is entertaining. Yes.
In the sixties, Cosmo edit or Helen and actually Helen
(19:03):
Gurley Brown has written some of those things you read
that you're like, it's hilarious but also sad because people
believe what she was writing at the time. Yeah, anyway,
Cosmo editor Helen Curley Brown's The Single Girls Cookbook advised
women to make brunch for any guests staying the night,
which at the time flouted the social norm that women
(19:25):
didn't have any gentlemen callers. They did, They definitely did
not like broadcast it, though don't worry and any possible
uh like hint that it was okay or even partially
the norm to have a gentleman caller who might spend
the night. Despite that, the emphasis here was on getting
(19:47):
a gentleman caller to become your husband right. Um. For example,
in this book there was an entire chapter on what
to cook if you find out your man has been
cheating on you when you want him back. See that's
one of these terrible hell and girly brown man. What
what would you cook? Oh? Well, for for that specifically,
I'm not sure, but a sample of brunch menu um
(20:09):
involved in this cookbook was bloody mary eggs in ham cups,
fried apples, and a fruit jello mold. Because of course, yeah,
it was the nineteen sixties and why not. In June
of the New York Times published an article by one
Angela Taylor called and so to brunch bagels and locks
(20:30):
or strawberry strawberry omelets or dot dot dot um and
and it also I've got kind of an extended quote
that just really cements the concept of branches being this
this upper class or at the very least this this
like rising middle class kind of thing. So and I
quote it's very status ey to go out to brunch
(20:52):
on Sunday set a young single woman who lives on
the Upper East Side. But even for the bagels and
locks crowd who haven't heard from status unching out is
a pleasant way to console oneself for not being away
for the weekend. Brunch is a lot of different things
to New Yorkers. It can be the special at the
cafeteria in the Central Park Zoo are the nine dollar
and fifty cent menu, and the plaza's palm court, where
(21:14):
lesser folks stare at the well healed tourists and the
clink of good china punctuates a polite hubbub. Brench is
also the polyglot racket of a Chinatown dumpling house, where
you gorge on exotic tidbits and the check is figured
by the number of empty plates on your table. It's
champagne cocktails by candle light in Gretwich Village, or even McDonald's,
where single women sometimes hunt for divorced fathers entertaining their offspring. WHOA.
(21:38):
I did not see that coming. I was like, what
a twist. Some time I wanted to read that whole chunk.
I was like, okay, all right, Angela Taylor, thanks okay,
thanks for that look into the man, and it seems
that common menu items at the time were the kind
of things that we sort of expect today. The expnedict
(21:58):
bloody Mary's bagels and law um interesting omelets like like
a caviar and sour cream. Way, maybe that is very fancy.
I would totally eat that, like right now, despite the
fact that I shouldn't have eggs. I guess what I
mean is, I would just eat caviar and sour cream.
I'll take the car and sour cream, mamlet. Hold the eggs.
(22:20):
Brunch crystallized into its final form during the eighties, when Americans,
who now had more disposable income, welcomed with open arms
the hotel brunch buffet, and its spread from cities to towns,
from upscale restaurants to places like I Hup and A
sample menu from a contemporary nineteen eighties cookbook, Sunset Brunch.
(22:42):
Creamy scrambled eggs and baked potato boats, Oh looks really great,
fruit salad and a pineapple shell. Champagne and coffee and
also dudes were featured cooking and photos in the book
What What I don't even know. Yeah. Wow. Around this
(23:04):
time in the eighties is when breakfast started to decline.
UM data from the International Food Information Council Foundation shows
that in n of Americans ate breakfast, but by two
thousand and two that number I dropped to, which is
actually higher than I thought it would be. Yeah, I
eat breakfast time I wake up. The reason I wake
(23:24):
up is usually I'm hungry. Oh no, I put it
off as far as long as possible. I'll have like
a yogurt like around like eleven or noon. Oh my gosh.
Until then, it's just coffee and pure vim. I'm like
at six am, I'm I'm awakened, Like, when can I
eat right now? I've got to find something immediately. I
(23:48):
usually don't like up hungry. I usually have no desire
to eat for a few hours. I used to be
like that in high school, but things have changed. In
the nineteen nineties, brunch spread to Saturday, which brings us
to pretty much modern day brunch. But first, let's stop
for a quick word from our sponsor, and we're back.
(24:13):
Thank you sponsor. Yes. Yes. According to an article I
read from the Washington Post, Google searches for brunch have
gone up since two thousand four, and they pretty consistently
spiked what days are They're pretty close to each other.
They well, yeah, well it's it's it's another. It's it's
another too, like like, let's give the lady who's clearly
(24:36):
the cook a break from cooking. And so those days
are Mother's Day and Easter. Mother's Day I guessed immediately,
But Easter, yeah, I mean, I don't know what else
I would have guessed, but I wouldn't have. It's not
like Halloween. I mean, that's for those for for Mother's Day.
Brunches started popping up in newspapers around the nineties. Yeah.
(24:57):
And when brunch first started gaining momentum outside of celebrities
in the US, uh, that whole cooking and cleaning thing
took up two hours a day of a married woman's time.
But now that numbers are around five hours a week. Yeah. Um,
and outside of brunch, Mother's Day is still the most
popular day a year to eat out. And it is
(25:19):
like we said that. I mean, even in my family,
might dad would be like, let's give your mama day off.
We'll take her out somewhere, okay, which is which is sweet?
It is it's just steeped in institutionalized sexism. But I
mean it's weird. It's a weird thing because in my family, Um,
(25:40):
I feel like my mom and I would rather not
go eat out, go out to eat. Yeah, it's it's
but it's seen as like, well, we've got it. Yeah,
brunch on Mother's Day is a vaguely miserable experience like that.
It's just so, it's so, it's so much. It's complete
sensory overload. For me. I kind of can't handle being
in a restaurant with that many children. Yeah, I mean
(26:01):
kids are great. Just I've never I've never risked Mother's
Day frunch. We always go like a lunch dinner thing.
I've never tried for the mons day brunch. It sounds
very intimidating the reservation process. No, thank you. Other than you.
People who tend to not be very fond of of
(26:23):
brunch include basically the entire restaurant industry because it means
like working late Saturday night and getting up early Sunday
and figuring out a menu that has breakfast foods and
lunch foods and specialized runch fusion foods that you can
only get it runch. Yeah, all of which are right,
are are different and probably using entirely different ingredients than
(26:44):
you use on your normal lunch and dinner menus. And
on top of that, most restaurants don't get deliveries on
the weekend, so you're probably eating the not so fresh
leftovers of the week and paying so much for it. Uh.
And the staff working brunch is usually the newer which
doesn't have to be bad, but you know, they're less
(27:06):
season staff since it's the quote less busy shift and
at least like so it's like the last pick. And
even though it's expensive, it's not as much as dinner,
so waiters are not making as much in tips. It's
not particularly fun food to make. I read a lot
of the quoture a pain in the butt to cook
to temperature, especially when people are very picky about egg temperature, which,
(27:30):
to be fair, is the thing I've complained about before. Yeah, no,
it's more in the way you complain. I feel like
French crowds feel a little bit entitled because they're bouge
and your bottom was drank. They're probably almost definitely using
the cheap stuff, so yeah, I mean, I guess that's obvious,
(27:51):
but most chefs recommends just going to a breakfast place.
And first of all, note most of my favorite brunch
places in Atlanta are more like breakfast places that are
just open yeah during brunch times, I guess must a
minor as well. Um. So, apart from apart from the
price tag which we've been talking about and the entire
(28:11):
restaurant industry hating brunch, what is let's let's let's talk
about this problem, this problem that is brunch that we've
been not even tiptoeing, just bulldozing right through for this
entire episode. Um, this is a meal, that's the whole
existence is thanks to excess. It's like excess food, excess money,
(28:32):
excess time, and it's always been a meal for people
who are well off. You're not gonna do this leisurely
our plus long meal, h an expensive meal, a social
meal on the weekend unless you've got the money and
that time to do so. A lot of things I
read try and compared it to like a public culinary
(28:55):
display of money and privilege. Movements like hash by Black
Brunch have stage protests at brunch for this reason, and
recently brunch has also become associated with gentrification. Uh, it's
a meal that can be enjoyed by young professionals with
extra time and money who don't have kids to worry
about and to find affordable housing for also time to
(29:17):
waste regarding waiting when there aren't reservations. Like I said, Um,
a lot of brunch places don't take them. Yeah. I
tried to find out why. That was all I could
find is why generally restaurants don't take reservations. Um. And
this is also something I had never really thought about,
the kids thing, like all the other stuff I had considered, um,
(29:40):
but I never really thought about, like, uh, just the
time you don't have time if you've got kids. Ye, yes,
because yeah, I mean I still I still see people
with kids. They're sure. Sure, I see families out, but yeah,
but it's a whole I mean, it's definitely wre a
deal to to get especially more than one child, like
like dressed and out of the house and to this restaurant.
(30:01):
And is I mean, depending on the age of the child,
like is it is it going to be around their
meal time? Like is there going to be something the
kid's gonna want to eat? Like is it gonna like
is it gonna lead to a meltdown? Is it going
to be way less fun than just staying home would
have been for you to begin with. Yeah, yep, all
that stuff. So the data I mentioned earlier from the
(30:25):
Google trends UM actually did not find this correlation of
like gentrification UM on a state level, But it did
find a small correlation between brunch and income and the
percentage of the population living in urban areas those two
things share. That makes sense, Yeah, it was pretty small though.
(30:46):
The largest correlation was between brunch and the percentage of
the population made up of Jewish people. Biligatory disclaimer the episode. Remember,
correlation does not equal of course. Yes, um. Brunch didn't
show a correlation with any of the other religions looked at,
and that surprised me because I always kind of thought
it was like people getting out after church, We're going
(31:07):
to brunch. But I guess um a lot of churches
do like potlux. This is one explanation offered up for
why brunch may may be more popular among Jewish communities
because it's presented as an alternative to church on Sundays.
So what's the future of brunch? After the twenty sixteen
(31:27):
American election, some analysts thought the consumerism that brunch can
represent would be like the death of brunch. And I've
heard a lot of people say protest is the new brunch,
but so far that hasn't really been the case. And
there's even dog of brunch DJs. Now why is there
(31:50):
ever a DJ in a restaurant? I don't know. Um, So,
so this this is all, this is all very Western
and specifically very amy Can culture that we've been talking about,
and we do have a few notes about brunch brunch
type meals enjoyed in other cultures. But first we're going
(32:10):
to take another quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor. So uh Brench Brench
around the world. One of the first things that I
think of when I think of brunch is dim sum,
because we're very lucky here in Atlanta to have a
(32:31):
wonderful uh international population and some really good, really good
damn sum. Yeah. I love me some dim sum. When
I was kind of looking into I didn't want to
research dym sum too much because we're going to do
it's definitely a whole other episode. Yeah, it deserves its
whole this whole thing. But um, when I was looking
up like brunch around the world. Dim Sum is often
(32:54):
called the original brunch um, and the name dmn sum
referns to bite sized foods that usually come in steamer
baskets are small plates that are passed around on food
carts typically. Um. Yes, we will come back to that, absolutely, definitely.
There's also and I had never heard of this one, um,
but there's there's apparently a thing in Dubai called Friday brunch. Yes,
(33:19):
it sounds like American brunch, but on steroids. The work
weekend Dubai is Sunday to Thursday, and so Friday is
like when the weekend starts and you start your weekend
with this lavish, over the top brunch. Um. Like, for instance,
(33:40):
you need a map, a map to navigate the thirty
seven stations for all that dominates an entire floor of
this Like I think it's an office building, um, And
I looked up pictures and it it's not seven station map.
I can't imagine entering a restaurant and oh I can
(34:03):
and it's delightful. Um. Caviar and champagne are pretty common
at all of these Friday brunches. If anyone's experienced that, yeah,
let us know. Send us pictures that sounds that sounds wonderful.
So that's kind of brunch. Yeah, that's that's kind of
that's kind of what we have to say about brunch.
And you may be noticing that there's still a few
(34:24):
minutes of the podcast left, and that's because that's because
we've got we've got a fancy new listener mail segment
for you. Okay, So listener Bella wrote in with a
yogurt tale of her own. She said, story time. In
my house, three of us eat yogurt every morning for breakfast,
and we were going through approximately a court of two
(34:47):
yogurt a day to keep up with the demand. Um.
Since it's so expensive, especially the Greek variety, my parents
and I decided to invest in a Queens and Our
yogurt maker. It's a bit time consuming, but I've got
it down to a system relay. Now. Every evening I
assemble the ingredients and start the sixteen hour fermentation process.
It ferments overnight and is finished at about nine the
next morning, in time for someone typically my mother, to
(35:10):
turn it off and put the full container in the
fridge to cool and thicken. Then when I arrived home
from school, I immediately transfer the yogurt into a strainer
specifically for turning regular yogurt into Greek. About three hours later,
I take it out and scoop the now greek yogurt
into one cup portions in mason jars. I also set
aside three quarters cup for starting the next batch. I
(35:30):
drained the removed way into bottles that I later take
to school. In my lunch to drink to the jars
of yogurt, I sprinkle one tablespoon of cheese seeds on
top to eliminate any additional way that separates. Sometimes I
had frode fruit on top of seeds as well, so
it can thaw and the melted juice can gel the
seeds as well. I love that. That is so beautiful.
She's got a system down. She doesn't waste anything right.
(35:54):
That's also man way more motivated than I am. So
so high fives, like, yeah, Internet, so many Internet. You
are an inspiration. Yes, I want to try that with
the cheese seats though. Yeah, that sounds really good. Um.
Listener Rissa threw her hat into the food Sadness ruining
(36:14):
arena with this note. Oh. She wrote, Hey, Lauren and Annie,
I heard about your podcast from stuff He in history class,
and I have enjoyed every episode, especially while I'm cooking.
I am a teacher and a cake decorator, so you
two feed my educational and natural hugger. I'm writing to
you with a suggestion for a podcast on food coloring.
(36:36):
If I had to describe my cake decorating job badly,
I would say I cover sweetbread with fat, sugar, and
food coloring, all of which can kill you in large quantities. Well,
we all know that fat and sugar aren't great for
you in the long run, both of which you discussed
on the Sugar podcast. Likes all caps, but most Americans
do not realize that many color additives in our food
(37:00):
are considered toxic in Europe, the most common being red
number forty. If only they could see how much food
coloring gel is required to make red velvet cake, they
may never touch it again. I certainly don't keep up
the word. The good work ladies, and I look forward
to listening next week. Ah. That's that's the thing that
I made a red velvet cake for a friend a
(37:21):
few years back, and I was just like what, No,
I was so grossed out by it. It was really
it was really upsetting. Yeah, I've only made it from
the mix, so I've never had to like actually see,
like cope with the sheer amount of yeah it is.
Isn't it just chocolate cake? Or die? It's like it's
(37:41):
like light chocolate. It's like a it's like a mid
chocolate cake. I wouldn't I wouldn't call it full on chocolate. Okay, Okay,
Well thanks for that. So that's it for this episode. Yeah,
if you would like to get in touch with us,
as these lovely human have done. Um our Twitter account
(38:03):
is at food stuff. Hs W stands for how Stuff Works. Um.
Our Instagram account is at food stuff and our email
is food stuff at how stuff works dot com. Yes,
please write us. We'd love so much to hear from
you if you have any suggestions, any topics you'd like
to hear us cover, Yeah, absolutely, um or any any
(38:24):
corrections or just just any other interesting cultural notes about
food stuff we've talked about from from your own little
neck of the woods. Uh. Also, oh hey, thank thank
you to Noel Brown, our audio producer who is hanging
out in here with us today. Thank you all for listening.
Um we hope that you'll tune in again, and that
(38:44):
many more good things are coming your way.
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Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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