Because Carrie and I figured the rest of you were curious to know what happens when two high-powered civil rights attorneys use their finely-tuned analytical powers on important non-legal questions:*
Carrie: where do children learn to put catsup on their eggs
Amy: um, by osmosis by hanging around uncle tim?
Amy: it’s disgusting, but it’s one of those great marital compromises . . .
Carrie: lol
Amy: for me it violates a sacred boundary: between Breakfast Food and Not Breakfast Food
Amy: now, you can eat Breakfast Food any time of the day
Carrie: snort
Carrie: i do put salsa on hashbrowns
Amy: but you cannot mix Breakfast Food with Not Breakfast Food
Carrie: so having leftover chinese food for breakfast is fine
Carrie: just not if you add a bowl of cereal?
Amy: yes
Amy: for example, steak and eggs: wrong
Carrie: i agree
Amy: and scrambled eggs for dinner, also ok
Amy: but scrambled eggs on pizza: no
Carrie: i agree
Amy: ketchup is a Not Breakfast Food item
Amy: putting it on eggs: wrong
Carrie: although we sometimes do have leftover donuts as dessert
Amy: hmmm
Carrie: but the dinner food is finished
Amy: right!
Amy: i think perhaps i need to refine the rule to say: within any one course
Carrie: plates cleared etc
Amy: exactly
Amy: you would not have, say, donuts covered with enchilada sauce
Carrie: lol
Carrie: because sometimes leftover donuts are not stale for dessert, but leaving for breakfast….
Amy: excellent point!
Amy: and i have no problem with cold leftovers for breakfast: pizza; chinese; etc
Carrie: right
Amy: i bet people wonder how high-powered civil rights lawyers use their finely-tuned analytical powers on important non-legal questions…
Amy: IOW, can I blog this?
Carrie: snort
Carrie: yes
Carrie: non-leftover, non breakfast foods not acceptable for breakfast
Carrie: unless it is a breakfast burrito
Carrie: which has bacon or sausage
Amy: wow – the breakfast burrito is right on the line
Amy: yes you have to police it, though, to be sure it doesn’t have Not Breakfast Foods in it, like taco sauce
Carrie: if bacon or sausage, it is breakfast
Amy: yes
Carrie: or chorizo
Amy: if taco sauce + eggs: wrong
Carrie: hence, mcdonalds breakie burrito, wrong on many levels
Amy: what does it have?
Carrie: im not sure, but it comes with taco sauce
Amy: blech
Amy: wrong
Carrie: plus from mcdonalds, wrong
Amy: indeed
Amy: but notice that we’ve isolated the actual tortilla itself as something that adeptly spans Breakfast Food and Not Breakfast Food
Amy: hmmm
Amy: further research may be required.
Carrie: i think many bread items can be multipurpose
Carrie: e.g. must be because I don’t go to the bread store often enough
Amy: that’s true
Amy: and rice porridge for breakie
Carrie: true
Amy: another starch that crosses boundaries
Carrie: but eggs with rice, wrong
Amy: agreed
* Lightly edited for order because, as I’m sure it will shock you to learn, Carrie and I constantly text over each other.
Thought Snax 
Ketchup is so underappreciated.
For instance, did you know that there are actual theories as to the etymology of the word “ketchup”? Yep, according to wiki, there’s the Chinese theory, the Malay theory and the European-Arabic theory.
More amazing is that somebody somewhere is getting paid to think about the etymology of the word “ketchup”. My college adviser never mentioned that as a career option!
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LOVE the breakfast food – not breakfast food discussion. I can see that it would be a fascinating book that traced the beginnings of ketchup on scrambled eggs. Who was the first, and how did such a questionably tasteful tradition spread? Admittedly, I grew up with family members who put ketchup on scrambled eggs. Then, one day when my kids were at the table, one in a high chair, I found myself grabbing the ketchup bottle–I remember the day clearly: I had a rare moment of maternal clarity and questioned what I was doing–why was I continuing such an odd (and really, disgusting) eating habit. So, no ketchup for breakfast in our house.
Sadly, via sleepovers (I suspect), someone else pushed the nasty ketchup habit and our younger son embraced the addictive taste of sugared tomato sauce on eggs (and just about everything else). He took Regan-era Dept of Ag regulations that ketchup is a vegetable to heart, and that was the way he consumed his daily vegetable requirement.
But mixing rice with eggs, not breakfast? A billion or so people in Asia/Pacific region may disagree.
Ketchup, rice, eggs, tortillas, it’s all cultural.
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@ Tim – I’m glad your college adviser never mentioned that, because you never would have gone to law school & we never would have met. (All together now: awwwwwwwww!) Ahem. You’re still wrong about ketchup & eggs….
@ Susan – So glad you fought the good fight against this abomination. And I concede that my analysis is very culture specific. I loved rice porridge with thousand-year eggs while living in Taiwan, but then I’m not at all sure *what* food category those eggs were in!
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I shouldn’t have to say this on this blog but its _always_ wrong to discriminate – even over tortillas and donuts.
So, in summary, Tim (& I, & anyone who’s ever enjoyed a good plate of huevos rancheros) are right, and Amy & Carrie are wrong – very very sadly wrong.
And – my own ketchup theory goes like this:
People have long put ketchup on french fries. Then later started putting it on other potato dishes (like roasted potatoes). Later still, at b-fast they put it on their homefries or hashbrowns. Sooner or later it got onto the eggs and ‘stuck’ so to speak.
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@ Rod – In other words, the Migrant Condiment Theory. Your Dad would be very proud!
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Good theory, Rodney.
Starting the day off with an analysis of ketchup is stimulating! And it stimulates memories — does everyone have memories connected to ketchup? We were a Del Monte ketchup family — I think Heinz, at least until the last few decades, was more of an east coast brand (though, after marrying a Pittsburgh-raised guy, we’re only allowed Heinz, which I concede, if you’re going to use ketchup, is far better than Del Monte.)
As a kid growing up in the Bay Area we’d drive by the Hunts and Del Monte canneries and their ketchup-cooking smells. In school at UC Davis, I was able to relive the olfactory sensations thanks to the Hunts cannery. I don’t think any of them are still open.
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Rodney, I am proud of you! Glorious concept, the migrating condiment!
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