Breakfast or Lunch?

The origins of the phenomenon known as brunch.

Like just so many things, brunch originated in England. And then, like so many things, it became famous in America. Today, it’s come to mean more than some kind of an around-midday meal. It’s become an event. Anyone can eat a late breakfast . . . but a brunch has to happen. It has to be enacted and displayed. It needs to have more than just you present – it’s almost a party kind of a thing, to be shared with like-minded others. It might include your family. It might be a singles event. But, whatever it actually is, we’ve got brunches on Samui, if you know here to go!

Interestingly, although the origins of the idea date back to the late 1800’s, the spirit of the occasion continues, and it’s bang up to date. It began by being pinned to tradition, to family, to church on Sunday, and to Victorian ‘black sheep’. Today we have party people. Back then, we had ‘rakes’ and ‘fops’ and ‘men about town’. The moneyed young gents of the middle classes had an obligation to go slumming it on a Saturday night. I don’t know what it is about Saturdays – even on Samui, on holiday (the island vibe and all that) Saturday is still a special reason to head out.

And so they did, in their Victorian regalia, in their groups, the young men out on the town. From tavern to tavern they went. And then they tumbled back to their houses in the small hours, very much the worse for wear. The next morning they were dragged out of bed to go to church. And on their return, they had to face the traditional Sunday lunch. England has been often criticised, and for many things. But none more so than traditional English food. And the pinnacle of such culinary ineptitude is exemplified by ‘Sunday lunch’.

Slabs of roasted meat, thick gravies, opaque soups, pies skinned like concrete, suet dumplings, mushed vegetables and potatoes roasted beyond resuscitation. Was it any wonder that, every Sunday morning, so many thousands of young Englishmen longed and hoped to see a new meal, served around noon, that started slowly “. . . with tea or coffee, marmalade and other amenable breakfast fixtures, before moving along to the heavier fare? By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well. Brunch is 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.” So wrote Frank Ward O'Malley in The New Yorker in 1907.

Moving things on to the present, somehow, alcohol at breakfast causes raised eyebrows. Yet say ‘join me for brunch’ and it’s okay to crack open a bottle of bubbly or order a mojito. And some say that the best cure for a hangover is to keep drinking. So sleeping in and then enjoying a brunch on Sunday after a crazy Saturday night lets you follow this advice – whether it’s good or not, is something else!

It’s become trendy to have celebrations over brunch too, such as wedding receptions and graduation parties. And often restaurants will promote special holidays by hosting for instance, a Mothers’ Day brunch.

These brunches are usually buffets, commonly involving standard breakfast foods such as eggs, sausages, bacon, ham, fruits, pastries, pancakes, and the like, yet on a more decadent scale than for your usual fry-up or continental breakfast. However, they can include almost any other type of food served throughout the day.

Other popular brunch buffet dishes include cold cut meats, roasts, seafood such as shrimp or smoked salmon, pastas, soups, salads and a selection of desserts – brunch is no time to worry about the diet. Actually, there are no limitations when it comes to what can be served on a brunch menu. And, as mentioned, at brunch it’s perfectly acceptable to enjoy a glass of bubbly or a bloody Mary.

Or you could just stay at home and eat cornflakes instead!

Dimitri Waring