The Hierarchy of Breakfast Needs, or: Fun with Food Pyramids

By Tien Nguyen Mon., Feb. 4 2013 at 5:50 AM

Categories: Breakfast, Food Humor

Continued from page 1

C. Wei

Shrimp dumplings

Level 3. The Need to Belong, or: Dim Sum

"Now the person will feel keenly, as never before, the absence of friends, or a sweetheart, or a wife, or children. He will hunger for affectionate relations with people in general, namely, for a place in his group, and he will strive with great intensity to achieve this goal. He will want to attain such a place more than anything else in the world and may even forget that once, when he was hungry, he sneered at love." -- Abraham Maslow

At this point, you don't want to have your coffee and pancakes alone at your kitchen nook as much as you want to break breakfast bread with others. And where better to socialize than at your local dim sum joint? You'll gather your friends around a huge round table, you'll order together, you'll share plates, you'll swap stories about your week. You may even forget that once, when you were severely de-caffeinated, you sneered at anything resembling food at all.

A. Scattergood

Fried chicken and waffles at The Tasting Kitchen

Level 4. The Need for Esteem, or: Fried Chicken and Waffles

"All people in our society (with a few pathological exceptions) have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, (usually) high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. ... Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy of being useful and necessary in the world." -- Abraham Maslow

You have your coffee, you feel safe, you have friends. Now, you need external validation of all of the above. There are plenty of upscale places where you can have brunch at dinner prices and thus buy yourself certain attention, but real achievement can be measured in fried chicken. After all, if you can afford to indulge in fried chicken and waffles (those calories! those carbs!) as your first meal of the day, you will be held in very high regard within certain circles in town. And if you have the dish at a place like The Tasting Kitchen, even the most jaded among us will experience a boost of confidence by simply existing in its casually pristine dining room. The stellar cocktails won't hurt, either.