The Breakfast Sandwich

My love affair with breakfast sandwiches began in first year university, when we decided to spice up our Sunday brunches at Ban Righ cafeteria by taking all the elements of a breakfast and putting them into one convenient sandwich. The tradition started innocently enough, but by the end of the year making a sandwich became a mandatory staple of the breakfast ritual, and any aberration was frowned upon . If one of the group decided that they preferred a conventional breakfast and didn't particularly want a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich to start their day, they would be berated relentlessly, or "chirped" as it was often referred to, until they were peer pressured into submission. It was a strange time.

The breakfast sandwich is a glorious culinary concoction: Eggs, bacon (or sausage, depending on preference) and a slice of processed cheese sandwiched between a bread product of your choice. Many enjoy their sandwich on an English muffin, while others enjoy a toasted bagel to hold the thing together. Tim Horton's, in recent years, introduced a breakfast sandwich that is made with a tea biscuit. Many enjoy this buttery treat, but I have to say it's a tad rich for my blood. I opt for the toasted bagel when I go to Tim Horton's for my breakfast sammy, which is quite often.

This summer, it was the Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich that got me out of bed on lazy Saturdays. It would be around 11:30 and I would be enjoying my sleep-in after a long week of busting my hump designing parking lots. I would always want to sleep-in later, but it would be the knowledge that Tim Horton's stopped serving their breakfast sandwich at noon that would get me out of bed. I would shuffle down Spadina rd. to the Tim Hortons on the corner, get a breakfast sandwich (sesame seed bagel with sausage) and a medium regular and, just like that, I was ready to start my day. It was because of the mid-day breakfast sandwich last call at Timmy's that I could get a full day of leisure in on Saturday. That all changed in September when I moved to a new place, where I discovered Timothy's World Coffee (or Timmy Wo' Co's as it called by the locals).

Timothy's, which obviously is not the most original coffee franchise, started serving breakfast sammies around the same time Tim Horton's introduced their popular sandwich. However, Timothy's, unlike Tim Horton's, recognized that some people don't get out of bed well after 12pm on the weekend. It was because of this that they introduced the ALL DAY breakfast sandwich. By doing so, us late risers can now start our day just as enjoyably as the early birds. I don't get as much done on Saturday anymore (in fact, getting a breakfast sandwich is sometimes the ONLY thing I do on Saturday) but that's just fine. Just this weekend I decided to return to Timothy's for a second breakfast sandwich because I had enjoyed the first one so much. This, needless to say, was not the smartest idea and I paid dearly for my mistake later on that evening, but I learned my lesson. One breakfast sammie per morning should suffice. However, if you're really starving and you feel that your first sandwich was just not enough, consider splitting a second sandwich with one of your friends. Your stomach will thank you.