What's in a meal?

(I'm back! And if you can't tell from this post, I'm still very much in the essay-writing mindset!)

A question which has posed itself...well, twice since Friday, still more than usual. What exactly is the difference between breakfast and brunch?

The first point here, at least the first to come to my mind, is time of day. If it's nine AM, it's breakfast - even if you're eating bacon and eggs. I would ordinarily say brunch can't start until 11:00 AM, but I can push it back to 10:00 AM if I'm in a charitable mood.

Of course, brunch isn't just based on time of day - if you're eating a bowl of cereal at noon (a traditional brunch time), it's still breakfast. 'Brunch' implies that you are getting a full meal, and while a bowl of cereal might be able to fill you (as it does me) enough for both breakfast and lunch, it doesn't really count. Brunch is something special, something out of the ordinary.

Can brunch be had in the confines of your own home? Absolutely! However, I believe that the standards for brunch are higher at home than at a restaurant - while you can go to a restaurant at 11:30, and just about anything on their menu (at least anything that isn't listed under 'on the side' or a similar category) qualifies as brunch, some dishes ('two eggs and toast') would, if eaten at home, be no more than a big breakfast.

This leads me to yet another (NB: see? essay-writing mindest!) major difference between breakfast and brunch. With a breakfast, you are expected to eat everything on your plate/in your bowl, and to not say anything along the lines of "wow, that was a lot of food!". Breakfast is enough to get your day off to a good start, and quench your hunger, but not enough that you won't be able to eat lunch in a couple of hours. Brunch is more sinister, it has no such qualms about tempting you with foodstuff after foodstuff, until you realize that you probably won't be able to eat another bite until dinner - and even then, it better not be a big dinner.

For some reason, people don't seem to have the same problem differentiating between brunch and lunch. Whatever the difference is, we seem to have an innate understanding of it. The only theory I've been able to come up with is the food - if it somehow involves eggs, syrup, or a member of the "pancakes/waffles/crepes" trinity...it's brunch. Otherwise, it's lunch.

But that's just what I think. So tell me - am I wrong? Can there be some circumstance in which a bowl of cereal, eaten at 9 AM, qualifies as brunch? Have I overlooked some criteria? Over-emphasized another? Am I completely out to lunch of the difference between brunch and lunch? What will become of Jack's shocking revelation? Will Bill finally win Sally over once and for all? And what of Marlene's drinking problem - will Derek spill the beans?

--Ryan