Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen

Suffering from jet-lag, moving-in chaos, and an excessive amount of alcoholic beverages, the first days in Chapel Hill were very much defined by the actions of my American GLOBE friends. I owe thanks to their ability to drive, fetch, guide, recommend, gather, and sustain the incoming CUHK and CBS students. Naturally a few culture shocks appeared, but there was one above them all: Breakfast. Readers of this blog will recall my fond praises of the East Asian dim sum, with fresh produce in simple yet mouth-watering dishes at a total bargain. My first impressions of southern U.S. breakfast food was nothing of the sort:

Breakfast day 1:
Waking up abnormally early on a Saturday due to jet lag, we step through the doors of breakfast diner at 9 AM sharp. The place is exactly as you imagine - gruff, overweight men growling over their black coffee; young people in large, Carolinian blue T-shirts helping themselves to huge portions of eggs, pancakes and sausages; cheerful greetings from a bustling waitress in a sharp, high-pitch Southern accent, and not a single piece of wall space that isn't draped in blue-and-white T-shirts, newspaper articles, pictures, and banners. We sit down, my Danish friend orders a ham, tomato, and cheese omelet, while I go local and have bacon, eggs, toast and "grits" - coarsely ground corn boiled somewhat akin to porridge.

We learned a couple of things. The eggs were the healthiest item on my plate - the bacon was awesome (unhealthy as it should be), but toast was soaked in butter and the grits came with a huge lump of butter on them, to which one adds maple syrup. Omelets are originally made with cheese, so my friend's feta-cheese omelet was akin to a eating a fondue the size of a small football. He didn't even get half way.

Breakfast day 2:
Sleeping on a friends couch the following night (due to issues moving in) wasn't exactly the most convenient way to start the day, so he decided to take us to try "biscuits" at Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen. He said that American biscuits are similar to a savoury scone, having the same crumbling consistency, but being slightly larger, around the size of an open hand. You then slice them open and add cheese or meat, and enjoy them with tea. That sounds exactly like something this semi-Brit would appreciate. Alas.

Biscuits are very similar, except that they are greasy and quite salty, and you get them unnecessarily buttered and with cheese, egg, AND bacon. The tea, on the other hand, is not hot tea, but a sweetened version of iced tea - very sweetened. The salty biscuit makes you chug the tea, creating a horrible sugar rush at the same time that your body is trying to combat the grease and salt. You feel your arteries constricting, your heart starts to race, and you sit for 30 minutes feeling jittery but without any energy to move. An edible heart-attack, available only through drive-in, and yours for only 4,50 USD. Welcome to America.



I know first impressions can cause deep and consistent biases for the future, so I let me give an account of the first couple of meals