Brunch is a meal, sometimes accompanied by
alcoholic drinks
An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The cons ...
(typically
champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...
or a
cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely across ...
). Brunch is typically served between the hours of 10:00AM to 1:30PM. The meal originated in the British
hunt
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, et ...
breakfast. The word ''brunch'' is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...](_blank)
'' and ''
lunch
Lunch is a meal eaten around the middle of the day. It is commonly the second meal of the day, after breakfast, and varies in size by culture and region.
Etymology
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the etymology ...
''. The word originated in England in the late 19th century, and became popular in the United States in the 1930s.
Origin of the word
The 1896 supplement to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' cites ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
'' magazine, which wrote that the term was coined in Britain in 1895 to describe a Sunday meal for "Saturday-night carousers" in the writer Guy Beringer's article "Brunch: A Plea" in ''Hunter's Weekly''.
Despite the substantially later date, it has also been claimed that the term was possibly coined by reporter Frank Ward O'Malley, who wrote in the early 20th century for the
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
newspaper ''
The Sun'' from 1906 until 1919. It is thought that he may have come up with the term after observing the typical mid-day eating habits of his colleagues at the newspaper.
At colleges and hotels
Some
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
s and
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
s serve brunch, often serve-yourself
buffet
A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve ...
s, although
menu
In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...
-ordered meals may be available as well. The meal usually consists of standard breakfast foods such as
eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
,
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
s,
bacon
Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
,
ham
Ham is pork from a leg cut of pork, cut that has been food preservation, preserved by wet or dry Curing (food preservation), curing, with or without smoking (cooking), smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. Lo ...
,
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s,
pastries
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ma ...
,
pancake
A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...
s,
waffle
A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron and recipe used ...
s,
cereal
A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...
s,
and scones.
Military
The United States, Canada and United Kingdom militaries often serve weekend brunch in their messes. They offer breakfast and lunch options, and usually are open from 09:00-13:00.
Dim Sum brunch
The
dim sum
Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cuis ...
brunch is popular in Chinese restaurants worldwide. It consists of a variety of stuffed buns,
dumpling
Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fi ...
s, and other savory or sweet foods that have been steamed, deep-fried, or baked. Customers select small portions from passing carts, as the kitchen continuously produces and sends out freshly prepared dishes. Dim sum is usually eaten at a mid-morning, midday, or mid-afternoon
teatime
Tea (in reference to food, rather than the drink) has long been used as an umbrella term for several different meals. English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of var ...
.
Special occasions
Brunch is prepared by restaurants and hotels for special occasions, such as
weddings
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
,
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
,
St. Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patr ...
,
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...
,
Father's Day
Father's Day is a holiday of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on 19 March as Saint Joseph's Day since the Middle Ages. In the United ...
,
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
,
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
,
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
,
New Year's The expression New Year's is a colloquial term with unclear definition. It may mean any or all of the following:
*
*
**
*
** New Year's Day#Traditional and modern celebrations and customs
*
*
* (2 January)
See also
* New Year's Day (disamb ...
and
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
.
In other languages
Chinese
The Chinese word "早午饭" ( zh, p=zǎo wǔfàn) is defined as brunch, with "早饭" ( zh, p=zǎofàn, labels=no; 早: morning, 饭: meal) meaning breakfast; and "午饭" ( zh, p=wǔfàn, labels=no; 午: noon, 饭: meal) meaning lunch. The combination of "早饭" and "午饭" is thus "早午饭", brunch.
French
The
Office québécois de la langue française
The (, OQLF; en, Quebec Board of the French Language) is a public organization established on 24 March 1961, by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage. Attached to the , its initial mission, defined in its report of 1 April 1964, was "to align ...
accepts 'brunch' as a valid word but also provides a synonym ''déjeuner-buffet''. Note that, however, in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, ''déjeuner'' alone (even without the qualifying adjective ''petit'') means 'breakfast'. In Quebec, the word—when
francized—is pronounced .
Italian
In Italian, the English loanword 'brunch' is generally used, though the neologism/calque is increasingly popular, being derived from (breakfast) and (lunch). Even less common but occasionally used is , derived from the same sources.
Usage of these terms varies in Italy, as different regions have different cultural definitions of mealtimes and their names. Traditional usage, particularly in northern Italy, included calling the first meal of the day (first ), and the second meal either or (second ), as distinguished from , the evening meal (now generally used as the term for the midday meal). In this scheme, a separate term for 'brunch' would not be necessary, as could be used as a general term for any meal taken in the morning or early afternoon. Although Italian meal terminologies have generally shifted since widespread use of this naming scheme, the concept of a distinct mid-morning meal combining features of breakfast and lunch is largely one imported from the UK and North America in the last century, so the Anglicism 'brunch' is predominant.
Other places
Canada
The area now known as
Leslieville
Leslieville is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated east of the Don River. It is bounded by the Canadian National railway line and Gerrard Street to the north, McGee Street to the west, Eastern Avenue to south, and Coxwell Av ...
neighbourhood is sometimes called the brunch capital of
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, as many renowned establishments serve brunch there. Brunch buffets also exist in other parts of Southern Ontario, including Kitchener-Waterloo, where the German-term ''Smorgasborgs'' was sometimes used, from the 1970s onward.
In Canada, brunch is served in private homes and in restaurants. In both cases, brunch typically consists of the same dishes as would be standard in an American brunch, namely,
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
,
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
,
fruit juice
Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...
s,
breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...
foods, including
pancake
A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...
s,
waffles
A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron and recipe used ...
, and
french toast; meats such as
ham
Ham is pork from a leg cut of pork, cut that has been food preservation, preserved by wet or dry Curing (food preservation), curing, with or without smoking (cooking), smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. Lo ...
,
bacon
Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
, and
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
s; egg dishes such as
scrambled eggs
Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs (usually chicken eggs) stirred, whipped or beaten together while being gently heated, typically with salt, butter, oil and sometimes other ingredients.
Preparation
Only eggs are necessary to make scrambled ...
,
omelettes
In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives, ve ...
, and
Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was popularized in New York City.
Origin and history
There a ...
; bread products, such as
toast
Toast most commonly refers to:
* Toast (food), bread browned with dry heat
* Toast (honor), a ritual in which a drink is taken
Toast may also refer to:
Places
* Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place in the United States
Books
* '' ...
,
bagel
A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is first ...
s or
croissant
A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...
s; pastries or cakes, such as
cinnamon roll
A cinnamon roll (also known as cinnamon bun, cinnamon swirl, cinnamon Danish and cinnamon snail) is a sweet roll commonly served in Northern Europe (mainly in Nordic countries, but also in Austria and Germany) and North America. In Sweden it is ...
s and
coffee cake
Coffee cake may refer to a sponge cake flavored with coffee or, in the United States, a sweet cake intended to be eaten with coffee or tea (similar to tea cake). A coffee-flavored cake is typically baked in a circular shape with two layers separ ...
; and fresh cut
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
or
fruit salad
Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer or a side salad. When served as an appetizer, a fruit salad ...
.
Brunches may also include foods not typically associated with breakfast, such as
roasted
Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelization ...
meats,
quiche
Quiche ( ) is a French tart consisting of pastry crust filled with savoury custard and pieces of cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables. A well-known variant is quiche Lorraine, which includes lardons or bacon. Quiche may be served hot, warm or co ...
,
soup
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ing ...
,
smoked salmon
Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a fillet that has been cured and hot or cold smoked.
Due to its moderately high price, smoked salmon is considered a delicacy. Although the term lox is sometimes applied to smoked salmon, th ...
,
sandwich
A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...
es, and salads, such as
Cobb salad
The Cobb salad is a main-dish American garden salad typically made with chopped salad greens (iceberg lettuce, watercress, endives and romaine lettuce), tomato, crisp bacon, fried chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, chives, blue cheese, ...
.
When served at home or in a restaurant, a brunch may be offered
buffet
A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve ...
style, in which trays of foods and beverages are available and guests may serve themselves and select the items they want, often in an "all-you-can-eat" fashion.
Restaurant brunches may also be served from a menu, in which case guests select specific items that are served by waitstaff. Restaurant brunch meals range from relatively inexpensive brunches available at
diner
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...
s and
family restaurant
Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...
s to expensive brunches served at high-end restaurants and bistros.
Philippines
Brunch in the Philippines is served between 9:00 am and noon. Contrary to what is observed in other countries, brunch in the afternoon, between 3:00 and 4:00 pm, is called
merienda
Merienda is a light meal in southern Europe, particularly Spain (merenda in Galician, berenar in Catalan), Portugal (lanche or merenda) and Italy (merenda), as well as Hispanic America, Philippines (meryenda/merienda), North Africa (Morocco), ...
, a traditional snack carried over from Spanish colonialism.
Gallery
File:Brunch-Fahrten MS MARS.jpg, A brunch on a ship, Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...
, Germany
File:Brunch orange juice toasts with eggs.jpg, A homemade brunch consisting of cooked eggs on toast and salad, accompanied by orange juice
File:Fruits and Tarts -- Formal Brunch Aboard the Celebrity Equinox, 12-09-2011 (6857451879).jpg, A formal brunch buffet aboard the ''Celebrity Equinox
''Celebrity Equinox'' is a built by Meyer Werft in Germany. ''Celebrity Equinox'' is the second of the five ''Solstice''-class vessels, owned and operated by Celebrity Cruises. She is a sister ship of , , , and the . ''Celebrity Equinox'' entere ...
''
File:Gourmet cheeseburgers for brunch.jpg, Cheeseburger as brunch
File:Snack Counter at The Farm House.jpg, Coldcuts and cheeses with bread in a brunch buffet
File:Monki's Huevos Rancheros with spiced rice, ground beef, spinach, mushrooms & tomatoes.jpg, ''Huevos rancheros
Huevos rancheros (, 'ranch-style eggs') is a breakfast dish consisting of eggs served in the style of the traditional large mid-morning fare on rural Mexican farms.
Basic dish
The basic dish consists of fried eggs served on lightly fried or cha ...
'' as brunch
See also
*
Drag brunch
Drag or The Drag may refer to:
Places
* Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway
* ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania
* Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street ad ...
*
Elevenses
Elevenses is a short break taken at around 11:00a.m. to consume a drink or snack. The names and details vary among countries.
Regional variations
Australia and New Zealand
In Australia and New Zealand, elevenses is known as "morning tea" and oc ...
*
Israeli breakfast
An Israeli breakfast is a style of breakfast that originated on the Israeli Collective farming, collective farm called a kibbutz, and is now served at most hotels in Israel and many restaurants. It is usually served buffet style, and consists of ...
*
List of breakfast topics
This is an index of breakfast-related articles. Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work. Among English speakers, "breakfast" can be used to refer ...
*
List of brunch foods
This is a list of brunch foods and dishes. Brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch eaten usually during the late morning but it can extend to as late as 2 pm and 8 pm on the East Coast, although some restaurants may extend the hours to a l ...
*
Second breakfast
Second breakfast (or german: zweites Frühstück, pl, drugie śniadanie, sk, desiata, es, almuerzo, hu, tízórai) is a meal eaten after breakfast, but before lunch. It is a traditional meal in Bavaria, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Hungary. In ...
References
External links
"The Birth of Brunch: Where Did This Meal Come From Anyway?" Smithsonian.comWikibooks Cookbook
{{Authority control
Breakfast
Meals
1890s neologisms