Who Will Make the Breakfasts? A Friday Chat
NICOLE: Happy Friday! Is election season over yet? I get my vote-by-mail ballot next week and I am ready for it.
MEGAN: Friday! Election season might never end, honestly. We might be trapped in this news cycle forever and ever. But! You get to vote like, now, basically so it’s sort of over for you-ish.
NICOLE: I booked myself a spa appointment for the end of the month. First because it’s my birthday, and second because OMG WHAT THIS YEAR. Also it will cost me less than $200 including tip, so it feels like a very affordable gift to myself.
MEGAN: Happy pre-emptive birthday! And yeah, dude, a spa appointment on your birthday is the only way to go. $200 is totally reasonable and out of the myriad things one could purchase for themselves, this is up there as one of the best. There’s a Chinese massage place down the street from my house and I have been going there so much — it’s ony $45 for an hour and change and it really fixes just about everything that’s wrong with me.
NICOLE: Massages are one of those things that could improve so many people’s lives and health but they’re viewed as expensive indulgences, which isn’t fair. Also the people who give massages aren’t always paid well? Right? I don’t know. It’s a hard business to be in, from what I understand.
MEGAN: Yeah, I honestly have no idea what my masseuses make, but I tip well because it looks like an extremely taxing job. I find I always feel guilty a bit when getting a massage because I’m thinking to myself for at least part of the time, “Who’s giving this poor woman a massage when she’s done rubbing the flabby backs of Williamsburg’s finest?” But, the one thing that reassures me and then also makes me a little sad about my massage place is that there’s a sign in very bold Sharpie on the front desk that says there’s a $10 tip minimum required. I haven’t seen them enforce it, but that gives me some hope.
NICOLE: A $10 tip on a $45 bill is a little under 25 percent, right? Percentage Calculator says it’s 22 percent, and I trust them because they’re a calculator I found on the internet. Which is kind of cool. I like that they’re making sure their workers get decent tips.
MEGAN: You’re right! That’s not bad, actually, but I don’t know. For the amount of work this poor woman does on me I always tip way higher. It’s the same when I get my nails done, which is something that I honestly do every single week. I did feel very, very, very uneasy after reading that giant New York Times expose last year but I think every single person who has paid someone $10 to give them a manicure did too.
NICOLE: So I want to ask this question, and I think it might be an interesting question for all of Team Billfold: when you’re going to a place that provides a service, whether it’s a massage place or a hair salon or even a restaurant, do you feel better when the people who provide that service look like they’re taken care of? I know there are a lot of assumptions piled into that, but it’s like if I go somewhere and see someone who looks reasonably well-rested, freshly haircutted, that kind of thing, I tend to think “okay, this is a good place to be.” But that also puts pressure on workers to look that way. Certainly when I was working in food service there was an expectation that we’d always look “attractive.”
MEGAN: That is a REALLY GOOD QUESTION. And yeah, you know, I do think about that when I go to my nail place. They’re Chinese and I understand enough Mandarin to be able to suss out when someone’s talking shit or if they’re talking about eating and I remember one day the woman was talking to her friend next to her and she kept saying that she was starving. I don’t think she knew I could understand her and I don’t think it was like a, “I’m starving because no one’s feeding me” kinda thing. I think that whatever was going on with my manicure was taking longer than she’d anticipated and she was literally just ready to eat lunch. I felt weird. I do think that a lot of the places I go for services like that are not that fancy, I guess. So maybe the pressure to look “good” is off?
NICOLE: Yeah, I’ve heard the “OMG I can’t wait until I get my lunch/break” conversation before, and that might not be anything to worry about, I hope. Because I also spend most of the morning waiting for lunch. So many breakfast foods are, like, super-low calorie-wise. Cereal and milk? A piece of toast? Of course you’re hungry an hour later.
MEGAN: The ONLY thing that I eat for breakfast that makes me full enough to not want to murder everyone in sight by 11:10 is oatmeal. But I hate making oatmeal. I hate doing anything in the morning that isn’t sleeping! But yeah, you’re right, complaining about being ready for food isn’t a red flag. Additionally, why aren’t more breakfast foods more filling? I mean, not every day is a day for an extensive brunch; sometimes you just need to eat without feeling like whatever you just ate was ineffectual.
NICOLE: I don’t know. I still remember that Awl article that was like “we’re eating cereal for the wrong meal, we should be eating it for lunch.” Have a big breakfast with protein and fruits/vegetables, then have some cereal at lunch to get your blood sugar up and get a carb boost.
Cereal is filler; it satisfies hunger and provides pleasure. It is a utilitarian semi-meal — Soylent, basically, for the psychologically sound. It is exactly what you need in the middle of the day, when hot food would put you to sleep and leafy food would instill a craving for something much worse. Lunch is for cereal and cereal is for lunch.
What cereal is not is the long-lasting, protein-rich foundation on which to build an entire waking day.
BUT WHO WILL MAKE THAT BREAKFAST, MEGAN? Will we put the burden on overworked adults, predominantly women, to make big breakfasts for their households?
MEGAN: Whew! Tough questions! I don’t know! Honestly, I feel like breakfast should be a fend for yourself meal. That’s how it was in my house! Except sometimes, my mom made congee. And now that I think about it, that’s the easiest and most filling breakfast in the entire world. Everyone should be eating congee for breakfast. I’m running on this platform in 2020, you heard it here first.
NICOLE: Congee, like oatmeal, is wonderful if it’s made well and devastating if it’s not. Like, nobody wants to eat flavorless paste lumps for breakfast. (Maybe somebody does.) And it’s hard to get right. Wait, is there a thing where you make congee overnight in Mason jars and then put it on Instagram?
MEGAN: If there is, I’m changing my name, leaving New York and going to farm goats in Montana.
NICOLE: Then you could be on Hey Cool Job!
MEGAN: A dream!
