The Most Important - and Delicious - Meal of the Day

I have always been a fan of breakfast. Any meal that inherently requires frying foods, using oil and butter, and sizzling on flat griddles is automatically BOMB in my book. The smell of eggs reminds me of Saturday mornings at home, when Mom used to make scrambled eggs with any variety of breakfast foods. Some days it was taco meat for breakfast burritos. Some days it was egg-battered toast with powdered sugar for French toast. Other days it was simply eggs and bacon. But through it all, the Asian in her always served it with RICE.

Meet the Kenny's Special. The inspired creation at Kenny's Coffee Shop, located on the corner of Grand and 28th Street. This non-descript building in the middle of run-down South Central is an oasis of flavors and home-made loving. Inside, you'll see bright green walls, adorned with pictures of past guests and fellow bons vivants who have cherished this hallowed haven of good greasy food.

The Kenny's Special consists of one to two pieces of beef steak, adorned with their homemade teriyaki sauce--a thick mix of brown sugar and soy sauce. On the other side, you'll receive a generous helping of fried slices of kielbasa sausage, fit for a king. Perfectly cooked, these tender morsels of love are fully cooked and yet not burned--so as to retain the moisture and that small dose of sausage oils that splash out when you take a bite. Genius. In the last corner, a fried egg--a necessity for any breakfast. Think you're drooling yet? The whole thing tops a huge mound of FRIED RICE. Off to the side, they provide an extra helping of teriyaki sauce and some pickled onions, which I hardly touch because I'm too busy devouring every bit of fried goodness in front of me. "Impressive" was the word used when someone heard I had finished every last bit of food and grain of rice in the Kenny's Special. Yes, it was that good.

And while the occasional excursion to Kenny's is entirely worth it, sometimes you just want that homecooked loving in the privacy of your own home. Sunday mornings were born for this sort of loving. Breakfasts at my place include sausage and bacon and spam and Chinese sausage, with eggs sunny side up and sometimes a mimosa to kick things up. Each dish, of course, is always served over a generous helping of rice.