Scrapple, Hopple Popple, And 13 Other Regional Breakfast Dishes You Didn't Know Existed

Spend any time traveling the country and you'll realize just how huge it is. And not just huge geographically, but huge culturally as well. It's so huge, in fact, that certain foods can be staples in one corner and completely unknown in another. 

This Texas breakfast staple is pretty simple: You get a flour tortilla and load it with whatever you can get your hands on, usually eggs, cheese, and your choice of bacon, chorizo, other breakfast meats, and a spoon of salsa and a dash of hot sauce. Breakfast just tastes better when it's in a taco. 

This Midwestern specialty, which is super-easy to make, is a tasty and satisfying breakfast on the go. You start by pressing ready-made stuffing into a muffin tin to serve as a shell. Then you fill them up with beaten eggs, bacon, and cheese. 

Pronounced "get-a," this Ohio specialty was invented by German immigrants in Cincinnati in the 1800s. It's essentially a thick raw sausage made with ground pork (or pork and beef); pin-head oats; and spices including rosemary, bay leaves, and thyme. It's traditionally sliced and fried in butter, and can be eaten by itself or served with ketchup, mustard, apple butter, syrup, honey, or grape jelly. Glier's, the largest commercial producer, makes more than 1 million pounds annually. 

This Northern California specialty is the Gold Rush's most enduring culinary contribution. Legend has it that it was created at the Cary House Hotel in the mining town of Placerville, California (then called Hangtown), after a miner who struck it rich walked in and asked for the most expensive dish the kitchen could make. The chef whipped up an omelette of sorts, with eggs (which were delicate); bacon, which was shipped from the East Coast; and oysters, which had to be shipped on ice from San Francisco. It gained popularity at San Francisco's Tadich Grill, California's oldest restaurant, where it's been a specialty for more than 160 years. 

A ham, egg, and cheese sandwich is a breakfast staple around the country, but in New Jersey, one component sets it apart from the pack: Taylor ham, also called pork roll. This processed ham is rich and fatty, and when fried in butter and piled onto a hard roll with eggs and cheese it's the ultimate hangover buster. 

Kolaches (plural for kolach) are a type of filled dough with Czech roots that have become very popular in many parts of Texas, as well as parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The majority of the ones you'll find envelop a dollop of fruit with soft, semisweet dough and are eaten for dessert or as a breakfast pastry, but some also include meat, bacon and eggs, and basically anything else the baker wants to include. While they're most popular in Texas, word is finally starting to spread: A shop specializing in them recently opened in Brooklyn. 

A popular Southwestern Tex-Mex breakfast (and a rare Tex-Mex dish that actually resembles its Mexican counterpart), migas is made by frying corn tortilla strips until crispy (or just using tortilla chips) and mixing in eggs, then serving it alongside refried beans and tortillas. Many restaurants put their own spin on it, like adding in chorizo, cheese, onions, tomatoes, or cheese.