Matty Matheson's Least Favorite Meal Of The Day
From breakfasts of pillowy French toast and sweet drizzles of syrup to hearty beef stew dinners served with buttery potatoes, everyone has a favorite meal of the day — and usually a least favorite, too. Opinions on this matter vary widely, and chef Matty Matheson has one of his own. As the restaurateur shared with Munchies, he does have a certain dislike for one particular meal. For him, breakfast tends to fall a little flat.
Matheson doesn't seem to be super thrilled by the idea of traditional American breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and pancakes. Still, the chef does favor one unlikely dish in the mornings, and that is soup. That's right, if it was up to this popular Canadian chef, the Vietnamese soup known as pho would be on the breakfast menu instead of the usual stuff.
This self-dubbed "soup breakfast guy" sometimes grabs a bowl of pho for himself in the mornings, often frequenting a local pho joint that opens early in the day. Indulging in a comforting bowl of this fragrant soup before beginning the chaos of the rest of the day, he shared, is the perfect opportunity for some "Matty time."
Why pho is actually a popular choice for breakfast
While Matty Matheson might generally not be impressed by an American breakfast, he is a bigger fan of the morning meal in Vietnam. Breakfast looks different all around the world, and pho happens to be one of the most common breakfasts of all Vietnamese cuisine.
For those who don't know, pho is a rich dish consisting of rice noodles, a fragrant broth, sliced meat, and fresh herbs, among other things. The flavor is both sweet and salty thanks to its many unique ingredients like fish sauce, cloves, and sugar, and all those flavors become especially potent as the broth simmers for hours on end before it's served. Because of those extra-long cooking times, chefs tend to make pho well before dawn, usually around 2 a.m., so it will be ready whenever soup lovers are, which, in Vietnam, is usually very early. For reference, by the time 10 a.m. rolls around, most restaurants are already sold out.
Director of the Hanoi Cooking Centre, Tracey Lister, shared with Eater that indulging in a bowl of pho in the mornings became a tradition in Vietnamese culture after its invention in the early 1900s. The dish was substantial enough to provide vital energy for rice field workers without being too heavy and promoting feelings of sluggishness. While more Vietnamese establishments are now starting to offer this soup throughout the day, it remains most popular in the early mornings.
The other breakfast item Matheson endorses
There are plenty of people who still consider a traditional breakfast to be the most important meal of the day, and Matty Matheson acknowledges that it's one you shouldn't skip. When the chef isn't indulging in a comforting bowl of pho, he does have another dish in mind. As he shared on YouTube, a hearty breakfast hash might be the next thing on his plate.
The Canadian chef has been whipping up this simple dish since he was in cooking school, and he's a big fan of the versatility and approachability of the dish. Some common additions to a breakfast hash are eggs and chopped potatoes, which Matheson uses, but whatever else you add to the pan is entirely up to you. For Matheson's signature hash, vibrant additions like poblano pepper, chopped onion, cherry tomatoes, and black beans are some of his main players, among other ingredients.
So when it comes to everyone's favorite — and least favorite — meal of the day, to each their own. Still, Matheson's love for a morning bowl of pho is certainly something we want to try at some point.