Could be the morning drive into the country. Could be the frequent coffee refills. Could be the exceptionally friendly service or the good old fashioned love of country.

It could be a combination of all of the above that make country diners a restaurant genre of their own. And within that genre, it's almost a given that breakfast will be done well.

How about a mid-week quiz?

Notice the picture of a bottle of Virgil's Root Beer accompanying this blog. I drank the contents of this bottle during lunch today. If root beer gets any better, I haven't tasted it. The bottle, which was dazzling in and of itself, promoted itself as "Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg" flavor.

Good call, Sparklefart, whoever you are.

In response to my query of Monday, Sparklefart responded by suggesting I try Lolita's breakfast and specifically endorsed the elefante burrito. Though I attempted to acquire Sparklefart's true identity, I was unable to do so. I don't even know if Sparklefart is a man or woman. But I trusted the recommendation anyway and indeed this morning consumed an elefante burrito at Lolita's.

I believe the person who offered the axiom "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" must have been a morning person. Or at least much more of a morning person than me.

I don't doubt the value of breakfast, nor the potential for deliciousness. It's just that I'm not the type to bounce out of bed at 6 a.m. and ponder whether I should have a bowl of cereal or full breakfast. Most of the time, in fact, by the time I've finished sleeping, watched a half hour of sports highlights, perused my usual assortment of Internet news, driven to Starbucks, sipped through a grande Americano, read a little more and then considered my agenda for the day, it's much closer to lunch time. The breakfast ship has sailed, if you know what I mean.

The Texas hill country does two things very well — deer and barbecue.

It's possible that the hill country does other things well, too. They play pretty good football in Goldthwaite, Brownwood and Richland Springs. I know people who like to hike at Enchanted Rock State Park.

The topic of food challenges came up in lunch conversation this week.

I suggested to friends, including the esteemed Toph Whisnant, that WacoFork should stage some sort of "Burger Wars." Maybe it was because this discussion took place the day that Whisnant and Jose Zuniga engaged in gorging themselves with multiple double-double burgers. Whisnant countered that I should take a Waco burger challenge of eating a different Waco restaurant burger every hour on the hour from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

It seems to me when I mention Waco to new friends in other Texas cities one of the first points of reference for them is George's.

Certainly when people come in to Waco, whether they're returning Baylor students or first time tourists, they make drinking a Big O at George's one of, if not the top priority.

Someone is going to have to explain to me why a bagel would ever be preferable to a donut.

As of right now, no restaurant in town prominently features the bagel. Oh sure, there are plenty of places where a bagel could be obtained, I suppose. But as of right now there's not an Einstein Bros. Bagels, nor is there any longer a New York Bagel, which used to be located in the Toys R Us shopping center on Waco Drive, nor is there any Bob's Bagels or anything like that.

Double-double times two, times two.

Somehow lunch today with my usual Tuesday summertime lunch bunch spiraled out of control to the point where a burger-eating challenge entered the picture.

Mr. Jose Zuniga began pondering the possibility of consuming a second double-double burger at Bill & Bob's. At that point, Mr. Toph Whisnant claimed that he would tackle another double-double if Zuniga wasn't man enough to re-up.

If I were taking summer school right now, and it kind of feels like I am, I would be engaged in a mix of business classes along with some sort of "world foods" elective.

I'm enjoying both, really, but especially learning about different food from different places. I think I might write my thesis on Puerto Rican cuisine. The title of my paper could be "Yipee Ki-yay, Mofongo!"