Alternatives Add Excitement

Start your day with sunnyside-up eggs with crab cakes or fried clams? Veggie burgers and buffalo chili on burger-chain menus? Southern ravioli stuffed with barbecued pork, pureed blackeyed peas, or catfish? Or Mexican egg rolls? You bet.

With American tastes staying closer to home, creative chefs are mixing foods long tied to traditional day parts and courses, using more exotic and/or regional varieties of familiar ingredients, or simply making surprise substitutions to add pizzazz to flavorful f…