The breakfast of couch potatoes

In Noia, Galicia, Spain, there's a stand that makes nothing but churros. There's always a large bowl of the most-recent batch of sizzling dough.

Churros y chocolate might actually be less healthy than a big bowl of Count Chocula. This breakfast favorite is constructed from a paste of flour and sugar that is deep-fried in oil. So far, it's just junk food, right?

Then it's served with what you'd think is hot chocolate, since it's hot, and it's chocolate, and it's served in a cup. And though it's treated as a dunking beverage for the churros, it's less a drink and more a sauce. It's thick, and dark, and it wouldn't be out of place drizzled on a hot fudge sundae.

If the fried dough and the sugar dunk aren't diet-busting enough, the portions will do you in. The donut portion of the dish is equivalent to about three unraveled fried crullers. The chocolate portion would cover a prize-winning banana split. All to get your day going.

It all tastes yummy, though, and you get a perverse pleasure out of not cleaning your plate. You simply can't.

Always a good time for a scone

Britain has just become the fattest country in Europe. I don't have any scientific data to support this connection, but it's an understandable consequence of the fabulous scone.

Here is the "fruit" version, meaning that there are raisins inside, as opposed to the plain version at left. The right time for a scone is apparently any time that you are not eating a meal: after breakfast or instead of breakfast, in the afternoon, or at "tea", which can be timed to occur any time that you're not sleeping.

These delicious breads would probably be fine on their own, but nobody eats them this way. Instead, they're slathered with clotted cream (which tastes much better than it sounds) and jam. The more health-conscious of its fans eschew the cream and opt for butter instead.

Accompanied by any permutation of fat and sugar, the scone is best accompanied by a nice pot of tea.