I'm a little bit of a food snob. Usually, I avoid fast food like anything. But if you've read my posts, much, you may have heard I have a weakness for McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. My husband knows that a Sausage, Egg & Cheese McMuffin is the only way I'll get up when he comes home from his bartending job in the wee hours of the morning. And a McGriddle? Talk about the perfect food to cure what I call a "mommy hangover."

And then, there was Starbucks.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) started serving breakfast sandwiches a little over a year ago, and surprise! They look oh-so-much exactly like the McMuffin, down to the egg + meat + cheese + English muffin combo.

But, as the New York Times points out today, they don't always taste quite as good as a McDonald Corporation (NYSE:MCD) McMuffin, or the higher art form, the McGriddle. The thing is: you're not going to go to two places for breakfast (unless you're quite the leisure queen *cough* who me? *cough*). So, the theory is, you'll to whatever place does best at the menu item you really value. Love coffee? Starbucks might be your choice. Like greasy sausage (yum)? It'll be McDonald's. (Although many believe McDonald's new-and-improved coffee is better than Starbucks -- for those, the choice is a lot easier.)

Doug Roberts wonders if it's McDonald's chasing Starbucks, or the other way around. I think that's an easy question: Starbucks has always been chasing McDonald's. After all, McDonald's is the king of the category. McDonald's invented fast-service consumables. The real question is, can Starbucks serve up a sandwich worth paying a premium?

In my opinion, the answer is "no." Not yet, anyway. Let McDonald's continue to rule the grill, Starbucks, and you, with your dry uninspiring and floppy sandwiches, can continue to reign over drippy sweet coffee drinks.

In the war for cheap eats, breakfast is about to become the front line. McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is about to roll out a dollar menu for morning staples like the sausage muffin with cheese and a breakfast burrito with two hash browns. Burger King Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BKC) won't be far behind and is expected to have 10 items for a dollar on its breakfast menu this spring. (No word, though, on when and whether these items will be available all day long.)

If you're a believer in fast food, believe that Wendy's International (NYSE:WEN), whose value menu is legendary for its variety, will be jumping on this bandwagon soon. Already the breakfast market seems to be the Mealtime to Be of 2007, what with Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) hoping to complete its rollout of eggy cheesy breakfast sandwiches by mid-2007, and, according to the Motley Fool, the news that Yum Brands' (NYSE:YUM) Taco Bell is also exploring a breakfast menu.

Who will reign supreme? How will this effect the companies' respective bottom lines? Neither McDonald's nor Burger King breaks out revenue by mealtime or menu item, so it's hard to say what percentage breakfast is of the overall sales. It's equally hard to predict how this would affect profitability -- certainly, it could diminish franchisee profits somewhat, but it's likely to increase overall sales. Breakfast is the mealtime of the future for fast food, and although McDonald's leads the way in the consumer's mind, with so many possible entrants into the $1 breakfast, it's anybody's game.

I love breakfast.

But I'm not a morning person. And when I happen to be out and about, garage saling or running errands or recovering from what I like to call a "mommy hangover," I find myself at a McDonald's. And all I want is breakfast. Somehow the Sausage McMuffin satisfies that need I have for protein, salt, and iron, without making me feel as if I've given my soul to the demons of empty calories.

If it's after 10:30 a.m., though, I'm sunk. And given that I (a health-conscious adult who tends to steer clear of partying 'til the wee hours) want breakfast past 10:30, I can only imagine how much the considerable teenager and, umm, hungover demographics would appreciate being able to eat Sausage McMuffins and hashbrowns and all kinds of other deliciousness at 11 a.m., or 12:30, or even four in the afternoon. I know. Shocking, right?

I've thought since my own teenage years that McDonald's and fast food restaurants of every kind were ignoring a huge consumer need by cutting off breakfast in mid-morning. Now, it seems that McDonald's finally agrees; the news from Jim Skinner's presentation at the Bank of America 36th Annual Investment Conference: breakfast, all day, will soon be here. All that's needed is a change to a new "flexible operating system."

If I were the CEO of McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD), I'd be slapping myself on the forehead. Doh! Why didn't they figure this out sooner? Hello? Customers don't like to be told, "no, you can't have that which you most desire. We made a rule. Breakfast 'til 10:30, not a moment later!" Customers don't come to fast food restaurants because they're looking for discipline, limits, lessons in punctuality. They come to fast food restaurants to satisfy a desire, to indulge their longings for fat, crispy, sweet, bacony sausagey eggy...

That's why I, a health nut, a disbeliever in fast food, might now buy MCD stock. Because offering breakfast all day is an indication that management gets it. McDonald's stock was up 37 cents to $38.15, a 1% increase and a few cents from its 52-week high, on the news today.