A bright and light brunch creates a cheerful chance to chat and chew.

WHAT time is brunch? It's a good question, and I never know what time to turn up when invited. If I get there at midday, I'm the first to arrive. If I leave it to 2pm, I'm the last. Not that it seems to matter - and that's the joy of brunch. It exists outside the everyday rules and rituals of breakfast, lunch and dinner, like the foodie equivalent of wagging school.

Brunch may sound like a modern American invention, but in fact, the Oxford English Dictionary pins it down to the 1895 edition of the English Hunter's Weekly, in which a Mr Guy Beringer put forward a plea for "a new meal, served around noon that starts with tea or coffee, marmalade and other breakfast fixtures before moving along to heavier fare". Punch magazine picked up the name in 1896, claiming that "to be fashionable nowadays we must 'brunch'. Truly an excellent portmanteau word, indicating a combined breakfast and lunch."

The idea of brunch stuck, because it is a great way to entertain, and a great way to eat. You can turn it into a late breakfast by sticking to croissants and coffee, or treat it as a grazing sort of lunch with cold meats, breads, cheeses and sparkling wine. As Mr Beringer wrote, "brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week." ( Love that "talk-compelling".)

Somehow brunch transcends everyday concerns about carbs, kilojoules, and glycaemic indices. If you follow the generally accepted guideline of being good for 80% of the time, and eating what you like for the remaining 20%, then brunch is a very good thing to do with that 20%, even if it does use it up all at once.

Not that it has to be punishingly calorific. The recipes here show the sort of diversity brunch can have: crisp tacos stuffed with fresh fish and avocado salsa; a quick Indonesian fry-up of rice, prawns and bean shoots topped with a fried egg; and sweet french toast topped with a chocolate spread and a poached pear. A good brunch should have a nice mix of food that will either keep you healthy or make you happy. Sometimes the two are even the same.

NASI GORENG

This Indonesian way with fried rice - jazzing it up with prawns, tomatoes, bean sprouts and herbs - is very handy when you have cooked too much rice, or indeed, have leftovers such as chicken, ham or salmon.

INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp peanut oil
3 red shallots, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 tbsp tomato sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce or kecap manis
1 tsp chilli sauce or sambal oelek
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup bean shoots, washed
8 prawns, cooked and peeled
3 cups cooked jasmine rice, chilled
3 tbsp chopped parsley
1 iceberg lettuce, cut into wedges
4 eggs, fried
2 tbsp deep-fried shallots
8 sprigs coriander
1 lemon, cut into wedges

METHOD

Heat a wok or fry pan until hot. Add oil, and fry shallots, chilli and garlic for 2 minutes until golden.

Add tomato sauce, soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomatoes and bean shoots, and toss over medium heat until well-mixed. Add the prawns and toss, then scatter the rice over the top with your hands, breaking up any clumps. Toss well until hot, adding the parsley at the end. Serve with a wedge of iceberg lettuce and top with a fried egg. Scatter with deep-fried shallots and coriander and serve with lemon wedges.

Serves 4

Tip: Serve with a little extra sauce made up of 2 tbsp soy, 2 tbsp tomato sauce and 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce.

Fish tacos with avocado salsa

Give brunch a crunch, with spicy, pan-seared fish tucked into crisp taco shells topped with an avocado, tomato and jalapeno chilli salsa.

INGREDIENTS
For the salsa
1 green capsicum, diced
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1 tbsp pickled jalapeno chillies, diced
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
2 ripe tomatoes, finely diced
2 tbsp coriander leaves
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp olive oil

For the tacos
8 taco shells
600g white fish fillets such as whiting, black bream, flathead
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin, freshly ground
sea salt and pepper
1 tbsp oil
100g wild rocket leaves

METHOD

For the salsa: Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and beat well. Set aside

For the tacos: Stack the shells upright in a baking pan and heat in a moderate oven for 5 minutes.

Dust the fish with the cayenne, cumin, salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a fry pan and sear the fish on both sides until golden. Remove and break into small pieces. Fill each taco shell with rocket, then fish, then salsa and serve.

Serves 4

French toast with pear and chocolate

Chocolate and pear is a marriage made in heaven, especially on sweet, crunchy french toast.

INGREDIENTS
1 litre water
150g brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
4 pears, peeled
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
50ml milk
1 tbsp liqueur such as Cointreau
4 thick slices sourdough bread
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp castor sugar
4 tbsp chocolate spread

METHOD

Bring the water, sugar and cinnamon to the boil. Add the pears and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender but still firm. Drain and thickly slice crosswise.

Whisk the eggs, vanilla, milk and liqueur in a bowl, and dip the bread in the batter for 2 minutes until coated. Melt the butter in a fry pan and fry for 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Sprinkle sugar over the bread, turn and cook the other side until golden and crisp.

Spread each slice with chocolate and top with a sliced pear. (Add a little zig-zag drizzle with melted chocolate if you like.)

Serves 4