Beans for Breakfast

Who needs bagels when you can have beans for breakfast--not just any beans, but foul , a traditional morning meal in the Middle East. Sunnin, the Lebanese restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, opens at 8 a.m. and has foul (cooked fava beans) on its breakfast menu. Sunnin seasons the foul heavily with lemon juice and garlic, producing a real eye-opener. Accompaniments are pita bread and brightly colored vegetables such as tomatoes, yellow peppers, green onion, cucumber pickles and turnip tinted pink with beet juice. For an authentic Middle Eastern drink, pick up a bottle of the diluted yogurt called tahn from the refrigerator.

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Foul (fava beans) with pickles and pita bread, $4. A bottle of tahn, $1.25 at Sunnin No. 2 Lebanese cafe, 6091/2 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. (213) 624-1650.