BREAKFAST AT
TIFFANYS! NOT SO MUCH – the blog
On a recent trip to the countryside with my spouse and
daughter in toe, we went to breakfast at a local restaurant. We were hoping for a wholesome experience at
this 100+-year-old restaurant where the servers wore t-shirts with print on them
reading something like “we’re 100 years
and still going strong.” The primacy
impression was lovely. Old drug store bottles lined the shelves on the wall and
a mix and match theme furnished the small cute restaurant.
We were hungry for eggs from a local farm, wholesome granola, and honest dairy from cows we saw on the way there. We were looking forward to getting our vitamin C levels replenished with freshly squeezed orange juice. In addition, I was daydreaming about home-baked goods. The menu sounded good and was rather simple and straightforward – just what you’d expect in the setting. When the food arrived swiftly at the table we were served flabby, tasteless eggs with watery tomatoes and old spinach. Boy was my illusion of freshly baked goods erased quickly when I bit into the corn muffin. First, it tasted like it could cover one week’s worth of my sugar needs, and the muffin’s temperature had the perfect subzero refrigerator level. My daughter’s cereal arrived in the commercial Kellogg’s portion retail plastic container. Granted, our kid was amused with the cartoon on the pull-off lid, but the milk was the kind of hormone injected cows, with no flavor and in addition it had a tepid no fat quality. I presume the stack of pancakes was made from a ready-mix box since they had a chemical after taste and an unwelcome pillowy quality that I had not experienced in my years as a chef. Even the sugar syrup was not able to cover that taste – plain old maple syrup please, anybody?
The dream of having a lovely breakfast in the countryside burst rather quickly. It was for sure a total mood killer and it became quiet on the table. We finished half of our breakfast, paid and were out the door.
Leaving the restaurant my thoughts were going bananas. My mind painted warning signs with skull heads warning “poison do not eat here” above the entrance door! In addition, I felt dirty and had a feeling that we had done something wrong. Later, some distance away my spouse and I looked at each other and went on a rant over the breakfast experience and I realized that we both felt similar about it.
Contemporary food
It’s not that we had not eaten refined, industrialized
mass-produced food before, but to see it in that quantity and quality, well it
seemed for sure anachronistic and strange. What had changed? Well, since our
daughter was born our focus has been on whole grains, unrefined foods and
ingredients, local produce and organics. In addition, it made me realize that
we live in a place where “good for you” food movement is very apparent and the
products that go with it are readily available more or less across the
street. And if you are going to indulge it should still
be fresh and taste delicious.
So out of this experience I compiled a list e of my favorite champion breakfast items – what our breakfast should have been!
-
Homemade granola sweetened with dates and honey,
spiced with a dash of cinnamon.
-
3 organic egg omelet with veggies such as kale,
mushrooms and fresh herbs – perhaps finished with grated grass-fed
cheddar. On the side, some roasted
potatoes and onions a la hash browns, and a small stack of lightly dressed
greens.
-
Whole wheat, multigrain toast with farm butter
and a little maple syrup
-
Fair-trade, single origin coffee - which
actually has a distinctive taste - versus the everyday, ordinary cup of joe.
-
Orange juice freshly squeezed
-
A house-baked pastry such as a croissant or corn
muffin – more of the savory kind and served with apple butter.
I admit this all may sound a bit indulgent but once a week I’ll go for my contemporary breakfast of champions.
