breakfast blogger

Christmas breakfast at my folk’s place is always special. My mum makes the best velvet scrambled eggs. First you need a whole lotta eggs ;)

Then you whip ‘em up, add a bit of milk and then cook them at the lowest possible heat setting. It takes a while this way (15-20 minutes) but the texture you get in the end is totally worth it.

My mum very slowly moved the eggs around with a spatula.. in the meantime, I checked up on the potatoes:

After a while, the eggs started to take shape:

I checked up on the back bacon:

And then the eggs were almost done:

They just needed a few more slow lazy minutes of tossing on the low heat until they would be ready:

Mmmmm, an awesome Christmas breakfast ay my parent’s place with velvet scrambled eggs:

Cheers!

This past weekend was the Grand Okanagan Resorts annual Breakfast with Santa. Every year the Grand host a breakfast and such for all the employees with children.
With the Grand being the prestigious facility that it is, I was expecting quite a shindig..I was not dissapointed.
The banquet room was formally set, the lights low and the chandelier sparkled above our heads. In the back of the room was 2 large blow up jungle gym thingies for the kiddies, a craft corner and face painting, which were quickly flooded with all the little nose pickers.
But of course, being the breakfast fanatic that I am, I was drawn to the buffet style breakfast laid out across the middle of the room. It was nothing short of impressive.
Massive stacks of plates and bowls greeted you at the head of the table, beckoning you to start shoveling your plates full.

Just past the stacks of white plates were cereal and yogurts, muffins and jams. (yawn).

My real interest was in the shiny silver food warmers in the middle.
The smell of them permiated the room and gave away thier contents. The guests and thier spawn mobbed the table as the chefs came to unveil the delicious bounty inside.

The first one contain pancakes and belgian waffles. There was huge punch bowls of whipped cream and berry topping to accompany them. I had to forfit my waffle to some pathetic lookin doe eyed brat. Its a good thing she was cute or I would have gnawed her arm off for it.

The next held a mess of hashbrowns. They were simple, onionless (thank god, I have a freakish hatred for them) and really quite good. They went great with syrup.

The thrid was scrambled eggs. More pale than I am accustomed to, but thats only becasue I’m a firm believer that scrambled eggs should have cheese in them. I couldn’t help but think about the poor kitchen helper that got screwed into cracking all the eggs for a batch of eggs like that. Poor poor egg cracker guy…

And last but not least came the pig oriented breakafst meats. Cant have brekky without salty cured pig meats. Yum. Again, something that goes well with syrup.

I loaded up my plate with the free bounty and headed for the beverage table, which was also rather impressive in its organization.

But instead of ruining the lovely display, I opted for a classic childhood fav… a carton of chocolate milk. Seen here beside my free heaping plate of buffet food. I was very dissapointed in the fruit salad. It was remminicent of wet sandpaper and butt. Not very appealing at all.

Over all it was not all THAT remarkable of a breakfast, but for a free one, I really can’t complain.

Last weekend Gen and I trekked out to Montreal from Ottawa to have breakfast with Spanky at Senzala in our old neighbourhood. Senzala serves up a yummy breakfast, Brazilian style. This place was an old favourite of mine when I used to live down the street. It’s been over three years since I moved away and I’ve had a craving this breakfast for ages. This was a nice visit..

Spanky’s version of our encounter (part one) is here.

Gen had the Saumontine, 2 poached eggs covered in a cheese sauce with smoked salmon and capers, with plantain, and a grilled fruit brochette:

I had what Spanky had, my personal favourite, the Tropicana.. the two poached eggs in avocado:

Megan also had the tropicana, but her’s was with mango:

Woo, what a treat.

In another news, Spanky and Paulie are doing their yearly trek to Florida. Spanky wants to post about his BBQ experiences along the way there however I must remind him of the title of this blog. The only way I’ll make an exception is if the BBQ meal he has is for BREAKFAST and it is his first meal of the day. :P

I haven’t even had time to post the remainder of my Turkish (and one British) breakfasts - which you can find a complete blog of at spankyhorowitz.shutterfly.com but I promise to as soon as I get back from yet another gastronomic adventure.

I am now deep in the heart of Barbecue Country. In Canada - people think “grilling” is Barbecue -.

I assure you it is not.

Paulie and I are driving a car from Montreal to Florida, and as luck would have it, we will have to drive through 3 very important barbecue ‘zones’. There exist a few different styles of Barbecue; all involve cooking the meat - usually pork shoulder - over wood coals for many, many hours:

Virginia has a tomato-based sauce known to most of the world as “barbecue sauce”. We sampled this at The Smokey Pig, in Ashland, Virginia.
North Carolina employs a vinegar ‘n’ pepper sauce that is not really a sauce, but wets the meat to perfect moisture levels. We enjoyed this in the Barbecue capitol of the world, or the county, or wherever ….- in Lexington, NC, at Smiley’s Barbecue - the only place opened on Sundays. Whew!

South Carolina uses a mustard-based sauce . . . which we will be trying today.
I have compiled a list of the best twenty or so barbecue smokehouses in the state. Paulie and I will need this many as some are now closed, and many have switched to using gas instead of wood - and I refuse to support these establishmenst, as they are contributing to the decay and possible extinction of what is truly one of the only authentically original “American” cuisines.

We are in Southern North Carolina, near Charlotte, and will cross into South Carolina to begin our search in a few minutes, after Paulie finishes eating his BREAKFAST - which is what you will get to0 see here.

Hampton Inn breakfast . . .MMMMmmm…..
Here is the hotel:

Here is the interesting part of thebreakfast buffet:

which is some weird breakfast pockets that you must microwave yourself:

Paulie had this one: filled with egg and sausage and cheese:

I decided, wisely, to save my gastronomic real estate for the Q, as I plan to sample the wares of at least 3 South Carolina Barbecue joints. I had a yogurt:

Stay tuned. . . and if Peabody allows, perhaps you will get to see my Barbecue adventures right here. . .

Peabody and I decided to have a breakfast together this past weekend, not only to break bread together, but to discuss the direction of the blog. As for a location, we compromised: Peabody drove 2 hours to Montreal, and I walked about 50 yards. Az stood us up.

We ate at Senzala, a place that I no longer frequent, seeing as I live very close to it, and I feel that the quality has suffered over the last 5 or 6 years. Here is Senzala, a Brazilian-style resto owned by my friend Andy:

Peabody and I both ordered the Tropicana - avocado. This is a feast for the palate - the mingling of flavors and textures is perfect for a lazy Sunday brunch. Two poached eggs are cradled in the hollow section of 2 avocado halves, and then covered in tomato sauce and cheese, and then set under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Very tasty. This used to be called the ele ou ela, when I used to order it many years ago.

My new girlfriend had the Tropicana - mango, equally as good.
Peabody’s girlfriend had the Saumontine - poached eggs and smoked salmon set in a bagel finished with a similar treatment as the Tropicana.

Here is what the Tropicana looked like as it arrived:

Most breakfasts are accompanied by a skewer of grilled fruit, fresh fruit, home fries, and a choice of breakfast meat (I chose sausage). Since I last ate here, the home fries have replaced a hash brown, which was probably a frozen pre-fab product - but still tasty as hell. The new home fries were unremarkable. Also missing were some plantains, which have possibly been removed from the menu. Too bad.

Here is a shot of my brunch after several bites, showing the avocado:

and here is the money shot:

I loved this breakfast, but I do have a complaint - the same complaint that I had several years back : The basket of toast is brought several minutes before the meal, unbuttered. By the time your meal arrives, you have cold, dry toast. This is an error easily corrected, and hopefully it will be.

Still, Senzala is a great place for brunch.

I woke up this morning feeling a bit sore from the previous night’s adventuring. I got my hungover butt out of bed and into my computer chair and noticed my buddy Ollie had sent me an IM inquiring about breakfast. After a quick shower and a few glasses of water, I jumped in my car and headed to Ottawa to try out the Urban Well breakfast.

I had the Eggs Benedict:

Christine had the classic:

Ollie had the special with bacon, ham and french toast (it had a name but I can’t remember it right now.. it was the second item on the breakfast menu):

Super yummy.

Tomorrow I’ll be waking up early to head to Montreal for a breakfast adventure. Gen and I will be meeting up with Spanky to have a Brazilian breakfast at Senzala in our old neighbourhood. mmmmm I can’t wait!

I am finally back from a few weeks in
Amsterdam, London, and Turkey.

I was here:
Notice the lack of snow.

. . .and have returned to this:

In Turkey, breakfasts are healthy.
They are also repititious - they seem exotic at first, but involve no variety and you get bored of it after a few mornings - saving room for the vast amounts of different lunch foods available - which you will not find here as our friendly fascist breakfast-blogmaster has made a stand against all things non-breakfast.

So, here is what they serve for breakfast in Turkey:
Tomatoes, cucumbers, a cheese that looks like feta but has very little salt (ie.taste), olives, bread, and a few other odds and ends.
This Istanbul hotel brekkie included some rose-petal jam. . .very tasty.

And to justify my thread title - here is a pic of some turkeys, in turkey!!

Here’s an interesting video from a guy named Tom Scott from the UK. He and his friends managed to cook up a breakfast using nothing but an iron and documented it for our viewing pleasure. All this to the music of “Eye of the Tiger.” Priceless stuff indeed! I love gonzo breakfasts ;)

Here it is, Breakfast: Fortified with Iron.

And if that’s not enough, he’s also put out a video making pancakes on a worklamp.

The breakfast at Daniel O’Connell’s is actually from Fil’s diner next door. This is cool because it means you can get the same good breakfast with your choice of atmosphere. A classic 50’s style diner on one side and an Irish pub on the other. How many breakfast places can offer that? (they are connected to a bowling alley too.. but I’m not sure if you can get breakfast in there.. I’ll have to check that out)

It was very sunny this morning.. there you see Gen enjoying some coffee..

I had the eggs benedict with a side order of bacon.. mmmmm yummy.

Gen had the egg, cheese and bacon sandwich.. mmmmm yummy..

The next time I get eggs benedict, I’m going to get a side of toast.. There is so much yummy mopping up to do while having one of those ;)