Posts Tagged ‘Brunch’
would you sell your soul for a beignet?
t says: g and I found ourselves in San Francisco (and Bay Area) recently, and, like our last trip to Cali, we made sure to go around and frequent delicious restaurants and cupcakes. But rather than bore you with every single thing we ate, I will instead tell you about the awesomest thing we ate. On the Saturday morning before leaving, g and I wanted to get some brunch. Unfortunately, the places we remembered from our research for our last trip were primarily Sunday brunch spots. The Ferry Building could have been had, however, we did it once before and we were taunted by g’s cousin: “Don’t do that again – you’ve already done it once – do something else!” We pulled out the iPad and started googling “Best Saturday Brunch” and limiting our scope to within walking distance from our hotel. A place called “Brenda’s” popped up, and it felt like a place I had heard of before. Boasting “soul food”, it promised to offer a little something different than we were used to.
When we arrived, we promptly put our name on a giant chalkboard that allowed us to see where we were on the waiting list. As far as two-top tables were concerned, we were fourth in line. We secured some seats in the waiting area (g does not like to wait standing) and cast hungry eyes in the general direction of the diners. The specials on the board in the dining room included Bananas Foster French Toast and Pork Belly with Brussels Sprouts and Grits … simply put: I refused to go anywhere else.
Now, I could tell you all about how the French Toast was delicious (but honestly, Cochon, in the hayday of the Elvis French Toast does it better), and how the watermelon iced tea was very refreshing, blah blah blah. But really, the dish of the meal was our first dish:
four beignets, lined up in a row
When we ordered them, we figured they’d be tiny, kind of like Talula’s Garden’s beignets. They were not. Seriously, one order of Beignets would have KO’d both of us had we finished them (we saved some to go for later). The three powdered sugar ones consisted of the following: plain (i.e. unfilled), apple-filled, Ghiardelli chocolate-filled. The last one, which did not have powdered sugar on it, was “crawfish-filled”. Don’t believe me? Look for yourself.
get in my belly!
The crawfish one was delightful. Chunks of seafood in a delectable sauce of creole spices all inside a perfectly fried crust. Sooo good. It was like some sort of seafood stew but shoved inside fried dough. But as good as it was, it was only second place in my book because that chocolate one haunts me to this very day. It has single handedly ruined beignets for me. The chocolate tasted exactly like Ghiardelli chocolate chips (trust me, I’ve eaten enough of them in our chocolate chip cookies to know). It was powerful and rich and wonderful. It made my bananas foster French Toast seem kind of “boring” in comparison – that’s how good it was.
g, who’s a sucker for doughnuts, was similarly in heaven. I’m not sure which one was her favorite (maybe the apple one), but I can tell you that by the time we were leaving, she was adding Brenda’s to the short list of restaurants we absolutely have to eat at the next time we’re in town (actually, “the list” only includes Kiss Seafood and Kara’s Cupcakes so that’s pretty impressive!).
Long story short: go to Brenda’s for brunch – the beignets are worth the wait. That’s right – it’s a brunch spot worth waiting for – a g&t first!
supper’s brunch disappoints [despite a big dog]
t says: adsz likes Supper’s brunch, having recommended it in the past as a great place to go for Saturday brunch, as our perennial brunch favorite (i.e. Cochon) is closed on Saturdays. Having a hankering for some red velvet waffles, we went again. Here’s how it went down.
November 2011, Sunday Brunch, Party of 2. g and I strolled in and confirmed our opentable reservation (another 100 pts! yes!). We were seated within 60 seconds and had our heads in menus in another 5. Exxxxxcellent. The menu had some new sweet breakfast items that I had to choose between: Pumpkin Pie French Toast and Gingerbread Pancakes. Feeling in the mood for some pumpkin pie in breakfast form, I opted for the French Toast:
pumpkin pie french toast = pie crust + spiced sour cream + chunks-o-pumpkin
The dish came out and I was ecstatic. It looks awesome, right? Sure did! Unfortunately, something about it just didn’t deliver. The spiced cream was very subtle – mostly because my brain kept wanting it to taste like pumpkin, but it didn’t (that’s probably my brain’s fault). The pumpkin, itself, didn’t really have much oomph to it, either, adding more of a textural element than any real “pumpkin”. And the pie crust was just that: pie crust. Actually, the crust crumbles were a little on the anemic side – more like the pie crust on the bottom of a piece of Pumpkin pie and not that fluted edges that get brown and tasty. So basically, I was left with the French toast as the main harbinger of flavor (with maple syrup, of course). Normally, that’d be ok, as I’m a sucker for egg-dipped bread. In this situation, however, the bread, while browned to perfection, suffered from the same fate that Distrito’s French toast had in the past: too heavy/oily/fatty. It’s the kind of thing that you bite into and immediately react, “whoa, that’s rich” … which is surprising because it’s not a piece of PORK BELLY or chocolate cake – it’s French toast! It’s most certainly a side effect of the cooking process and likely intentional – some will love it and some will hate it. After the first bite, I kind of hated it. To illustrate just how overwhelming this sensation was, I only finished one of the slabs, and the other one I opted to not take home (and I normally take everything home). Yea, that’s some serious aversion. So in the end, what I had was some exceedingly unctuous French toast but not a a single thing to take the edge off of the richness (n.b. the toast, itself, didn’t really bring much to the table – it was more like a vehicle for fried-ness). Damn.
g went for the chilaquiles navidad, fondly remembering the chilaquiles from San Francisco’s Ferry Building Market. Supper’s rendition was a bit more, shall we say, “refined”.
chilaquiles navidad = eggs + tortilla + red salsa + green salsa + chorizo
I want to say first and foremost that these were not bad, as g did get around to eating the entirety of her plate. That said, these did not quite live up to her memories and were certainly not worth the $14. The problem list is long. The chorizo was cold (i.e. cooler than room temperature), which is a big error. Neither of the salsas were as cooked down or as deep as she was expecting – but they weren’t fresh and zingy, either. g takes the mic: It’s like they put together some Mexican ingredients, but it didn’t really have that punchy flavor that they had in San Francisco. t yanks the cord to steal the mic back: My question – why serve the cilantro with stems? I mean, maybe I’m just a sissy, but I don’t like trying to chew stems. That’s the second time they’ve done this, so maybe it’s their style: no sissies allowed.
g and I also shared that Supper Dog. We loved their Supper Burger, so we figured the Supper Dog would be a smashing success as well.
supper dog = PORK SHOULDER dog + BACON + bbq onions + sauerkraut + bun + fried pickles
I have to confess that this dish looks a little ridiculous. It’s clear that it’s composition is for wow-factor moreso than practicality. Seeing no way that I’d be able to distribute the bread to the unclad parts of dog, I was forced to attack this thing with a fork and knife. As far as taste goes, g was particularly surprised with how “hot doggy” the hot dog tasted, and I guess I was as well. It’s like you’d imagine it would taste like straight-up PORK, but there’s no mistaking that the inspiration was indeed “hot dog”. sr would have been proud. But that’s where the similarities end, because no hot dog tastes this good (it had a meatier, sweeter taste to it). Couple the dog with those bbq onions and I was in heaven. The sauerkraut and BACON, on the other hand, were a bit superfluous, as I would have easily traded in either/both for more of those onions for my dog. I’m normally not one to turn down BACON, but, as usual when bacon wraps things, the side touching the bacon (i.e. not exposed to heat) wasn’t texturally pleasing, coming across very chewy/slimy/unappetizing. The sour and delicately fried pickles were a great way to reset the palate, while the aioli really didn’t do anything for me, so I skipped it. The bread, let’s face it, was unnecessarily fussy; give me a softer bun that actually promotes the use of my hands instead of a fork and knife and I would have written a title of, “Supper’s Super Dog Saves Brunch!”. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the dish was a little “too much”; “over-accessorized” is what g would say – but there’s something here for sure.
In conclusion, I’m a little disappointed in this brunch, overall. Actually, maybe I’m more than a “little disappointed” – I am going to have to remove Supper as our Saturday choice for brunch. Sorry guys. On one hand, I feel bad about it because the proprietors seem like such nice, hard-working people. Then again, I’ve also heard that they claim to have “started” the farm-to-table concept in Philly. While I’m not Philly-food-historian, I think that may be a bit untrue. While I don’t know exactly who “started it”, I’m pretty sure that White Dog Cafe has at least been doing it longer, having had its roots from even before Fork opened its doors. Be that as it may, we’ll be back around to Supper eventually to give its brunch another go. In the meantime, stay tuned for the brunch spot that will take Supper’s spot on our “gold standards” list.
Honey’s Sit-n-Eat
t says: A long, long time ago (i.e. June 2011), g and I went to Honey’s for brunch. We went during a weekday, so there was absolutely no wait (g and I have relatively little tolerance for waiting). We were thrilled that we finally had our first chance to see what the almighty Honey’s Sit-n-Eat was warranted those soul-crushing Sunday morning lines.
June 2011, Brunch, Party of 2. g and I were celebrating my Birthday, so we had a day full of activities planned (not really). Regardless, we meant business. We arrived, we sat down, we perused the menu, we ordered. We went to work:
Pancakes for a 6-year-old ... or t.
Because it was my Birthday, I felt like I could ask for a special batch of pancakes to be made with all of the ridiculous things I wanted: chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and bananas. Their response: “no problem”. Awesome. Above you see a pic of the resulting masterpiece which was actually very good. A beautiful golden brown, it wasn’t the fluffiest pancake I had ever had, but because it’s approximately 50% of “stuff” that I requested, I guess it’d be foolish of me to dock them points for that. The pancake itself was pretty good, but really, it’s all about the other stuff – how can you go wrong with chocolate, peanut butter, and banana? Of course, I do have to give Honey’s the credit for even distribution of fillings and having just the right ratios to ensure that no one flavor trumped the rest. On the flip side: I’m not sure what the orange did on top – maybe if there was some kind of orange-twinged syrup, that would have been a pretty darn good addition.
Huevos Rancheros.
g went for huevos. Surprise. By now she has built up quite a huevos repertoire, having had it at all the major brunch spots that offer it. She has a hard time choosing a favorite, but what she does know is that this one just didn’t have the avocado, enough beans, or enough runny yolk to seal the deal. Plus, if I remember correctly, the tomatoes weren’t really cooked down much – it was more like a salsa. Bummer. Well, at least nothing was bad – she did a number on the dish. (Personally, I think her favorite is the one that cm and k make … just sayin’ …)
Conclusion: Honey’s allows me to choose my pancake toppings. That’s awesome. But, after that, I’m not sure why the place is so revered. The place is kind of small (which I don’t mind) and cramped (which I mind a little bit) with a lot of hipster-appeal (which I mind a little bit more) and a super-long wait on the weekend (which I mind a lot). Given the breadth of other brunch options, I’m just not sure that they were able to show me something I’d actually wait for. End result: I’d gladly go there on a weekday without a wait so I can have my pancakes my way (and g could explore other menu options to see if anything else strikes her fancy), but certainly not on a Sunday.
Kanella Steps it Up; Amis Steps Down
t says: g and I went to Kanella some time ago and found that although the food was good, the service was weird and it just wasn’t blow-us-away enough to pop into our heads every time we went looking for a BYO. k, having to work in the area this past week, suggested that we re-try it. So we set out for a weekday dinner …
5/2010, Thursday 7:30pm, Party of 4. The four of us sat down, broke out a bottle of a particularly smooth Australian shiraz, and buckled in for an exciting ride. One of the things that Kanella has in its favor is the element of surprise – well, at least for us it did. As we scoured the menu, we realized that the descriptions really didn’t help us envision what the final product would be. There were ingredients we clearly didn’t recognize, and surely how they were put together would be a mystery up until the very end when they hit the table. Of course, had we had a Greek (or maybe “Cypriot” to be more exact), perhaps they would have been able to give us a hint of what was to come. Nevertheless, we each made our selections and patiently waited for whatever the waiter was going to bring us. We amused ourselves by playing such games as, “how much money would it take for you to change your name?” and “look at the chef’s crazy eyes!”. (FYI, the chef has these piercing blue eyes that are super-intense – he make a marble statue cower in fear.)
I went for the goat with “wheat berries”, eggplant, and yogurt. It was fantastic! I can’t remember the last time I had goat, however, this was a stunning example of a well-braised meat served on top of a homy bed of “wheat berries” (it’s like the lentils of grains … hmmm … that makes no sense and will probably cause some people to laugh – but that’s what it was like in my head!). It was the kind of food you want to have a family-style plate of to share with … family (duh). That said, it was rivaled by k and cm’s “brick chicken”. The flaw of the brick chicken? As vague as my description of the goat was, my description of the brick chicken is even vaguer. I have no idea what the spices were, I have no idea what the sauce was – all I know is that it was so good that I might actually order the chicken the next time I go there.
I’ll let cm, master of cutting straight to the point, chime in:
cm says: chicken in a brick was very good also, interesting cooking method for the potatoes they were like little crunchy nuggets of potato. chicken very juicy. i remember scooping up as much of the sauce as i could. and the flat bread was very good and an interesting mix of flavors, especially the dried apricot, good balance of salty and sweet.
back to t: oh yea! the flatbread was indeed delicious! oh, and g went for the the “stuffed vegetable of the day”, which was bell pepper which she liked it very much – it played a major role in de-funking her evening. And then … there was dessert. We went for the date-and-chocolate cake (with vanilla ice cream) and the pistachio-olive-oil cake (with ouzo ice cream). And I must say that Kanella finished the meal quite well with these. Actually, the table was fairly evenly split on which aspects of which desserts we liked better (some liked one cake with the other’s ice cream, and vice versa). Personally, I would have been happy with a gigantic date-and-chocolate cake, as the “cake” was almost like a bread pudding in texture with a little punch of date and the mouth-coating rich chocolate – beautiful. So in the end, we really have no complaints. Kanella did a great job with food, our server was excellent, and the prices were reasonable.
NOW … for the bad news … as you can see from the title of this post, we also went to Amis this past weekend, and they did not fare so well. When we went to Amis for dinner some time ago, it was fantastic. They did such a great job of taking dishes that we already knew and loved and making them even better. Unfortunately, its price and lack of BYO-ness made it hard to go back … until we heard they did brunch. Surely they could work their magic on some eggs and breads, right? Wrong.
5/2010, Sunday 12:30, Party of 5. I won’t dwell on the negatives of this meal because nobody wants to read too much of a Debbie-downer post. So the positives: service was attentive, the decor is top-notch (would be a great date-place in the evening – lots of rich, dark-colored woods). The negatives: the food. w’s boyfriend and I went for a polenta scrapple with eggs and “peperonata” (i.e. stewed peppers). Darn – what a letdown! The eggs were fluffy (yay!) but lacked seasoning (boo!). I liked the texture that the polenta added to the scrapple (yay!), but the scrapple was a bit anemic in terms of flavor (boo!), and the stewed peppers didn’t have much to bring to the table aside from … peppers … and tomato (more boos!). The dish wasn’t inedible or anything – quite the contrary, as I cleaned up the plate – but it wasn’t something I’d ever order again. The bread basket was “ok”, but nowhere near Parc’s bread basket, as the muffins were a bit dry and the zuchini bread was a bit crumbly. g had the braised tomatoes and eggs, and, while she liked it “ok”, it’s not like they rocked her socks. This leads us to the final nail in the coffin: the price. I think w’s boyfriend summed it up nicely when he said, “we paid $12 for a $8-9 dish”. And if you’re thinking “oh, that’s not too bad”, I feel like a 30-50% markup is a bit much. In the grand scheme, I’d say that Amis out-performs Farmicia and Meme but is a notch below Supper for brunch. Darn. We were hoping that Amis would have been the place to take g’s parents because they strike us as the kind of people who’d be up for a savory brunch. Alas, if you crave a savory brunch, forget Amis – go straight to Kanella (their brunches are awesome – and not just the Cyprus breakfast).
Monsu: A Great Brunch Hiding in Sabrina’s Shadow
t says: Our friends thought of going to brunch this past Sunday. And for once, I didn’t push going to Cochon … don’t get me wrong, I still love Cochon, but I think I have gone enough times so that I feel confident that I can go a weekend without it and not feel like I was “missing” something. This also has to do with a recent menu change – they removed the awesome Elvis French Toast and replaced it with PB&J French Toast, which is good, but not quite as off-the-hook as the original. The pancakes are still delightful, but no longer come doused in fruit, rather, crushed Oreos, which are good, but is definitely a lot of sugar. And they removed the hanger steak … so g and I have decided to branch out beyond Cochon for brunch (unbelievable, right?!).
So we originally planned to join our friends n, m, and kp at Cafe Estelle (k and cm are too busy traveling in Spain to come!). As we drove there we laughed at the crowd in front of Sabrina’s – ha! Silly people! Cochon is always line-less. And there was Monsu across the street! But wait a sec – there was Monsu across the street! As soon as g said, “we gotta try that place”, n reasoned, “well, Cafe Estelle will probably have a line, too – maybe we should try it out!” And shazam! We were being spontaneous! g is a spontaneity-junky, so she was totally in. I dropped off g, n, and kp at Monsu and found a parking spot (m was meeting us there – he had very important doctor stuff to do … I suspect someone had a runny nose or something at the hospital and m wanted an excuse to wear his hospital scrubs to brunch …).
April 2011, 11:30am Sunday, Party of 5. There were a lot of savory items on the menu at Monsu – maybe a French toast and like one other dish for sweet. At first I was nonplussed (O … M … G … I hate that word – just finished reading a memoir by an author who used it no less than 3 times in 200 pages … drb uses it every now and then, but whenever he uses it, I feel like he’s making fun of it, which is acceptable – it’s such a dumb word). But then I started eyeing these awesome t-esque dishes. Gnocchi, lasangna with cocoa, scrapple, and a whole lot more. Suddenly, I was no longer nonplussed – one might say I was plussed. Here are some shots of what kp and I ordered and shared.
The scrapple's playing hide-and-seek under some veggies!
The scrapple tasted good and had a nice internal consistency – it just needed more of a crust on the outside. Other than that it’s some mighty-fine meat! And the veggies had a nice sweet taste to them. g still refused to eat much more than a bite (but I love her anyway).
No gnocchi left behind!
The gnocchi were also quite good. Their texture was how I like my gnocchi: soft but with a bit of bite so you still feel like you’re chewing something (I know gnocchi texture is a very personal thing). The sauce reminded me a lot of a vodka cream sauce. I wish there was some kind of vegetal zing in there, like a parsley or a basil or something fresh just to cut through the cream.
The split personality lasagna ... hiding under an egg.
So the lasagna I believe deserves a special mention. It walked the line between savory and sweet, as there was a bit of cocoa and cinnamon (or at least, we think it was cinnamon) that had to play nicely with the cheese/meat/pasta. The result was a success! Topped with an egg, it was the perfect breakfast lasagna. I’m not so sure I’d eat it for dinner (it’s also on the dinner menu), but for brunch this is probably the best savory-sweet balance outside of pancakes-and-bacon that there is. Superb job Monsu! Also, the egg on top reminded me a bit of Modo Mio – it was a good idea then, it is still a good idea now.
g had Eggs Basildict, which is a very peculiar name, but she liked it a lot, claiming that perhaps she “won” with the best dish. I disagree, firmly believing the lasagna was superior, but I will say that hers had a more vibrant complement of flavors – it just wasn’t as unique as a sweet-savory lasagna. Sorry – no pics to show you g’s dish – she was too far away for my crappy iPhone camera to reach.
All in all, Monsu was a success for brunch. There were no lines and plenty of open tables. It completely boggles my mind that across the street at Sabrina’s, people want to wait for a spot. Simply put, Sabrina’s food is good (don’t get me wrong – if you put their food in front of me, I’ll eat it), but not worth waiting for. And now that Monsu is right there, I definitely see no reason to wait (unless you desperately want a cup of cream cheese shoved in your French Toast like Sabrina’s likes to do). I also see a lot of potential for Monsu for dinner – I feel an FTC meeting coming!
What are the drawbacks? Well, n did have an omelette that I think she regretted – it wasn’t bad, but I think she felt it was a little dull next to some of the other items on the table. I sampled a taste of m’s mpanada, which was pretty good – I wonder how he liked the dish in its entirety? I think one of the big drawbacks was, as I had mentioned earlier, that there really weren’t a lot of sweet on their brunch menu, so if you have a sweet tooth (like me), afterwards, you might still find yourself craving something “more”. Fortunately n and m had the right idea: Isgro’s is right down the street!
Farmicia also made me a liar!
t says: g and I were caught down in the Old City area one weekend and stopped by Farmicia for brunch. When we were finished with the meal, all I can say is that we kind of wished we hadn’t stopped. Because it was so “unremarkable” as g stated, we’re just going to cut straight to the chase:
2/2011, Sunday Brunch, Party of 2. I had a French Toast Scrapple sandwich. Sounds great right? Some French toast. Some pig-product. Get some syrup up in there. It’s gotta be a winner! Wrong! The scrapple was a disgrace. The outside was as mushy as the inside – a huge faux pas! And the meat (if you call it that) was quite bland! But that wasn’t the weird part – I had had bad scrapple before. The weird part was that the French toast was … ?bland?. I’m not even sure if bland is the right word to use, but it really had no taste – maybe “insipid” is better. It tasted like bread, which was weird because I clearly saw that it had been French-ified. But there were no notes of egg, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, nothing! I doused my sandwich with strawberry jam to, one, make it taste better, and two, make it seem like it was bleeding (when my food isn’t tasty, my mind wanders …), but no amount of sweetness or humor could rescue the sad sad sandwich.
g had the crabcake sandwich. When I asked her how it was, these were her words: “it’s a crabcake sandwich.” No adjectives used at all. Perhaps this is a good thing because all of the adjectives for mine were negative.
So what’s the point of a post like this? Well, it’s not just to rant and rave – there are enough of those bloggers out there already. I want to share with you a troubling realization. It happened as we were sitting there. I had just told g how boring the food tasted – and not a microsecond after I got the words out of my mouth, I noticed out of the corner of my eye the waiter was a mere 4 steps away, coming to ask us how everything was. I literally turned my head from g, to whom a moment earlier I had been complaining about my food, and told him, “everything’s good, thanks.” I lied. I’m a liar. I kind of shocked myself. g gave me a wide-eyed look of accusation; her face said, “you are one of those people!”. She was referencing a time that good ‘ol a had pointed out that I was a liar back when we visited Baby Blues, when I told the waitress a similar comment despite having obvious reservations about the food … but never had I gone straight from saying one thing to saying another so quickly. This realization makes me feel dirty and guilty all over …
… but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed with some Cochon French toast (now Cochon douses their French toast in peanut butter and jelly) …
New Brunches [for us]
t says: We hit up some new brunches …
12/2010, Saturday, 12pm, Party of 2. Not one week later, g and I were up for some brunch – but it was Saturday and a hot snowy mess outside. g suggested that we not drive off for another round of Supper’s brunch, rather, try to find someplace walk-able. She suggested Day by Day. Now, we’ve gone to Day by Day before, and it’s been good, but really, nothing super-crazy going on there. So perhaps I was less than excited to go, or maybe I was just hungry-grumpy. Nevertheless, we rolled out, walked a few blocks, and voila – we were there! Good thing we went, because this is what we got:
Like Sabrina’s, Day by Day offers a special “stuffed French toast” which has large slices of French toast flanking a cream-cheese based filling. And normally they are as good as, if not better than Sabrina’s (I like the French toast, itself, better here than at Sabrina’s, but Sabrina’s normally has better filling). Well this time, Day by Day got an extra gold star: Tiramisu stuffed French toast. Mascarpone filled, with some chocolate chips, almonds – wonderful. Unfortunately, one can never predict the special French toast at Day by Day (their normal stuffed French toast is good, too – but not as good as this). As you can see, g opted for some sandwich concoction which I believe she found to be quite delicious – and she ranked the potatoes somewhere inbetween those at Supper and those at Cochon. Quite respectable! And the prices were pretty cheap, too! I guess next time I won’t be so quick to poo-poo ’em!
after dinner sneeze 