Offbeat Eats

(Closed) One of the fine English culinary traditions I embrace is that of the Full English Breakfast (you can read my previous article on the topic). Every time I come to London, I try to accomplish two things: (a) another trip to the Regency (it’s a 5 minute walk from the flat), and (b) get a Full English someplace other than the Regency. This time, we decided to try out Canteen. Canteen’s motto (and the name of their cookbook) is “Real British Food”, and their menu reflects it, with your basic selection of roasts, fresh fish, and poultry dishes. They also serve breakfast, so we went so I could try out their Full English (which, oddly, hasn’t been on their menu long, they recently added it “because you asked for it!”).

(Closed) As anyone reading my article on Eggs Benedict from earlier this year could tell, it’s one of my favorite breakfast dishes from the savory side of things. The combination of a good toasted muffin, some sort of proper meat product, a nicely poached egg, and a well-executed tangy hollandaise makes for quite the nice breakfast. It’s also very, very hard to find such a beast in the Upper Valley. Lou’s can poach a mean egg (their “poached eggs and hash” breakfast is one of my local favorites) biut only has a Benedict as an occasional special. Four Aces had one, but it was a rather poor specimen (limp sauce, and cold ham), and in any case Four Aces is no longer with us. I’ve had an outstanding one at Wasp’s in Woodstock, but that’s outside my normal range, and not open on Saturdays. Benedicts also grace a few other menus of area places (as the occasional special, mostly), but I’m generally left underwhelmed. In an area not particularly well-populated with a lot of breakfast joints, I’m generally forced to lived without.

I’ve finally blogged my way through my last UK/Spain trip (although, sadly, as I write this, I’m already starting to pack for my next UK trip). After two weeks of more eating and drinking around London, we had to get up fairly early in the morning and catch our flight out of Heathrow. Being 7:30 in the morning, we decided that this would finally be a good opportunity to check out Pimlico Fresh, which is just down the road from my brother’s flat. We’ve walked by a many times on the way to/from the local Sainsbury or Victoria station, but had never been inside before, since the place is usually packed to the rafters. But at 7:30 in the morning? No problem. We walked in right as they opened.

Anyone that has dined with me for breakfast know that I generally don’t do breakfast, usually opting for just a cup of coffee, and maybe a sweet roll or something. But when I get breakfast, I generally go all out. My favorite breakfast dishes include pancakes (yeah, I’ve got to write up my favorite pancake joints as well), waffles (my college roommate Steve still likes to tell people about my late night waffle cravings in college), a proper biscuits and gravy, all things hash brown related, and eggs Benedict…

Two weekends ago, Carol and I attended the Vermont Brewers Festival as we usually do. However, instead of our usual trip to Coffee Corner in Montpelier (note to self: haven’t reviewed Coffee Corner yet!), we decided to shake it up a bit and find someplace new to try. Doing several online searches, Sneakers Bistro in Winooski seemed to be consistently recommended, so we gave it a try. The place is very nondescript, with the primary signage being a pair of Converse All Stars hung outside the restaurant (shown here). It’s a fairly cozy little storefront, but they have a reasonably large amount of outdoor seating as well. Which was good, since when we arrived, there was a healthy crowd of hungry people waiting for tables. Luckily, two-seaters were turning over quickly, so Carol and I got seated almost immediately at a nice sidewalk table…

Anyone that’s been reading this blog for a while knows, for as long as I’ve been doing the blog I’ve had periodic trips to Yuma, since it’s the Army’s premiere spot for, well, throwing crap out of airplanes (I’ve got several projects at work that involve parachutes and parachute guidance systems). I’ve now been to Yuma enough times that I’ve got a lot of favorite restaurants (more on that when I do the next installment of my taco adventures), traditions (getting a Route 44 cherry limeade at Sonic to celebrate successful testing after a long day in the desert), and places that I keep meaning to try (Mar Azul, for example). Brownie’s Cafe I discovered on my first trip to Yuma years ago (it’s hard to miss, being on 4th Ave/I-8 BL/Old Highway 80), with a most distinctive storefront (which I’ve done a mediocre job of capturing with this 2008 image), and I usually go there for breakfast once every trip…

On my recent trip to Minnesota, we had several opportunities to dine out by ourselves, or with our hosts. As a result, we had several fine breakfasts at local establishments, many of which (Maria’s Cafe, for example, or better yet, the venerable Al’s Breakfast) I’ve already reviewed on this blog. However, this time we dined at several new establishments as well. Two of them I’ll review today, and I can combine the reviews since both places (Longfellow Grill in Minneapolis, and Highland Grill in St Paul) are sister restaurants operated by the same company, and indeed, have approximately 90% overlap in their menus.

(Closed) One of my favorite breakfast item is corned beef hash. And, as I mentioned recently in my review of Bode’s, it’s one of those dishes that’s easy to do poorly, but hard to do really well. It’s also one of the food items that I get a lot of recommendations for. I’ve often had people recommend places to me for good CBH, and a majority of the time, I’m disappointed, since I usually end up with something that’s either canned CBH, or a faithfully executed homemade replica of canned CBH. So when one of my homebrewing friends gave a strong recommendation for the Gold Star Restaurant in Worcester having the “best hash ever,” I responded with some skepticism, but put it on my hit list.

When it comes to breakfast, one thing I really like is a good Corned Beef Hash (CBH). It’s one of those breakfast items that really tells you how good a kitchen a breakfast joint really has. Some places just serve pre-made canned CBH right out of the can (which can actually be quite good if cooked well with a nice sear, actually). And many places make their own. Sometimes the result is ambrosial (Al’s Breakfast in Minneapolis). Sometimes the result is mediocre (I’m talkin’ to you, Denny’s!). And, sometimes, inexplicably, a restaurant will go to all the trouble of dicing potatoes, grinding meat, and making spices, going through all the right motions, but somehow end up with something that’s nearly indistinguishable from the canned stuff. It truly baffles me, since I’ve been to all sorts of places that people have highly recommended for their homemade hash, and gotten something that easily could be mistaken for Hormel.

(Closed) This year for Christmas, we decided to visit Carol’s relatives in Michigan, which means a long drive across VT, NY, and ON. To break up the drive, we spent the night in Buffalo, NY. While I have several places in Buffalo that I like (such as the original Ted’s Hot Dogs, or Schwabl’s), and several that I’d like to visit again (Duff’s, Anchor Bar, …), a Monday night at 11pm isn’t the best time, sice most every place is closed. So we punted and went to Denny’s, while deciding for find a good breakfast joint. Consulting my Buffalo-area contacts, two people recommended Demetri’s Family Restaurant in Buffalo as a good, cheap, Greek breakfast joint, so we went by to check it out…