Continental Breakfast, San Andres and Cartagena, Colombia

Alright. This is not about one particular brunch spot. Is about my daily breakfast experience while vacationing in the Colombian Caribbean this past week. It turns out that mid-range South American hotels offer full-scale breakfast included in their fare. The idea is that you would have a hearty breakfast that should keep you full until dinner time. But if you don't do anything else than laying on the beach, it actually lasts until the next breakfast!
Eggs any style? Check. Pancakes, waffles and bacon? Check. Loads of fresh fruit, fresh seafood, baked pastries and open bar? Check, check, check, check. To top it all, there were breathtaking views of the ocean and I had not a worry in the world. If this is not the perfect brunch spirit, what is it??

Variation of a Classic: Brunch at Jane's, NYC

So, after Ana left for Colombia (hopefully she'll write a post about some Brunch-like experience there) I decided to spend the weekend in New York City with Vicky and Pablo. I was taking the 3pm bus back to Boston, so we made plans to have a go at Brunch before leaving. After all, New York is, by all accounts, the Brunch capital of the world. We set course for Jane's on Houston. Is this place in the Village or in SoHo? I guess it's on the north side of street, so probably the Village... In any case. We met up with our friends Melany and Alejandro and the 5 of us had Brunch while it was pouring violently in the City.

I have to say that I have been many times to Jane's and it has become one of the places in our usual rotation of Brunch spots in NYC. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed and the dining room is quite large. This means the waiting time is slightly less than the average in New York. They have a pretty solid Brunch menu, with all the fundamentals, and you get a free drink with your dish. What more can you ask for?

Pablo and Vicky went old school and ordered the French Toast, an absolute favorite at Jane's. As always, it looked massive and cooked to perfection. They come here often too and always get this dish, so you certainly can't go wrong with it. Melany and Alejandro were more adventurous an went with the Salmon Scramble. It looked very nice and well presented. I decided to order a variation of the conceptual cornerstone of the Brunch experience, Eggs Benedict. They call this dish Benedict Johnny (see picture) to distinguish it from the classic dish and from another creation of theirs, Benedict Jane.

The Benedict Johnny is a great twist of a classic. It consists of two circular pieces of corn bread (I am sure Ana is regretting leaving for Colombia before Brunch now...) topped with two chicken sausage patties, poached eggs and tomato hollandaise. You starting to get hungry now, right? It's a great dish that is served with house roasted potatoes on the side. Simple, innovative, effective. I highly recommend it, although one of my poached eggs was slightly undercooked (it's so hard to get them exactly right... I should write a post on this subject). I ordered a Bloody Mary with it, as no Brunch endeavor is complete if your Eggs Benedict are flying solo. Although it was not memorable, the drink was not bad at all. I especially liked that they serve the drink with some kind of pickled tomato. Yummy!

So, if you happen to be lost somewhere in between the Village and SoHo you should definitely try Jane's for a classic New York Brunch experience.

Centre Street Cafe, Boston, MA

After "sandwich brunch" on Saturday we decided it was time for something more traditional for Sunday. Our friends were still in Boston, but had already visited the more touristy parts of city. So we took them to one of the city's best kept secrets: Jamaica Plain. We promised them a walk around the neighborhood and the beautiful arboretum, but Diego and I knew that the main reason for the trip was to brunch at the Centre Street Cafe. This small and cozy cafe right in the middle of JP's commercial district offers amazing food made with high quality organic and seasonal products. It's so popular that there's always a line outside (even in winter) but it's worth the wait (and the 40min. T-ride, in our case!). Vicky and I had the potatoes Santa Cruz, perfectly seasoned red bliss potatoes with -as the menu said- "a mountain of veggies" on top, finished with shaved cheddar and salsa cruda. The broccoli was the best of the plate. Cooked to perfection and lightly sautéed, I am considering having just them next time (I know, it wouldn’t really be brunch…). I will probably accompany them-as I did this time- with a tall glass of half OJ and half carrot juice; absolutely delicious!
Diego had "summertime bennies" - CSC's take on eggs Benedict. The eggs were scrambled rather than poached and had two half-inch slices of heirloom tomatoes (one red and one green!). The ham was thick cut to match the tomato slices.
But it's not only about the food... The staff is incredibly friendly. Even if they may not hug you as they do with their friends (also waiting in line) they treat you right as if they had been waiting for you to come looking for the perfect brunch.

Brunch Sandwich in the Bay Village

Last weekend our friends Vicky and Pablo visited us in Boston. The weather was perfect for a long walk around the city so we set out to walk from the South End to the North End. At some point during this promenade Brunch time would be upon us, so we had to carefully plan where to go to fulfill our weekly ritual needs in a satisfactory way. We remembered there was this little sandwich shop in the Bay Village - this is a small wedge of peace in between the South End and the Theater District in Boston - we've been meaning to try for a few months now: Mike and Patty's. They open only for lunch time, so weekend Brunch seemed like our only option to visit the place. Now, if this is a sandwich shop that opens for lunch... Why am I writing this post about a Brunch experience? Without getting into the fundamentals of Brunch (which I keep promise to discuss in a future posting), I claim that our experience at Mike and Patty's was certainly Brunch like. They have a couple of small tables outside, where we sat, and we peacefully enjoyed great food in a relaxing manner. If that is not enough to convince you, just take a look at my sandwich: brunch bliss packaged to go! I had this great sandwich that included eggs, bacon, cheddar cheese, avocado and chipotle mayo. It was just exquisite. Ana had (not surprisingly) a grilled cheese sandwich. It looked amazing and original. Besides cheese, it included grilled green collards, tomato and ham. Our friends went with more adventurous options that, I am ashamed to say, drifted from the platonic Brunch ideal (e.g. Pablo had a sort of Taco). In any case, the experience was certainly very pleasant. Sandwiches were made to order in an open kitchen literally two steps from where we ordered. Mike and Patty's has a very homey and neighborly feel that we greatly appreciated. More importantly this excursion of ours made it clear that there is nothing wrong with eating Brunch between slices of bread.

Brunch at Olsen, Buenos Aires style

Hello, brunch enthusiasts! This is your other host in this attempt to find the perfect brunch. Even though I think we should discuss the theoretical basis for brunch in detail, I decided that my first posting should be about a particular brunch experience. We'll get to the fundamentals in a future posting.

During the last couple of weeks I've spent some time in my home town: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although brunch culture is not dominant there (yet...), there are a few places that offer the possibility to indulge in this God given right. Most of them are located in the area of Palermo and Olsen is my favorite. The highlights of this establishment are the peaceful zen like decor and the argentine-nordic fusion culinary creations. I have to say that every time I visit Buenos Aires I make it my duty to spend some time chilling in their relaxing atmosphere while sipping wonderful drinks. So this is what I did, with my friend Anastasia, last week.

Let's get to the low down. Their brunch menu offers many options for brunch, including Pork Bondiola (if you don't know what this is, you'd better start googling...), Yogurt and Cereals and, my favorite, home-made Salmon Lox. The picture above shows an open Salmon Lox on top of Scrambled Eggs Sandwich. It was, as always, delicious. Not to be forgotten are the remarkable Papas Rotas (broken potatoes). According to Ani, these are just reason enough to visit Olsen. I agree: you would have a hard time finding any form of potato based side dish in any US brunch serving establishment that compares to them.

Even though Buenos Aires does not seem like the place to go on your Quest for the Perfect Brunch, you'd be mistaken not to spend some hours (days, weeks, etc...) enjoying life and food at Olsen in a brunch state of mind.

Counter, East Village, NYC

This is an organic and vegetarian bistro on 1st ave and 7th st in New York City. To be perfectly honest, I was not convinced that veggie brunch was such a good idea.... In addition, the lack of waiting that many of my friends argued as a positive quality was, to me, a bad sign. I have to accept now that I was just prejudiced against a meatless meal; the food was delicious! The lack of a crowd was probably due to the neighborhood being widely associated with nightlife (11 am seems too late for the after-club crowd to wait awake for).
We started off with a basket of pastries (it came with three of each type, which was perfect because there was three of us, but I don't know whether the number would change depending on the number of brunchers). A blueberry loaf, a biscuit with home-made nutella on top and a mini blueberry Madeleine were served with a side of nutella (small pieces of nuts could be seen in the mix) and soy berry butter. I was starting to get the hang of the place. However I was not ready to commit to the organic/veggie style one hundred percent. I cringed in disgust when my request for a tofu-free frittata was met with a "without tofu there's no frittata" response. Apparently, the tofu replaced the eggs and would hold the frittata together. The waitress was very friendly about the whole thing. She could have snarled at me for my ignorance on all things vegan but she very patiently made sure I understood how the dish was made. I have no idea how they gave it a sponge-like texture that only eggs can give, but it was really good. It came with perfectly caramelized leaks and roasted red peppers. It also had ripe grape tomatoes and a delicious and slightly sweet tomato sauce. It was accompanied by a potato and a carrot hash and a mesclum of baby greens. These looked and tasted as if they had just beenpicked up from the upstairs terrace/garden where they grow most of the vegetables used in the restaurant's meals.
The two other brunchers (Pablo and Vicky, Diego being in Buenos Aires on his own brunch experience) had biscuits with gravy and veggie burger with French fries respectively. The biscuits were great, although the gravy was a bit heavy. The French fries that came with the burger were amazing. Hand cut and perfectly golden, crispy but not burnt. They had the exact amount of saltiness to make you keep eating them despite drinking coffee rather than water.
I cannot bring myself to think of this as the perfect brunch just because I have been raised to associate meat and perfection together....
But maybe it's just a matter of coming back to Counter a few more times!