For Your Viewing Pleasure: Brunch Menus

Very long weekend and week. A bit frazzled, but promises of delicious brunchy bits to come. Until my next brunch outing, I'm tiding myself over with images of brunch menus from around the world. And by "the world," I mean the United States and Canada.

Fresco's, Somewhere in Canda
http://www.frescoseurogrille.ca

I like this one because it has a Zaftig holding a try full of delicious and instead of giving you a full menu. Fresco's keeps it simple, they don't provide menu details -- I'm guessing they hope you'll be sold on the All You Can Eat Sunday Brunch Buffet premise, which they deemed important enough to capitalize for emphasis unlike the claim that it's "Great for the whole family," because it's probably not that great. Between the pizza, pasta and the extraneous comma after "bar" (or LACK of commas after "pasta" and "chicken," but let's just assume it's one typo and not two), I feel like this menu is for Canada's equivalent of a Denny's.

Butch McGuire's, Chicago, IL
 http://www.butchmcguires.com

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I THINK Butch McGuire might be Irish. Not from Ireland, mind you, or else he would probably wouldn't have felt the need to label the entree section of the brunch menu "Top O' the Mornings." Nor the need to ask his patrons to "Build your O' Omlet." Nor to advertise that you can "Plan O' Party" at his pub. Oh, and if you didn't notice the shamrocks bursting out of the logo in the bottom center, you're probably blind. I have a soft spot for pub food, and I do bet the food is greasy and delicious in the way that I'm ashamed to admit I love (particularly when hung over). If anyone ever eats here, I need to know: is it as tacky as the menu leads me to believe? More importantly, how are the Bloody Marys?

Bistro Bistro, Washington DC

http://www.bistrobistrodc.com/

Titular redundancy aside, Bistro Bistro has a fancy pants menu next to Butch's and Canadian Denny's. Voted the #1 brunch buffet in D.C., in a survey that may have only included the people who worked on Bistro Bistro's website (they offer no details to lead you to assume otherwise), this menu doesn't scare away people the way that Butch's might. No, this is a menu for the truly elegant brunch consumer. The don't serve crepes as Bistro Bistro -- far too pedestrian -- they serve crêpes. And don't even think of asking for a vegetarian crêpe, you pleb, you better ask for a Crêpe Végétarien. If you're not feeling up to the task of accenting your order, you can rest easy knowing that you can always just get the Pancakes & Meat -- no circumflex required. This place looks legitimately delicious, and if I ever wind up in the D.C. area for Sunday brunch, the Crêpe de Paris is going to be on my plate.

And finally, a San Franciscan menu

Panam, San Francisco, CA

http://www.panamsf.com/

I actually find this menu aesthetically pleasing, which is only funny because their website is so grating that I want to throw my computer into a wall. There's a music loop that you can stop -- momentarily. As soon as you open another tab or it feels otherwise neglected, the damn irritating loop starts back up again. It's awful music too, so it's not just annoying in its repetition, it's actually just fucking annoying. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, menus. Well, this place also tries to fancify (just made that word up, write it down OED!) its offerings by using Francophone glyphs. GOSH DARN IT. That stupid music has completely crashed my train of thought. And with that, I'm going to bed.

Eat, Drink and Brunch Merry.

Rain Check: The $20 Homemade Brunch

My designated brunch buddy this weekend decided he didn't want to brave the rain, and I have to admit that I didn't blame him. When it's gray and foggy out in San Francisco that's bad enough, but when it's actually raining it's hard to motivate yourself to get out of bed. I was sold on the idea of going in for brunch, knowing that there was a bottle of Moet in his cabinet for mimosas. Given that brunch alone is no brunch at all, I was more than sold on having brunch at home. Although I never really have the urge to have carb-orientated entrees when I go out, today seemed like the perfect day for homemade french toast, a veggie/goat cheese egg scramble, and course mimosas. An ambitious, but achievable menu (recipes below).

I have a secret. I am not a horrible cook. Despite the amount of money I spend eating out (brunch, specifically), I actually know my way around the kitchen well enough to make a meal. My brunch buddy, Ja, is more adept than me -- he is more of a "chef" than "not horrible" like me. He likes to make food even if he's the only one eating it, following recipes, and trimming artichokes just to learn how. Being "not horrible" isn't really a dirty secret, but I think the dirty secret is that I actually like to cook when I'm cooking with purpose. Between work and life, cooking seems like such a hassle unless you're cooking for *something,* you know? A holiday, a dinner party, your family, your significant other after a fight. It always feels like you need reason. A rainy day brunch is officially a great reason. Why? Because if there are mimosas involved, it's a great reason. Not to mention, making brunch at home is way cheaper than going out to brunch. And I mean way cheaper.  I picked up groceries (in the rain) for about $20 that made a great brunch. Eating in is more effort, but a great alternative to eating out and still having an excuse to drink champagne at noon.

The Menu:

Veggie Scramble
4 Eggs
Splash of Whole Milk
1/4-1/4 Red Onion (Large)
1/2 Green Pepper (Large)
3 White Mushrooms
Goat Cheese
1 Roma Tomato
Half Ripe Avocado
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

1.) Chop your all the veggies
I like to dice mine, but to each their own.
2) Sauté Onion, Pepper, and Mushrooms in a bit of olive oil
3) While veggies are still cooking (works best with 2 people), whisk eggs and milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4) Once veggies are done sautéing, add them to eggs. Scramble eggs on low/medium heat
5) Once eggs are "set" (i.e., solid but still "wet" looking) add goat cheese to taste, then add diced tomato.
6) once eggs are done, top with diced avocado

Easy French Toast
1 Cup Milk
2 Eggs
Dash of Cinnamon
~Tablespoon of Sugar
French Bread Loaf
Corn Oil

1) Whisk Mlk, Eggs, Cinnamon and Sugar together
2) Slice French Bread
3) High skillet/griddle to medium heat and add corn oil as needed
4) dip bread slices into egg mix (soak crust for a few extra minutes to soften)
4) Fry on each side until done.
Use Leftover french bread to make some toast on the griddle to go with the eggs for an added plus.

Mimosas
3 parts Champagne
1 Part Orange Juice
Put in glass. Drink.

Voila! For $20 (not including champagne) and a little bit of kitchen time, you can have a luxurious brunch without leaving your house. And still have mimosas :)

Breakfast for Dinner: Not Brunch

Although yesterday I did indeed include Darla's, a "breakfast all day" joint, on a list of bottomless brunch cocktail places, I wanted to clarify something. Breakfast for dinner, or "Binner" as some people have affectionately dubbed it, is not brunch. Even if you get drunk.

I'm not hating on breakfast for dinner, I actually love breakfast food anytime of day. However, eating breakfast for dinner is eating breakfast foods during dinner. Breakfast for dinner does not play with our cultural concept of "meals" nor does provide any impetus to observe the generations old tradition of sitting around on from morning through the afternoon drinking citrus based cocktails and eating a combination of both breakfast AND lunch inspired foods. My brunch foods consumption generally falls on the breakfast food side of brunch offerings, but damned if I'll say no to a shrimp cocktail at 11am on a Sunday.

What about brunch on a weekday? I have yet to brunch on Monday-Friday, but holidays regardless of what day of the week they fall, qualify as brunch days for me. I am curious if brunch would be as delectable on a Tuesday as it is on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe I should try it out...


UPDATE: I stand corrected, it's "brinner" not "binner." Whatever it is, it's not brunch :)

Brunch: A History

If I am going to spend time writing about brunch, I figured I might as well dig into the history of this bastard child of the traditional 3 daily meals. First I'll start with what I assumed was the history of brunch and then compare that to the origins I found on the interwebs.

Though I can't recall the first time I made brunch plans, my high school (which was a boarding school) and college both served brunch on Sunday. Instead of the usual schedule of 8am-10am breakfast/12pm-2pm lunch, there was a single 10am-2pm smorgasbord of unhealthy but delicious options that no one ever woke up early enough to see during the week -- a wonderfully justified money saving tactic that reinforced the idea of the "lazy Sunday." I went to New England schools for both high school and college, which were culturally similar. Both were founded on English traditions (I had classes on Saturday in high school that I blame the British for) and more importantly, they both placed a lot of emphasis on meals as social time. Sunday brunch wasn't just for eating, it was for spending time with friends, catching up about the week (i.e., talking about who hooked up with whom that weekend) and eating until you're so full that getting up seems like a Herculean task.

Even in academic institutions, the idea of sleeping in and waking up to a gluttonous breakfast of waffles, syrup and scrambled eggs every Sunday is the norm.  With 8 years of brunch being routine, when I got into the real world, I was overjoyed to find that the lazy Sunday brunch didn't go away, it just got more alcoholic. Subsequently, I've always thought brunch was something a bunch of privileged, rich and probably snobby British people came up with when looking for ways to fit more gossiping and elbow rubbing into the way. Can't you just see imagine a bunch of Victorian era women sitting around a garden in England gossip-mongering? White lace, fancy teacups and butlers galore.

So how close was I? Well, according to the New York Times: "Although the meal itself came to glory in the United States, the word is a British invention, coined in 1895 by Guy Beringer in a visionary article titled 'Brunch: A Plea.'" The NYT article continues:

Instead of England's early Sunday dinner, a postchurch ordeal of heavy meats and savory pies, the author wrote, why not a new meal, served around noon, that starts with tea or coffee, marmalade and other breakfast fixtures before moving along to the heavier fare? By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well. 'Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting... It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.'" [read full article here].

More great bits of brunch history can be found on foodtimeline.org here, which has some interesting resources to reference. If you want to see what's been and being served up for brunch (in California), check out the LA Public Libraries digital menu collection and do a keyword search for "Brunch" here.

So, unsurprisingly, the word was coined by a Brit. However, I do think it's subject to debate where exactly brunch went from luxury to overly gluttonous necessity.  Regardless, sounds like Guy had a vision of brunch that's become the accepted definition. That's my kind of guy.