Vrau Vodka finally managed to go to Vodkaland.
Ok as it was for work, it was technically more whirlwind MoscowMetroland than Vodkaland, but it was every bit as crazy and exciting as I thought it would be.
Somewhere in between a quick Midnight trip to Red Square and wall-to-wall meetings strung together with trips in 'Funny Cars'*, I mentioned to my colleagues that I love breakfast and write a Blog about it. My Russian colleague (who for reasons known only to he and I shall be called Jason Donovan for the purpose of this Blog), artfully managed to squeeze in a coffee and late breakfast snack for us at one of his favourite breakfast places so that I could see it.
It is a cafe called Кафе Шоколад (you have no idea how impressed I am that I managed to google and find that!). Translated, it means simply 'Cafe Chocolate'. Breakfast AND Chocolate? Hell yeah.
There are so many reasons to love Кафе Шоколад...
#1 For workaholics (or late night party animals) they start serving pancakes at 4am
#2 Talking of pancakes the Russians aren't famous for Blinis for nothing. I ate two different kinds - one a delicious variety made with curd, the other a more tradional thin version. Both were served with lovely fresh berries and compote.
#3 You could easily have blinis, caviar and vodka. For Breakfast.
#4 They have a whole section of drinks called 'Hot Winter Non Alchoholic Cocktails' - the perfect warm, sugar recharge you need after a busy winter's day in Moscow. Predictably I had the Winter alcohol Free Mojitto
#5 If you aren't lucky enough to have your own Minister of Transport, Catering and all things Russian like we were, they have menus in English (not as common as you would think)
#6 The range of coffees is extensive and the coffee is delicious
#7 There are several branches all over Moscow
#8 They have play areas for kids
#9 They serve eggs and pastries too if pancakes aren't your bag.
I hope I get a chance to return soon - if with the help of Jason D. I managed to find this gem in two days, who know how many could be discovered on a longer trip!
*Funny Cars: In Moscow, common practise for getting around by road involves a unique 5 step plan:
Step 1: Stand on the side of the road with your thumb out
Step 2: A car will stop
Step 3: Negotate a price to take you to your chosen destination
Step 4: Jump in
Step 5: Pay
I believe they call this supply and demand.
Caution: This not to be attempted in any other city in the World and I strongly recommend against doing it without a Russian Minister of Transport with you,
Кафе Шоколад
Website, Menu, Locations
Turning the ripe old age of thirty ni-aarrrg, I definitely wasn't looking forward to this particular birthday, which is unlike me. Traditionally I start warning my friends 6 months out from the big day, and issue frequent count down reminders until the dawn of Day 1 of a 7 day celebration.
This year, I planned to stay well below the radar and stay at home to eat chocolate and hide from any activity that involved green bottles or little glasses of black gloop beginning with J and ending with Meister.
Breakfast Partner Numero Uno Missy wasn't having any of that and insisted that I meet her outside Highbury & Islington Station on the morning of my Birthday. Not too early mind. She knows me better than that.
So at a leasurely 11.30, we took a meander into Dalston. For those of you not from London, Dalston is rapidly creeping up on Shoreditch and nicking it's CoolashellHipsterEastLondon crown. Missy had accidentally discovered a special little secret there a few weeks before when returning from a gallery and had decided that it was the perfect antedote to my Birthday Blues.
Honestly secret doesn't really do the art of finding LBOWYF justice. From the outside, you would have walked straight past it thinking it was an illegal gambling den. The only tiny clue is a chalkboard with a hastily scribbled 'A Little Bit of What you Fancy' outside.
Inside however, it's charming. Chunky wooden tables dressed with cheerful little buckets of yellow flowers. Crates of fresh vegetables and fruit stacked next to the days fresh breads and pastries. Definitely a sunny pick me up on a very drab and baltic London Winter's Day.
As it was midweek, we had the place to ourselves. Which you'd think would bode well for brilliant service. Well you'd be wrong. Luckily, we were in Thelma and Louise Carpe Diem mode and were happy to lose two hours there and so it didn't bother us. If the service was on the 'we're far too busy being cool' side and the Bubbly we ordered suspiciously lacking bubbles, then the food and environment happily more than made up.
There are several things I mention regularly in this Blog as being my favourites, but untill now, I don't think I've mentioned Chorizo. As far as I am concerened the EU Parliament should declare that cheeky little spanish sausage a mandatory part of all breakfast menus. Everywhere.
It stands to reason therefore that we each chose a dish with the afforementioned Spicy Sausie. Mine was a combination of a perfectly cooked poached egg on sourdough, topped with roasted vine tomatoes (and yes they were actually still on the vine), avo, chorizo, a drizzle of greek yoghurt and best of all a bigass bunch of fragrant basil. Yumtastic.
Missy chose the more simple but still delicious scrambled egg on sourdough with chorizo, tomatoes and rocket. The breakfast menu isn't huge or massivley creative, but there are still things to tempt everyone. Even the healthy option rhubarb in greek yoghurt served in a tin plate with strawberries, almonds and lashings of honey looks moreish.
The coffee was great and as we were able to eat Breakfast after 12 'A Little Bit of What you Fancy' earned big love from Beedub. The service was rubbish, so if you are in a rush or find disinterested service annoying then possibly this isn't for you, but if you are out East and want somewhere relaxed and different then boys and girls jump in!
And it made me feel warm and fuzzy on a less than sexy birthday to boot.
A Little Bit of What you Fancy
464 Kingsland Road,
London,
E8 4AE
020 7275 0060
Nearest Stations: Haggerston and Dalston JunctionWebsite
How to Find it
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| Pic by Becs |
It is one of my great regrets that in spite of numerous attempts, I just can't seem to overcome my aversion to tomato juice.
It's not the healthy Juicy Lucy version that taunts me, but rather her cheeky cousin Mary. I can't help feeling that I am missing out on one of life's ultimate brunch treats. And more importantly, the last of the great hangover elixirs.
Sigh.
All that being said, for every tomato I have spared the life of, my Bloody Mary Loving friends have squished dozens, so it's only fitting that Miss B Mary finally gets her own entry.
I have one particular friend who speaks fluent Bloody Mary and makes them like no one else. I think Miss Tams was born knowing that horseradish is far better off in a Bloody Mary than wasting it on a silly old slab of beef.
And so boys and girls, if you happen to wake up this weekend a wee bit itchy and scratchy or just fancy breakfast with a zip, here is her recipe...
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| Pic by Yankee Hank |
MARY'S BITS
Vodka (a good Russian one of course) - a healthy lug (1 large shot minimum)
Good quality tomato juice
Celery salt and pepper (to taste)
Tabasco - a splash
Worcestershire sauce - a damn good swig
1 tsp horseradish
A stick of celery
Secret ingredients (shhh)
Freshly squeezed cucumber juice - half a shot
Marsala - a swig
MIXING MARY
Like Mojito's, Bloody Mary's are very personal, so experiment to get your perfect balance of ingredients. I've given you Miss Tam's quantities as a starting point.
Pop all your ingredients except the celery in a cocktail shaker if you have one with a couple of cubes of ice. Gently shake for 10 to 15 seconds to combine. Strain the ice cubes out and pour the mixture into a glass. Have a taste to see if you need more of anything. Garnish with the celery stick.
Tres Facile!
TIP
#1 Try not to do vodka shots while you're making it. You'll feel better temporarily, but that old Russian sickle will kick your ass sooner or later...
#2 If like me you don't like tomato juice, there is nothing wrong with a little Mojito Mojito Breakfast of Champions
This blog is loaded with references to Huevos Rancheros, mainly because it runs a very close second (and sometimes even overtakes) Eggs Benedict as my favourite breakfast. A few reasons to fall in love:
#1 It's incredibly easy to make at home
#2 You can be as creative or as boring as you like, experimenting and adding your own signature
#3 It's a winner for breakfast entertaining
#4 I can attest to its hangover busting properties (must be the limes)
What follows is Mr Beedub and my combined recipe (this is the one dish we can happily make together without kthe kitchen turning into a war zone).
THE BITS
The basics:
Eggs (calculate on 2 eggs per person plus 1 spare. 3 eggs per person if you're hungry)
Large Tortillas - there are loads of different supermarket options, wheat, corn, multigrain. Find ones that you like.
Cheese (about 20g or as much as you like)
Sour Cream of Creme Fraiche (we normally go for a low fat creme fraiche)
Salsa (see below)
The extras:
Black Beans - by far the easiest are the ready cooked tinned version which you just reheat. We don't usually have these if we're on our own as they add serious weight to the meal
Chourizo, bacon or any other salty breakfast meat - although not strictly authentic this can be delicious
Tabasco sauce - we use the regular but the green and BBQ versions are also tasty
The Salsa:
Although technically an extra, salsa makes or breaks a good ranch breakfast and so earns the right to have its own heading. It is also the one place Mr Beedub and I differ in opinion - he likes a stove brewed salsa and I prefer a fresh one. Over the years (and many futile bouts of Rock Paper Scissors later), we've managed to find the perfect compromise - we make both and they go perfectly together.
Mr Beedub's Stove Salsa:
For 4 people:
1 x tin of unseasoned chopped tomatoes or pack of Pommi/ Italian tomatoes
1/2 a red onion
A sprinkle of Chinese 5 spice
A squeeze of Gourmet Garden Thai spices (has crushed ginger, chili, garlic and coriander in it)
Fry the onions on low heat until translucent. Then add the tomatoes and spices and paste and slow cook to let the flavours infuse the sauce.
Although this might sound more oriental than Mexican, trust me, it hold its own as a Huevos accompaniment because it shares many of the principle ingredients used in Mexican cooking. It's aromatic and very very tasty.
Beedub's Fresh Salsa:
For 4 people:
2 x Large tomatoes diced into 1cm pieces or a pack of cherry tomatoes quartered (I prefer cheeky cherries)
1 x Large, ripe avocado
1/4 to 1/2 red onion finely chopped (depending on your tolerance for onions) or you can use 2 spring onions
A bunch of coriander chopped roughly (again to your taste - it's my favourite herb so I pack it in)
Juice of 1 lime (or 2 if you like it tangy)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chop all the ingredients and mix together in a bowl , squeeze in the lime juice and garnish with more coriander. So easy and so delicious!
THE ASSEMBLY
There isn't a lot of cooking, which is exactly why I love this.
The eggs are the most complicated thing and if you can fry or scramble em you're away. We prefer scrambled but many restaurants serve their Heuvos fried.
Make the Fresh Salsa first and cover and pop in the fridge while you do the rest
If you fancy the Stove Salsa and Beans, I suggest making those first and keep on a really low heat while you quickly do the eggs which don't take long
Scramble the usual way whisking in a bowl with salt and pepper and a drop of milk if that's how you grew up having them.
Pop in the pan and cook to your taste. Mr Beedubs tip: keep the eggs gently moving for the first minite or so until they develop a nice creamy consistency and then let them settle on the heat.
A few minutes before the eggs are ready, pop your tortillas into a moderate, preheated oven to make them lovely and soft and warm.
When the eggs are ready plate up.
This is a very personal process so this is how we like to eat ours, but experiment and find the way that you like. Ours:
Put a warm tortilla on each plate
Lay the scrambled eggs on top of the tortilla
Spread some of the warm salsa across the top
If you have chorizo - lay some on the salsa
Top with a sprinkle of cheese and a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche
Add a Tabasco squirt if you like it spicey
Add the fresh salsa on the side and beans if you have them
Garnish with a wedge of lime and a sprinkle of coriander
A word of warning: it's no good for breakfast in bed - unless you want to ruin your Egyptian count threads, use the table...
Breakfast has always been the punctuation in my life story and so it seems entirely appropriate that in the latest Beedub Chapter - loosely titled 'Carpe Caffeine' - it would be over breakfast with friends, that I would both rashly and wonderfully decide to decimate my credit card and join them for a week in New York a day later.
I have been to New York several times, but this was the first time I made a conscious decision to sink my teeth into the Big Apple and follow my nose with the hope of finding perfect places to eat, leaving the New Year Sales and ample tourist attractions to Manhattan virgins.
If Las Vegas is the Mecca for gamblers, then the City-That-Never-Sleeps is most definitely the holy grail for Breakfastites.
A few things I learned about Breakfast in New York..
#1 Breakfast is not an afterthought, it is a signature for most restaurants - hallelujah!
#2 Jetlag induced dawn wake-ups come in very handy for getting the jump on New Yorkers and beating the queues at popular breakfast spots, especially on weekends when Brunch is the third major religion
#3 Bloody Mary's and Brunchy cocktails are ubiquitous in NYC. Therefore it's rude not to have one
#4 Make the trip to Brooklyn - it is worth it
#5 You can count on pancakes on every menu so you can afford to be choosy
#6 Online research is great, but follow your nose too - there are literally thousands of special places to have breakfast just waiting to be discovered
#7 Random fact: look out for the giant A sign on the outside of restaurants - it means the hygiene standard is top (thanks Yankee for that)
#8 If you are on a budget, investing in breakfast is an ideal way of saving money - a good breakfast will see you all the way through to dinner
And in other words...
I ♥ Breakfast, ♥s Breakfast in New York. Big Time.
With the help of my old friends Timeout and Zagart and some real, genuine New Yorkers, we found the most delightful and eclectic mix of breakfast places imaginable. I hope you get a chance to make it to some of these...(click the links to visit the reviews)
Balthazar, SoHo
Five Leaves, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Bubby's, Tribeca
David Burke Kitchen at James Hotel, SoHo
Dean and Deluca
Photos (all the really good ones) are kindly provided by the wonderfully talented Yankee Hank Abroad.
Princess Fee and Yankee Hank are regulars in this blog and I will unashamedly blame them when the nice people from MasterCard come to lock me up at the end of the month, for it was over Kedgeree and Lattes in 202 with them, that we decided to join them on their New Year trip to the Big Apple.
They score maximum Beedub Brownie Points because they were also responsible for choosing our first breakfast landmark on the trip.
A Google search will quickly tell you that Balthazar scores great ratings and reviews across the board on all major foodie and travel sites. And there is a reason. Actually, there are several...
#1 The coffee is served in a bowl (if you have read this blog previously you will know how ridiculously happy this makes me).
#2 The service is brilliant - we had a fantastic waitiress called Robyn who was efficient with a Capital E and gave us terrific recommendations. (As an aside, she also told us Balthazar will open in London soon. Yay!)
#3 The Scambled Eggs In Puff Pastry (with asparagus and wild mushrooms) is simply delicious.
#4 The juice is freshly squeezed NOT from a bottle filled with weird additives that make men grow moobs.
#5 The portions are European sized not American so it is possible to leave the restaurant without receiving your own zip code.
#6 There is a breathtaking oyster bar
#7 They have a restroom attendant who hands you towels to dry your hands (in case this seems a little strange read What's This All About Then to understand my slightly weird rating system for restaurants)
Things we ate:
Fee and I went with the Scrambled Eggs in Puff Pastry (see above) - a big tick. Yankee Hank couldn't choose and so we coerced him into having both his choices - Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal and the Sour Cream Hazelnut Waffles. He said he could really taste the hazelnut in the waffles, but as the only American in our group was a little sad that they weren't large enough to feed all of us. Mr Beedub went with the recommended Eggs En Cocotte - a creamy dippy egg, cream and Parmesan concoction served with bread 'soldiers'. He was the only one who was a little disappointed. Partly because the eggs were just ever so slightly under done and partly because he developed major food envy after spotting the house Eggs Benedict pass his nose en route to our neighbours.
Price wise the dishes range between $4 and $19 - a little pricey, but worth it.
A word of warning - even on a Wednesday morning early, we had to queue for a short while, so if you intend going on a Sunday, be prepared for a wait. Sadly their weekday breakfast ends at 11.30am, but luckily on Sunday their brunch menu runs until 4pm.
Balthazar
80 Spring Street (Soho)
NY 10012
Website and Menu
How To Get There
A few year's ago, over too many whiskeys in a NY Hotel, a friend of mine and I pledged to open a beach bar one day. The location? Well Brooklyn of course.
Considering I have never been to Brooklyn and it's not famous for its beach vistas, this was a bold sweep in the dark, but let's just say I had a feeling I would love it. And I was right.
Having being nudged awake at stupid O'Clock by my jetlag, I was unusually perky and on time for our early morning rendevous to walk the Williamsburg Bridge with the view to working up an appetite for a Bigass Brooklyn Brekkers. It was a glorious blue sky Winter's morning and the walk put us all in a great mood. Until we realised that the abundance of yellow cabs in Manhattan dries up completely on the Brooklyn side and my carefully researched restaurant in Greenpoint, was a not a few blocks from the bridge after all. We were knee deep in a Plan B hike to the nearest Subway Station when we found the unfindable - a cab!
And so at Five Leaves we arrived. My online research had lead to to CBS's best 5 Breakfast places in New York and there I found Five Leaves standing proud, flying the flag for Brooklyn with their Ricotta Pancakes.
For me, Breakfast is as much about atmosphere and as food. A perfect place in my book, is somewhere that feels like a friendly neighbour that you make your weekend haunt and invite your best friends to as often as possible. Well it's safe to say that I wish I lived round the corner from Five Leaves. Scrap that. I wish I lived AT Five Leaves.
It's quirky and shabby and warm and cosy. And just a little bit cool. Despite the early hour and regardless of it being a Friday, it was already full of interesting Brooklynites. As full as it was, they cheerfully squeezed us into a table dressed with beautifully fragrant flowers and maple syryp in antique glass bottles.
The romance continued as my latte arrived in a gigantic mug (not a bowl sadly, but just as big) and we browsed the menu finding more and more delicious things.
What we ate:
I have a sixth sense for finding breakfast dishes which involve spice and avocado and so the Moroccan Scramble was a no brainer for me - a tower of scrambled egg on sourdough , laced with avo, spicy sausage and chick peas. I really enjoyed it, but truthfully if I had it again I would ask them to hold the sausage - it was more mince than wurst and didn't really work with the egg.
Mr Beedub opted for the Big Breakkie - a Brooklyn translation of a full English. The side order of steak was a melt in the mouth must.
Fee chose an unusual dish to start - the Brûléed Grapefruit with house pickled ginger and mint. A refreshing take on what I normally consider as diet food.
She and Yankee then went onto the legendary Ricotta Pancakes - spectacular mounds of fluffy pancakes, bananas, strawberries and blueberries topped with honeycomb butter and maple syrup. The green eyed food monster surfaced and I wished I'd ordered them. Luckily Fee was too full to finish hers, so I polished them off and wow! The butter was utterly butterly delicious.
The most expensive dish is $12 so the food is really reasonable and as it's fabulous to boot this is a must go to.
Oh and there is no real time limit on breakfast.
And according to Fee the loos have amazing soap...
Five Leaves
18 Bedford Avenue
Greenpoint
Brooklyn
11222
Website and Menu
How to Get There
