Speaking of Boulangeries - Le Pain Quotidien

I avoid ‘chains.’  Not talking about the medieval versions that make your soul quiver when you play Lord and Serf.  I’m talking about restaurant chains.  Yes, I include Gimmeyerbucks and McBurgers.

Ok.  I do sin occasionally.  And, I swear I’m sorry. Sometimes a man’s gotta have a smack of caffeine anyway he can get it.  But, in the main, when it comes to the big names in fast food, as they say in French, “I defecate upon thy hands with the full force of my churning bowels.

Recently, a close friend introduced me to Le Pain Quotidien, a bakery and coffee shop in the heart of Mons, Belgium.  But, wait a sec…it’s not just in Mons, but in damn near every country that has running water.  Gotta be a mistake.  Can’t be a …dare I mention the word again…CHAIN!  Yes, it is.

Alain Coumont opened his first one in 1990 on 16 Rue Darsaert in Brussels.

What’s so special about Le Pain Quotidien?  How come this chain doesn’t deserve the same retching disgust we reserve for microwave burgers and vending machine coffee?

By the way, in English, Le Pain Quotidien means The Daily Bread.  Daily bread means what it says.  Fresh is the key word.  More than that, everything in this bakery is organic.  Preservatives, flavor enhancers, artificiality, all be damned!

LPQ has the kind of charm that makes you step inside, even if you’ve just finished breakfast.  Authentically, rustic décor.  An irresistible waft of fresh bread. The almost erotic allure of freshly ground coffee. 

You can read all about the history of Le Pain Quotidien on their web page, and also learn where to find the nearest outlet.  http://www.lepainquotidien.com/our-story-history/#.U5WIZhYajwI

But, as always, I’ll give you a thumbnail sketch.  Alain trained as a chef and earned his toque in the same hotel restaurant where his father trained.  But he came by his passion for fresh bread in the best way possible, at his aunt’s knee, baking loaves and tarts on Sunday mornings.  There’s no substitute for the glowing passions you acquire in childhood.

As a chef, he searched all over Brussels for the taste he remembered.  No luck.  Only one thing to do.  Start your own bakery.  His idea was simple:  “Having a place where I can feel at home away from home.”

To me, chains are too often a glitzy failure of artificial atmosphere: an English pub with plastic, pseudo-wood, or a grand old steakhouse, remembered with glass, steel, and recessed lighting.  Doesn’t fool you anymore than replacing a leather basketball with a balloon. Dishonesty comes to mind, followed quickly by stupidity.

Le Pain Quotidien didn’t cut the corners, or introduce a substitute for real charm. It just feels right and inviting.  Lots of old wood, including the counters.  Faded walls look as though they carry the patina of decades.  Chairs creak a bit.  But, the most important part of this bakery is the bread.  Loaves on shelves where you can see them. Fresh. Fresh. Fresh. Crusty and wholesome.

The coffee is dark and rich, without being bitter, or ragged on the edges.  Comes in a bowl, just the way Alain’s hot chocolate did when he was a boy.  Your choice of a large bowl or small.

It was early morning.  I ordered a coffee and a croissant.  Golden. Light. Flaky. Delicious.  Just as a croissant should be.  If you’re thinking crescent roll, get your mind out of the school lunchroom and into somewhere more Gallic.  At LPQ, the croissants are light as air.  Try a smear of orange marmalade, or one of LPQ’s delectable sweet nut spreads. They’re on every table.

You won’t be sorry.  And you’ll find time to linger.  This isn’t just breakfast, this is the start of a beautiful day.

I know I’ve got time.  Who hasn’t got time for another glimpse of childhood on a sunny morning. “Mademoiselle, un autre café, s'il vous plaît.”

Brunch at White Spot

Saturday was the first nice day that fell on a weekend in a long time, so my roommate and I decided to go for a hike.  But we wanted to eat first and opted to go to one of our go-to places for cheap but cheerful food: White Spot.

I have said here before that I love White Spot.  They do great burgers and milkshakes and they do a decent Eggs Benny.  Since it was brunch and I wanted something hearty, I went directly to the brunch menu, pretty sure that I would order the Eggs Benny.  But then something caught my eye: the Santa Fe Breakfast Burrito.  The menu indicated that this was a new item, and here is how it's described on the menu and web site:

Your choice of fresh chicken breast or tender Canadian pulled pork, scrambled Omega 3 eggs, cheese, sautéed tomatoes and green peppers wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla. Served with our trio of sauces – avocado salsa, tomato salsa, cilantro sour cream and red nugget Smashbrowns™.

You know what, I said to myself, let's try something different for once!  So I ordered the burrito and waited with anticipation.

When my plate came, I was underwhelmed by the appearance of the burrito.  Here it is:

 Granted this isn't the greatest shot in the world (the lighting in restaurants in general is suckage and often pics come out crappy-looking), but am I crazy or is this not the most un-exciting dish you've ever seen?  I thought it was very plain and colourless.  I had thought that perhaps there would be cheese and/or sauce ON TOP of the burrito, or something to bring a little life and colour to the dish.  There was not.

The flavour of the dish was also very underwhelming.  Though there were onions & peppers in the filling, the innards of the burrito were poorly seasoned and bland.  It could have used something like a bunch of chili powder, or something flavourful.  Instead, there were the veggies, the chicken strips, the scrambled eggs, a tiny bit of cheese (this whole dish needed way more cheese in general!)  The salsa on the side was a great help; I just wished there was salsa or something inside the burrito.  The corn & avocado salsa was just OK - I'm not a fan of corn off the cob.  But even the salsa didn't have enough kick to it and the sour cream was pretty useless.

I must also say that this is the second or third time I've had these newfandangled red nugget "smashbrowns."  They are not very good!  In fact, they are very boring!  I would much, much rather have had a traditional hashbrown.

So, this was a disappointing meal.  And I'm disappointed that I'm disappointed.  Usually, White Spot is a sure bet - which is why I keep going there - but taking the risk this time and having something new just didn't pay off.  I'll be back to Eggs Benny or a burger the next time I go for brunch.

BTW, my roommate T had the chipotle chicken wrap and she really enjoyed it.  It's one of her faves.  Here it is:

I kept wishing during my meal that I'd ordered the same!

The Full English Breakfast - tradition marches on

The Real Thing

The magnificent hotel reception

Later in the evening the bar gets hoppin'

Everything is bustling at my coffee shop

I like to stay at a rather nice hotel in the Kensington area of London.  Thick towels and a large bath, rooms judged perfect in every way, an exercise room, a full lobby bar that sings and whistles when the sun goes down, and a lavish reception area with mountains of fresh flowers.  The nearest tube station is across the street.

There’s also a sumptuous breakfast room, with plush chairs, an able and attentive wait staff, and a buffet the envy of every restaurant in the city.  But, I don’t dine there for breakfast.  Breakfast isn’t just a meal, it’s a comfortable way to greet the morning, outline the day, and relax before dashing around one of the most wonderful cities on earth.  For all those reasons, I choose to face the breaking dawn with a trip around the corner, across from a pub.  Tucked into a busy side street, there’s a bustling little Italian coffee shop where I can read the morning news and watch London’s commercial heart begin to beat.  Wrapped in tight skirts, hair done perfectly, legs swathed in shimmering stockings, shop girls trail in to grab a white napkin, croissant, and a carton of coffee.  Businessmen, stand in line, adjusting their ties, nervously fingering their cell phones, and using a calf to put a touch of sheen on the toes of their shoes.  Everything in the café is a steaming, aromatic hustle.  Tables along the wall are crammed.  Newcomers fit in where they can. Waiters, male and female, both sorts sporting black and white attire, waltz through the flowing traffic, twisting and turning to deliver plates of this, and cups of that.  “Full English?” a waiter calls out and there’s a nod from a back table.

Behind the bar a cashier scratches out new orders, rakes in cash and delivers change at the speed of sunshine, while another waiter hustles between the fresh orange and the coffee machines.  “Will you have a croissant with your coffee?”  The croissants are light, airy, buttery.  Best rendition outside of Paris.  But, I need something sturdy.  A Full English.

The fresh orange juice machine is a thing of wonder.  A large, gleaming metal basket cradles a few dozen ripe oranges.  On demand, they slide down a chute on either side, allowing the machinery to accurately slice and squeeze.

What is a full English breakfast?  You see the words chalked on menu boards outside every London restaurant and coffee shop that flourishes with the morning trade.  To tell the truth (Have I ever lied to you?  Really?  Well, I meant to correct that.), a full English can mean many things, but here are the basics:  Fresh bread, toasted or fried in butter, an egg or two, sunny side up, a couple of bangers (pork sausages), a couple of slices of very lean bacon, a grilled tomato and grilled mushroom, and baked beans.  Add to that coffee or tea, and fresh orange juice and you have about a thousand or so calories to crank your engine.

I’m told the Full English Breakfast began with the Industrial Revolution, when hearty slaves of industry needed more than gruel and tea to give them strength.  Then came World War I and pork sausage fell victim to the meat shortage.  Bangers marched on stage, still pork sausages, but diluted with bread, pork trimmings, and water.  The water tended to pop during the cooking, hence the name bangers. Another thing to consider if you try to duplicate a full English is that English bacon is nothing like American bacon.  The English version is barely salty, almost like a cured pork chop, sliced to bacon thinness.

 I know that look….that look that begs the question:  So, when did baked beans join the fray?  Seems that happened in the 1960s, courtesy of an ad campaign by Heinz Foods.  Somehow ‘Breakfast of Champions’ morphed to ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz.’  By the way, Heinz baked beans evidently started in the U.K., although I’m sure Bostonians will beg to differ raucously, at the tops of their lungs.

If you’re watching calories or cholesterol, which I insist on calling C², you may want to make up for breakfast by drinking a lot of English ale to boost that HDL.  Write it down and remember to do that.   Another day, I’ll recommend a dozen pubs to add to your list and help you save your heart.

Mastering the Ubiquitous Biscuit

This recipe was handed down by my illustrious ancestor, William the Baker, who in addition to his culinary skills, mastered several foreign languages simply by walking into bars and pinching foreign women’s breasts.  It’s how he learned such useful phrases as ‘cheeky bastard’ in Dutch, and ‘a rolling pin to your poolroom’ in Norwegian.  His name was later shortened to Stubby after pinching the breast of an Irish butcher’s wife.

            But, no matter his shortcomings, he was a hell of a baker and his specialty was biscuits.  This was more than a hundred years before Alfred Bisqslow made his first attempt at formulating Bisquick.  Back then, biscuits were reserved for special occasions such as weddings, divorces, and food fights.

            No longer merely for self-defense, the ubiquitous biscuit has come to mean the warmth and good fellowship of Granny’s kitchen, and a way to keep rambunctious young ‘ums out of the stone jar of lightnin’. So, gather ‘round chillins and let’s make some nice little resting places for creamy butter and fresh fruit jam.

Basic Biscuit Recipe – first take a slow pull outta da jug to activate the brain muffin

Then:  put 2 cups of flour, three tablespoons of baking powder, and a teaspoon of salt in a bowl.  Scramble all them things t-gether.  Next, finely cut in 6 tablespoons of butter.   (If your homestead has lectricity, cheat and use a food processor.)  Add a cup of milk to the flour mixture and stir until you have medium soft dough, not dripping, but not stiff.  Too wet?  Add a little more flour.  Drop the dough onto a floured surface and pat it out to thickness of about half an inch.  Cut into squares or rounds.  Place on an un-greased baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated, 450 degree F oven, unless you’re one of them crafty foreigners, then set your oven at 232 degrees C.  About 12 minutes later, you should be receiving compliments, or if you’re lucky, being called a cheeky bastard

Pancake Tuesday 2011

Tonight was one of my favourite nights on the calendar: Pancake Tuesday. AKA Shrove Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras, AKA Fat Tuesday. As usual, I had a dinner, but this year it was only my dad and me. Because he likes things made with whole grains, I made whole wheat and oatmeal pancake recipe, and because I don't have a griddle or a frying pan of decent size, I turned these into waffles. My dad, as usual, supplied some locally-made sausages & bacon. In this case, they were buffalo English sausages, and the bacon was something a friend of his was experimenting with, but it was way too salty for my taste and it cooked up very strange, causing quick burning & a lot of smoke. There must have been something in the curing solution that made this happen. And of course there was tons of maple syrup!

The recipe for the pancakes/waffles is here, from the February 2008 issue of Gourmet Magazine. and also constitutes my third magazine recipe of the week! I am three for three! I'll be submitting this to Magazine Monday for sure! The recipe turned out great and I'd definitely make them again.

Happy Pancake Tuesday everyone! :)

Magazine Monday #61: Everyday Granola

I am really enjoying making my own granola. I can't remember the last time I purchased boxed cereal, and I kind of think that's a good thing. I have a few granola recipes I've amalgamated into something of my own, but I did take some time to make a new recipe that came out in the June 2010 issue of Bon Appetit.

A word about Bon Appetit. I used to subscribe to both it and Gourmet, but I let my subscription to BA slide because I didn't feel I was getting my money's worth from it, and I thought Gourmet was better bang for my buck. But, as you might know, Gourmet went belly up, and those of us with outstanding subscriptions to it had those subscriptions switched over to BA. I would rather have had a refund, personally, since I had cancelled BA for a reason. Now, my subscription is almost up and I have been bombarded with mail begging me to renew. I won't be. Although I have seen a marked improvement in the content of BA, I am over it and I don't want to spend my money on it anymore. I might, however, consider getting a subscription to the Food Network Magazine, but we'll see.

Anyway, the granola recipe I tried is here. I liked it, but I didn't love it. The spices were nice and it made a larger quantity than my other recipes, but it lacked punch and texture, and though it had nice flavourings in it, I found it a bit bland. I guess the other recipes I use are sweeter and contain a bit more oil, giving them that punchiness I think was missing here. Still, it filled the bill for me and with some yogurt it made a great breakfast, but I think I'll be sticking to my regular recipes.

Haz Waffles!

For Christmas, I asked for and received a lovely new waffle maker! It was a gift from my SIL's parents, C&R, who have always been very kind to me. The new gadget is a Cuisinart, and let me tell you, it makes awesome waffles! Very easy to use, with an alert that tells you when it's heated up, 5 darkness settings, and an alert that tells you when your waffle has been cooked to perfection! And it is truly non-stick. I love this thing so much I have been eating way too many waffles. For the time being, in order to use up stuff in my pantry, I have just been using pancake mixes, but the recipe book that came with the waffle maker contains some seriously amazing-looking stuff that I cannot wait to try!

Christmas Breakfast

So, as if were weren't full enough from the previous night's Christmas Eve feast! Because on Christmas morning, it's time to bring on the Benny!

Yep, we have Eggs Benny on Christmas morning, accompanied by bacon and sausage. Usually, Dad provides the bacon in the form of this double smoked stuff he got from a local butcher, but the butcher closed shop during this past year, so dad no longer had access to his favourite bacon! Well, we made do with regular bacon, and we also had traditional English sausages made by another local butcher (who doesn't smoke anything). The sauce is from a package. The eggs are poached by yours truly. We also had fried potatoes, mimosas, and special coffees with Kahlua!
And we had a great guest for breakfast on Christmas morning, too! His name is Crushy and he's my SIL's friend's dog! He was so great! He's half American Bull Dog, and 1/4 each Pit Bull and Blue Heeler. He was so happy and mushy and just great company!For other Christmas pet shots, go here!

Breakfasts of Champions

Just a light Friday post, featuring some recent breakfasts.

But first, remember that Magazine Monday is coming up this Monday, so if you have made a magazine recipe you'd like me to link to, please send you submissions in by Sunday evening. My email is wandering_coyoteATyahooDOTca. Thanks!

Now, breakfast.

1. Huckleberry Gruel.

Sounds Dickensian - sort of - doesn't it? I think this sounds slightly more interesting than huckleberry oatmeal. But I do have to say, I like my oatmeal a little thinner than most people, so even though it's not as watery as a gruel, it's definitely not the stick-to-your-ribs kind of oatmeal that is more popular. I had this bowl with some maple syrup and it was a great breakfast! I love the colour huckleberries turn everything.

2. Ah, left over Chinese food - the breakfast of champions! On Monday, I went out on a girls night to have dinner & see a movie. Since the big theatre is in Castlegar, we chose to go to Chopsticks for dinner. Because of my appetite issues, this was great for me because I had such a wide variety of things to choose from, and I made sure to get stuff that I could take home as decent leftovers, too. I love leftover Chinese food for breakfast, just like I love leftover pizza for breakfast! So, I got a Wor Won Ton (the best!), only ate half of it, and had the rest wrapped up, and I got a combination plate that included chow mein, deep fried prawns, sweet & sour pork, and beef with greens. Excellent! I ate half of it, too, and brought the rest home for breakfast. It was fabulous!

Breakfast at the Full Circle Cafe

Last Monday, after catching the 9:00am ferry from Crawford Bay to Balfour, my dad treated me, Jem, & Shan to a slap-up breakfast at a breakfast hot spot in Nelson. When I say "hot spot" I mean hot spot. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table just after 10:00 in the morning. The place was packed. Luckily, the restaurant is located in a little mall, and there was somewhere inside to sit because the weather was totally ugly.

The breakfast menu at Full Circle is quite varied, with a few different types of Eggs Benny, lots of eggy dishes, and lots of other stuff. It's all reasonably priced, too.

I had the Canadian Omelette, which had bacon, cheddar, and portabella mushrooms in it, topped with Hollandaise. Served with sourdough and pan fries, and I had a side of Hollandaise since the little bit on th top of the omelette was inadequate for my tastes!

Shan had a dish called Spuds & Cheddar: kinda like an omelette, but with potatoes in it. It was served with pan fries & toast, & she also had a side of Hollandaise.

Dad & Jem both had the Kick Hash: eggs, buffalo sausage, potatoes, banana peppers, mozzarella cheese, and topped with a chipotle Hollandaise. Served with rye toast & pan fries.

It was one amazing breakfast! A great way to end a great weekend of camping and food.

Dad and I have also had lunch at the Full Circle and it was really good. So, this is another great place to eat in the Kootenay dining mecca of Nelson, BC.

Breakfast at the Sunshine Cafe

This morning I got together with three old friends from high school. T now lives in Vancouver, but she was in town this week to visit family. This morning was the only time the four of us could all get together for some girl time and gabbing. We chose to have breakfast at one of Rossland's well-known eateries, The Sunshine Cafe. I've previously reviewed the Sunshine here and here, and this was the first time I've had breakfast there. I'd heard only good things about it.



The menu is a la carte and each item is individually-priced. I had two eggs ($2), hashbrowns ($2), three bacon ($2), and toast ($2). The hashbrowns had sweet potatoes in them, which I don't like, and next time I wouldn't order them. The scrambled eggs were a little strange-looking but tasted good. For $10 it was a good amount of food and I came away satisfied.








P had two eggs basted, sausage, hash browns and toast.











T had two eggs over easy, bacon, and hashbrowns.












My most excellent friend, Budgirl, who has not blogged in eons, had something a bit different: the Western Denver, also with hashbrowns, and a side of tzadziki (huh???). Budgirl marches to the beat of her own drummer!





A good time was had by all, and once again The Sunshine Cafe delivered!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

I often feel guilty about eating pancakes - except on Pancake Tuesday - because they're such a junky meal. I don't eat them that often as a result. But, when I came across this recipe on a new food blog I discovered called Colleen's Recipes, I was wowed. Guilt-free pancakes! Who'd've thunk it?

The recipe can be found here.

The only substitution I made was an equal amount of maple syrup instead of the honey. I am low on honey and am hoarding it because it's expensive. Otherwise, these were great pancakes. Though a bit crumbly, they still managed to be light and cakey despite the whole grains.

Thanks Colleen!