Just want to send a quick post. I have been traveling a bunch, what else is new, and I was in a hotel in Texas for breakfast before heading to work. I ordered an omelet at the omelet station. Before he was finished making my western omelet I noticed he had a waffle iron. The last homemade waffle I had was on the ship. They always made perfectly round and crispy waffles. With that in mind, I ended up ordering one. When he put it on my plate I couldn’t believe the shape. Only in Texas! Oh and yes, they go big in Texas, I could only finish southern Texas.

I wish he put the waffle on my plate so Texas was facing the right way.

Not exactly. I just couldn’t bring myself to whack down a chicken and waffles plate at 9am on a Thursday. Although the rainy New York morning gave me a good excuse, the Bikram Yoga class planned for tonight won the short synapse battle. There could be nothing worse than trying to sweat out molasses and waffle while in standing-head-to-knee pose. What I opted for instead was more of a breakfast than the aforementioned dinner-breakie mash up. Above is the Eggs Armadillo, a poached egg on top of a buttermilk biscuit, covered in sausage gravy. It’s not exactly the morning fuel Slim Goodbody preached to me as a kid but pretty damn satisfying. It’s been a very quiet secret that I’ve been holding lunch meetings and late night snack fixes at the 50′s style tables of Hill Country Chicken for the last 5 months. So, I am no stranger to the finer, fattier side of their menu. When they announced breakfast a few months ago I instantly started looking for the opportunity to blow up the morning with some of their delights. The menu fills out well with fatty pastries, donuts and a set of sides that could outshine your main event. Take a peek and schedule a visit. I’ll most likely be at the back table holding a leg.

I took the opportunity to write a headline that is truly global since my wife was determined to make breakfast for dinner this weekend.

For those avid readers this needs little explanation. For the new comers, my wife was born in the UK. This adequately explains her admiration for anything British, particularly bangers.

Her idea to cook a full English breakfast for dinner came immediately after I informed her of my Living Social coupon to Myers of Keswick. $10 got us $20 worth of necessary provisions at the little West Village shop. On a side note, I’m not sure you have to pay full price for anything anymore. Counter clockwise from the top:

1. Fried tomato – simple and necessary for any full English

2. Mushrooms – these were portobellos sautéed in dark beer

3. Heinz beans – Nothing but Heinz will do when making a true full English breakfast. If your are in the know there isn’t even a debate, but we can start one below if any of you would like to battle the merits of different baked bean brands.

4. Banger – Getting it’s name from occasionally bursting apart while cooking, my wife chooses to boil them first then saute to finish. Most British sausage contain a bit of breadcrumbs which seperate them from other regional sausages.

5. Cumberland sausage – My personal favorite. Lighter on the breadcrumbs and a bit more peppery than the banger. The big distinction here is that the meat is chopped not minced giving the sausage a chunkier texture and appearance.

6. Chipolata – A foreigner to a full English plate but we added it for fun. This sausage is derived from France and translates to “with onions”. The texture was a bit soft for me but those who like the breadcrumbs in bangers will love this.

7. Sunnyside Up Eggs – Great for a good yoke. I always cover with a lid so that the top cooks just enough to hold the yoke together. It’s mandatory to have a good yoke with a full English. See #8.

8. Fried Bread – This might be the best thing on the plate. It’s simply bread fried in butter but it makes everything else on the dish shine. Dip, sop and layer the rest of the plates goodies on a bit of fried bread and it has an amazing way of bringing out all the other flavors. Best of all, break those beautiful yolks with the corner of a piece.

9. English Bacon – Myers sold us a very lean cut which offsets the sausage rather nicely. This is typical of full English’s but our cut was even leaner than the traditional. Tough not to over cook but it was prepared with perfection.

A successful international twist on a regular old Sunday dinner made for quite the food adventure. The advice in all of this, besides marry someone who can cook, is to pick a country and then go find a speciality shop selling the chosen countries food. It makes for an interesting journey finding your food with a delicious, ethic conclusion. What’s your country going to be? Tell us your favorite specialty shop in the comments below.

As promised this post is all about the food at my wedding. Although, it is 3 months tardy. I can’t really believe how quickly the time has past. I am not exactly sure what happened but a little 48 hour mini-honeymoon in Philadelphia this weekend (stay tuned for that post soon) reminded me of what happens when my wife and I are left to plan eating a day at a time. Before we get into all this I feel compelled to give some of you a bit more context on the days events. First off, I married the Canadian. I have been coy in keeping her identity a bit secret over the years in this blog. Now that she is officially in the family you can expect some guest posts.

The Canadian, in case you have not followed the sloppy hidden path backwards to her identity, is of pure Indian decent. Her wonderful parents, my new in-laws, are from Bangalore and Mysore so her South Indian roots run deep. This has everything to do with the day starting with a traditional South Indian breakfast in the Gnesha temple in flushing Queens. The fact that we visited a year prior just to eat in the temple canteen, as did Tony Bourdain, heavily influenced our decision to have our ceremony here. Breakfast was straight from the heart of what South Indians eat daily and the preparation was extremely authentic.

Medhu Vada are a traditional South Indian morning snack that come in many, many varieties. Depending on what part of what Indian state you are in they can be made of dal, lentil, gram flour or potato. Ours were spiced with onion and plumped up to perfection giving them a unique Queens, New York twist.

Idlis are steamed rice cakes that make an appearance at almost every Indian breakfast. Along side a series of chutney’s and sauces these firm, neutral tasting gems absorb the flavor of the dipping elements and convert each bite into a sweet or savory morsel. Along with these two classics were a tray of delicious Masala dosas and a giant vat of masala chai. Both classic in preparation and authentic in taste. These hearty provisions were just the thing to get us and our guests through the next one and a half hours of ceremony. Clearly an abridged version of the traditional 3 day ceremony but a hunger inducing 90 minutes none the less.

After the smoking Ghee had cleared the mundap and the rice and flowers were cleaned from our hair we headed from Queens to Manhattan shifting from tradition to modernity. Our destination was Ustav restaurant in midtown. We had worked with this Michelin rated establishment to craft the perfect blend of contemporary Indian dishes so that our mostly non-Indian crowd could get a taste of how amazing the flavors and textures could be. As the room filled up our first selections appeared being walked around the room on silver platters as if they were presenting royal jewels. But we are eaters, so we all dug in. First up…

Vegetable samosa, Pakoras and Lasuni Gobhi. That was followed by heaping trays of kebabs. Chicken Hariyali Kebab, Chicken Malai Kebab and  Lamb Seekh Kebab to be exact. One of the wonderful things about Indian cooking is it’s unique flavors. It is truly a cuisine that can wake a taste bud into curiosity. The Lasuni Gobhi, or Manchurian style cauliflower, did just that. An American taste bud relates this dish closest to General Tso’s Chicken from the local  Chinese delivery joint on the corner. Indian-Americans know that Chinese Indian food is a mash up that is more a product of their norther neighbor than a Chinese staple. Ustav takes it up a notch by using fresh cauliflower and a light fry keeping the flavors fresh but getting a solid crunch as your incisors close in.

After our guests had successfully gouged on the passed trophy orderves it was time for the main event. A 42 foot table cut through the center of the room holding 12 ornate chaffing dishes each containing a different hand picked specialty by the Canadian and myself.

Our guests happily lined up ready for the next round as we snuck off to a small corner table to sample our choices first hand. Who says you never eat at your own wedding. Not us. The hand picked selections fall in line as follows.

ALOO GOBHI is a dry Indian and Pakistani cuisine dish made with potatoes, cauliflower and Indian spices. It is yellowish in color, due to the use of turmeric, and occasionally contains kalonji and curry leaves. A mix of garlic, ginger, onion, coriander stalks, tomato, peas, and cumin add to the color and flavor of the veggie staple.

SAAG PANEER is a smooth, exotically spiced Indian cooked spinach dish sprinkled liberally with sizable chunks of a firm cheese much like farmers cheese.
NAVRATAN KORMA is a vegetarian korma made with vegetables and either paneer or nuts. Kormas are yogurt based and usually toe a line very close to a curry.

CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA is a curry dish of tandoori boneless chicken breast served in a creamy, lightly spiced tomato based sauce.

LAMB ROGAN JOSH is an aromatic lamb dish hailing from Kashmir and is quite popular in India. Rogan means oil in Persian, while josh means heat, hot, boiling, or passionate. Hence, rogan josh meaning cooked in oil at intense heat.

PEAS PULAO is simply basmati rice with peas, fried onion and saffron. Simple and delicious.

CHANA MASALA is a curry chick pea dish popular mainly in the Punjab region of northern-India. It is commonly cooked dry, with tangy spices but ours was excitingly a bit on the saucy side.

CHICKEN BIRYANI is a classic world dish. Like sausage almost every regional cuisine around the world has a variation on this rice and chicken combination. I’ve practiced my hand with a few variations of my own but this plate was strictly, perfectly South Indian.

No Indian buffet is complete with out the fresh naan. Like the white bread slice that comes with a classic slab of BBQ ribs, this heavenly dough napkin doubles as a sponge and sops up all the loose sauce so you don’t miss a drop.

Satiated and over stuffed there was one more part to this course trifector. A 4-tier red velvet cake had sat creamily and quietly in the corner during the entire afternoon. It was finally time for this king of confections to roll to the main stage.

Accompanying this rouge monster of moistness were a few traditional Indian sweets. This creamy and sweet mango mouse and the donut-hole-like gulab jamun rounded out the impeccably prepared Indian menu.

As the afternoon came to an end my beautiful new wife and I said our goodbyes to our much loved friends and family and escaped for a little rest in a nearby hotel complete with an expansive Central Park view and a jacuzzi tub. Secretly we five fingered a huge piece of our red velvet cake from the restaurant without our parents seeing. Staring deeply at us from the ultra modern couch in our suite room, the cake called us to be eaten. We broke down indulging with our fingers like two unsupervised five-year-olds before passing out on the ultra-white, super-stuffed, 1000 thread count, goose down everything, California King. Waking up a few hours later after our suger high burned off we both agreed that we had just experienced one of the best days of our lives from both an experience and a gastronomical perspective. Life tastes good.

Around the corner from our hotel was a breakfast place called Toast. Although breakfast is not usually a meal that I normally blog about I thought this was such an outstanding egg sandwich, even though the staff got my order wrong…. twice…. it was delicious. I ordered the Jumbo Breakfast Sandwich which is two eggs, melted cheese and your choice of bacon, sausage links or ham on toast or a homemade buttermilk biscuit. I asked for scrambled eggs and sausage on a biscuit but what I got was eggs over easy and bacon. They took it back and brought me the sandwich with sausage but the eggs were still over easy. I was starving at that point and the sandwich looked dam good the way it was so I dug in. That may have been one of the best egg sandwiches I have ever had. It was messy because of the egg yoke but the mess was well worth it.

The southerner had her favorite, a biscuit, bacon and an egg. She made her famous bacon biscuit sandwich and was in just as much food heaven as I was.

We toast to Toast!

Each week my ship’s homeport is in San Diego. We are there pretty early in the morning and the southerner’s parents were coming to visit. We met them at their hotel, the Holiday Inn across the street from the ship. We checked in their bags to the hotel and wanted to go get some brunch. I went up to the hotel’s front desk and ask “If you were going to go to brunch what restaurant would you want to go to?” Without hesitation she said Richard Walkers.

Richard Walkers is in the Gaslamp district of San Diego. When we arrived there was a line around the restaurant to get in. The line didn’t take to long but when we got in we were ready for a feast. Richard Walkers is known for their huge portion and different types of pancakes. I ordered a baked pecan and cinnamon pancake. It was huge and it was served all fluffed up and as it cooled the fluff began to fall. It was delicious. I’ve never seen a baked pancake before.

Two weeks later my parents came to visit and the southerner and I took them to, where else but, Richard Walkers. As you have seen above my father ordered a German Pancake, which is served with lemon and powdered sugar. Not your traditional pancake. It comes with a flat center and puffed around the edges, kind of like a pizza. In the center you spread butter and squeeze lemons for the lemon juice and then top it off with powdered sugar.

I thought this was going to be horrible, but then I tasted it and could not believe my taste buds. What a great combination. Definitely the highlight of the meal. The rest below are our honorable mentions for the rest of the meal. All delicious but not as out of the ordinary as the German Pancake.

Chocolate Chip Flap Jacks

Omelet

Eggs Benedict

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 65 | Post-meal (1 hour): 106 | Insulin: 4 Units

This Blog is rated X and so is the restaurant I went to in Vancouver.

My buddy Sean Bell got off a ship in Vancouver about a week ago and has been vacationing in Vancouver ever since. Sean has been to Vancouver many times and wanted to meet up for brunch. He has been to a restaurant called The Elbow Room Café on Davie St. and loves the food there. That is all he mentioned to me was the good food, he didn’t mention the type of X-rated service we were going to get with the food.

The Elbow Room Café is owned by Patrick and Brian and has seen it’s fair share of celebrities walk in and out of their café. Some of the food is named after them, like the Tom Select Burger. Brian is the low spoken owner and Partick is the loud and extremely entertaining owner. Davie Street is considered the gay district in Vancouver. These two owners have been partners for years and the things that come out of their mouth are hysterically entertaining. Patrick especially! Patrick greeted Sean and I at the door by saying “Hi Ladies, just the two of you?” After we sat for a couple minutes he took our order “What can I get you ladies?” I need a couple minutes to soak this in. I had not even looked at the menu yet. From there it got worse. Everything had a sexual innuendo to it. It kept me smiling and laughing the entire meal hearing how he would talk to the other tables. This place is great fun and very X-rated. Just check their website.

Sean and I looked at the menu and decided to share the banana nut bread French toast with strawberries and the breakfast burrito. We were not sure if it would be enough food so I asked Patrick how big the burrito was and he said, “It’s the biggest thing you will ever put in your mouth honey!” Sean told him I was a straight man and Patrick started to say more dirty things to me. It was cracking me up. He even insulted my man hood. It was all in fun and quite an amazing café with a flair for the verbally XXX.

Breakfast Burrito, yes it was big and came with a bowl of tiny potatoes

Banana Nut Bread French Toast (Uncle Bri you have to try this with your banana nut bread)

One of the policies of The Elbow Room Café is if you don’t clean your plate then you need to make a donation to A Loving Spoonful. A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven, non-partisan Society that provides free, nutritious meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Vancouver. We made a little donation with our meal but lets just say I leaned my plate….Sean.

Here is a picture of Patrick, Sean and myself. If you look at Patrick and my face you may be able to see what is happening at that moment. Yes, Patrick is feeling my butt.

Patrick, Brian and Sean, thanks for the fun and great food.

Memorial Day weekend in NYC is awesome. I love to stay in the city because everyone else leaves. It makes me feel like I am living in Phili or Providence or New York in 1962 (sort of). So, with the mass exodus, I took advantage and headed to a place that would normally be more crowded then a Walmart during a “Door Buster” sale. My destination was the now semi-famous, Montreal bagel and Jewish smoked meat spot, Mile End. The above bagel, with cream cheese, lox, red onion, capers and tomato, was tasty. I didn’t have any meat (one thing they are very famous for) because I arrived before noon. The line was short. I definitely need to come back and try the smoked meat to make a more complete assessment of the Mile End fare. My one wish for my next visit is that the person who takes my order acts a bit more like my friend Seth’s Grandma than a starving artist, hipster wearing an “I am more entitled than you” t-shirt.

Everyone loves a surprise. Well…most people do. At the root of surprise is discovery. Most of the time is boils down to a moment. Like the moment you sip your glass of soda only to realize you grabbed someone else glass of milk. But, sometimes, when we are really lucky, that discovery unfolds with multiple moments over time. I happened upon a bustling scene yesterday morning on a quiet strip of Franklin St. in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. For a Sunday morning there was a lot of activity in what appeared to be a vacant store front. I could not help but let the moment sweep me up as the discovery unfolded before my eyes and then straight into my stomach. The above explains it all.

NOTE: I left my camera at home so this whole video had to be shot on an iPhone. Not bad. I added the pro VO to hide the crappy video quality. I sort of like the juxtaposition.

Flying into SEATAC airport in Seattle leaves you with few options for some early morning chow. Asking the locals came through again when I was directed to this “frozen-in-time” pancake house with a German surprise.