Do You Brunch?

Friends, I realized something horrible after our most recent trip to NYC.

I need to spice up my brunch game.

When I made this comment to Hubby, he immediately asked if I meant this regarding the places we go for brunch or if I meant literally my brunch game.

The answer, which may possibly surprise you, was ‘both’.

While I have always held the viewpoint that replacing dinner with breakfast is a win win, I have never, ever, gone the route of replacing breakfast and lunch with brunch in my home.* I think I always felt it was too sophisticated a meal for me, and concurrently, one that can only be had in celebration of special occasions or while visiting the city.** And, most importantly, it’s a meal purposefully intended to cut out another meal in the day. Meanwhile, on every single day of my existence, I’m over here like Bilbo Baggins wondering why I haven’t been served Second Breakfast yet, and feeling the rumblings in my tummy when Afternoon Tea is skipped.

*I have, however, served dessert breakfast, a Thanksgiving tradition that more people of the world need to get behind.

**Perhaps the reason why I most often enjoy brunch while in the city.

It is, however, the foods that are served at brunch that draw me to it.

Pancakes, eggs, waffles, bacon, french toast–yes, these are among my favorite things on earth. What makes them so particularly special at brunch is…they get a face lift. They’re presented in the best forms of themselves. Pancakes aren’t pancakes anymore, they’re not even buttermilk pancakes anymore; they’re lemon and ricotta pancakes. Waffles come served with fresh whipped cream and things like berry compote, maple rum butter, and salted caramel drizzle. Eggs are poached and paired with avocado, smoked salmon, or even jumbo lump crab. And, if you are like Hubby and need more protein than these carbohydrate based foods contain, brunch menus also include sandwiches and burgers made in the same spirit as the refined breakfast items.

This is a breakfast pot pie: sausage and bacon hidden beneath a cheddar biscuit top covered with sunny side up eggs 

Though our most recent brunch experience wasn’t horrible, it was anticlimactic, and left me knowing the brunch world has so much more to offer.*

*I also left reminded that in NYC alcohol isn’t served until noon on Sundays–meaning I didn’t get to have the Bellini my heart was set on.

Even though I still look to brunch with an ‘I don’t know what to do with you’ hesitation, I think I’m going to step up my brunch game, at home and while out and about, and see where it leads.