My system must have been more resilient than I gave it credit for. The appetite's back & we are hungry!
Breakfast this morning was a piece of dorayaki (pancakes with red bean filling), a cup of milky tea & a banana shared with husband. Not terribly exciting but wait, I have saved some pictures of yummy breakfasts from our trip to London.
Such as salt beef sandwiches on rye bread from The Brass Rail in Selfridges. A trip to Selfridges just seem incomplete without a fix, well alright, a game pie from the food hall would make a good substitute but husband has never stayed long enough in the UK to acquire a taste for such foods. Anyway, half a sandwich is more than an adequate serving for me, the full version is ginormous. The gherkin is a must, it's sharp bite and crunchy texture contrasts nicely with the soft, slightly salty meat. I've had other salt beef sandwiches in London, even going all the way to Golders Green, but I like this version most. Along with a mug of milky tea, we were set for a day of shopping.
Incidentally, with the weak pound, certain brands e.g. Chanel or Gap, worked out cheaper if bought in the UK than Europe. The pound must have fallen too quickly for retailers to adjust the prices and the savings were quite considerable. No Chanel for me, but I stocked up on Gap pyjamas and clothes for V.
The Sunday before CNY, it rained cats and dogs, so we stayed put in Islington. C recommended two possibilities for breakfast. The Angel Inn on St John St, or The Breakfast Club on Camden Passage. We chose Angel Inn because I haven't been to a good old-fashioned fry-up place in ages. Full English sets were going for 4.90 GBP, all served with a hot beverage and buttered toasts.
Husband's set included mushrooms and a burger. Plus chips, which V was not used to because they were fat and did not have a big surface area to pick up ketchup. Too bad. I helped myself to the fat chips, dousing them with loads of malt vinegar and salt, ahh, they were very good.
My set included sausages and bacon. I substituted fried mushroom for bubble- short for bubble & squeak which is a fried hash of potatoes and cabbage. It was all very tasty and wholesome, and we thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast. As is also usual after such a meal, we didn't think we need to eat like this for at least another year.
Later on, walking past The Breakfast Club and seeing the long queue of people waiting in the rain and the ambitious menu (mexican and aussie dishes, organic this and that, pork of this pedigree, oats of that lineage blah blah blah) posted outside, we patted ourselves on our backs for having made the right choice.
On the last morning, I decided I needed to eat something relatively healthy. After five days of relatively intense Cantonese, Malaysian, Taiwanese, Thai and Indian foods, a plate composed of nothing more than sweet onions and roast beets from Ottolenghi in Upper Street, Islington, really stated to seem appealing.
Unfortunately, we were too early for their salads, they were still serving breakfast. There were not too many choices in the menu- bread board, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, and porridge. Porridge? Alrighty-then, let's see how good their porridge is that they dare to put it in their menu.
In the meantime our coffees arrive, and we picked on a savoury muffin of pinenuts and tomatoes. Husband's scrambled eggs was served first, the eggs were of such a brilliant yellow-orange hue I wondered whether they painted the colour on. It was yummy, we were not expecting otherwise, but a little boring.
My porridge, when it arrived, was another thing altogether. It was actually beautiful to look at, I gasped when I saw it.
I drizzled some cream, it looked even more delicious, so I dug in. Wow! I have to concede they make better porridge than I can. Very smooth and soft like how I would cook mine (starting with water and finishing with semi-skimmed milk, stirring endlessly over a low flame), but probably whole milk or even cream to give that creamy and luscious texture. The nuts were still a little warm from their wee toasting, making them just that bit nuttier and sweeter, and the maple syrup of a good quality to both sweeten and add depth to the flavours. It was improbably delicious, such a simple dish, and I managed to finish nearly all of it.
Come to think of it, we haven't had porridge at home for a while. I might make some this weekend.
