Food Breakfast

The Red Lion Freehouse (in Chisenbury) did a very good breakfast, including a bottle of Vodka and another of Sparkling Wine alongside the various juices, so you could mix your own Bloody Mary or Bucks Fizz!

More recently, The Angel Hetton now does a tasting menu style breakfast which is good fun.
 
I'm always up for a full English, though eggs poached often preferred. A great favourite is Balinese Babur Ayam, a soft rice porridge made with chicken stock, shredded chicken, multitude of herbs, crispy fried shallots, coriander...I have tried to make this here but the depth and richness is missing, maybe our chickens lack the necessary. Not unlike congee but better, and a certain post drink pick me up.
 
A great favourite is Balinese Babur Ayam, a soft rice porridge made with chicken stock, shredded chicken, multitude of herbs, crispy fried shallots, coriander...I have tried to make this here but the depth and richness is missing, maybe our chickens lack the necessary. Not unlike congee but better, and a certain post drink pick me up.
Is that very thick, Alistair? I had horrible thick congee in Indonesia but it's a big country. Cantonese-style congee is something I eat for breakfast much more than anything else, no meat or stock usually but a lot of ginger, spring onions and coriander and whatever else I fancy.One of the things I like about it is that it gives me plenty of eating to do without any digestive sleepiness, unlike the 'full English' which is best followed by a return to bed.
 
I remember many years ago having a boozy breakfast - well, brunch I suppose - at Providores in Marylebone with Linden Wilkie, CP Lin and several others whom I can't quite remember. It was long enough ago that Linden and CP were excitedly ordering "flat whites" from the waitress and none of the rest of us had any idea what they were talking about. I don't remember what we drank. Or ate, although I think there were serious quanities of pancakes and bacon. But then I probably didn't remember later the same day either.
Here's the bill from that breakfast (2006, so not the greatest of photos by today's standards):providores15-7-06.jpg

I recall having Bacon French toast for dessert.
 
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I'll second the St John B&W Bacon sandwich.

But I also love going to Maison Bertaux for a breakfast of café au lait and almond croissant.

Also used to like a lox & cheese bagel, a chopped herring bagel, and a doughnut from Brick Lane on a Sunday morning.

But I have now upped my lox and cheese bagel game with Goldstein's salmon and the truffled cream cheese that Butlers (of Blacksticks Blue fame) make for M&S.
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I remember many years ago having a boozy breakfast - well, brunch I suppose
There is something quite invigorating about a boozy start to the day - probably because you know you shouldn't really be doing it!

I guess it depends on the day of course - Saturdays/Sundays seem to be ok and not frowned upon too much, although I do recall a rather splendid Monday morning in Wetherspoons in Lewisham which verged on the masochistic. I arrived with a friend at 9:30am and already there were a few solitary geezers 2-3 pints down already.

Edit: for those wondering "why Lewisham spoons on a Monday morning?" - basically because my friend and myself were discussing it and said "I wonder what kind of person goes to Lewisham 'Spoons on a Monday morning?"

Could be the start of some weird circular, self-referential shaggy dog story
 
the breakfast I miss the most is a double espresso with a Gitane, "sur le zinc" somewhere in Paris, thankfully now illegal...
It's really a very long time since France and in particular Paris smelled of brown tobacco. By the 1990s it was boring old Marlboro and now of course prohibition is in force, but who can forget the overwhelmingly ripe smell of Gitanes and unwashed bodies in the Paris metro? it often occurs to me that were we transported back in history it is the pungence of aroma in all areas of life that would most discomfort us.
I would pay quite a lot for a packet of the long discontinued Gauloises 'Disque Bleu'.

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The Wykham Arms Winchester, under the late Great Graeme Jameson was legendary.

a Bloody Mary offered , a buffet of lovely cooled Emmentnal that with the finest ham carved off the bone and then a superb full English.

it was a great institution under him. The bricks and Mortar are still lovely bur he made it what it was.
His Funeral at the Cathedral, was attended by over a 1000, from all strata of society In the city.
 
the pungence of aroma in all areas of life that would most discomfort us.
maybe..when I travelled a lot ("back in the day"), every airport or its surroundings had its own distinctive smell...coffee and "les brunes" in France; cloves in Jakarta; fried food and sugary carbs in the USA; diesel fumes in Manila etc., but I have no idea if this has changed. We underestimate the importance of smell, as anyone who has had covid will verify...
 
Great idea for a thread, I love a well executed cooked breakfast done well but as a regular business traveller so many hotels get this wrong. Soggy hashed browns sweating over a pan of boiling water under a glass lid, Shrivelled and dry sausages, fried eggs so hard you could use them as a frisbee. I tend to avoid.

My hybrid international cooked breakfast would include:

> US dinner proper grated potato hash browns
> Fried eggs over easy with very runny yolks
> Fried bread
> Heinz baked beans (not too much sauce)
> Couple of rashers of crispy US streaky bacon
> Couple of rashers of appropriately salty UK back bacon ideally smoked
> A decent quality sausage

Sorry no need to black pudding for me.

Proper freshly squeezed orange juice and decent coffee to accompany for me.
 
Great idea for a thread, I love a well executed cooked breakfast done well but as a regular business traveller so many hotels get this wrong. Soggy hashed browns sweating over a pan of boiling water under a glass lid, Shrivelled and dry sausages, fried eggs so hard you could use them as a frisbee. I tend to avoid.

My hybrid international cooked breakfast would include:

> US dinner proper grated potato hash browns
> Fried eggs over easy with very runny yolks
> Fried bread
> Heinz baked beans (not too much sauce)
> Couple of rashers of crispy US streaky bacon
> Couple of rashers of appropriately salty UK back bacon ideally smoked
> A decent quality sausage

Sorry no need to black pudding for me.

Proper freshly squeezed orange juice and decent coffee to accompany for me.
Could Sir be tempted to add mushrooms?
 
So very hard to get though....Hands up I am of the Can't cook won't cook school.

I particularly like the Kedgeree served at The Wolseley and have had great success using their recipe. Perhaps you could convince someone to cook it for you?!

Sauce Ingredients:
500ml Double Cream
5g Cumin Seeds
5g Curry Powder – Mild
1L Fish Stock
10g Garlic
30g Ginger
50g Madras Curry Paste
75g Whole Onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce Method
1. Peel the onions, ginger and garlic and dice finely.
2. In a large flat bottomed pan cook the vegetables in vegetable oil for 5 minutes, until soft. Do not allow to colour.
3. Add the curry powder and cumin seeds; cook for 3 more minutes. Stir and do not allow to catch.
4. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring for 2 more minutes.
5. Add the fish stock and reduce by three quarters. Water and a fish stock cube can be a good alternative.
6. Add the double cream and simmer for 10mins until thickened. Blend and pass through a sieve.
7. Season with salt and pepper.

Kedgeree Ingredients
500ml Kedgeree Sauce
A Soft Poached Egg
400g Smoked Haddock, cooked in Milk and flaked x ½ bunch Parsley, chopped
250g (uncooked weight) Basmati Rice

Kedgeree Method
1. Cook the rice as per packet instructions with 1 level tea spoon of ground turmeric.
2. Warm the sauce and add the rice until you have the correct consistency. Should be similar to a thick rice pudding.
3. Add the smoked haddock and gently warm through. Finish the kedgeree with the chopped parsley, salt and pepper, top with a soft poached egg and serve.



P.S. I have been known to reduce the amount of cream, however, if you are that way disinclined then a second bottle of champagne should provide an equivalent textural balance.
 
I particularly like the Kedgeree served at The Wolseley and have had great success using their recipe. Perhaps you could convince someone to cook it for you?!

Sauce Ingredients:
500ml Double Cream
5g Cumin Seeds
5g Curry Powder – Mild
1L Fish Stock
10g Garlic
30g Ginger
50g Madras Curry Paste
75g Whole Onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce Method
1. Peel the onions, ginger and garlic and dice finely.
2. In a large flat bottomed pan cook the vegetables in vegetable oil for 5 minutes, until soft. Do not allow to colour.
3. Add the curry powder and cumin seeds; cook for 3 more minutes. Stir and do not allow to catch.
4. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring for 2 more minutes.
5. Add the fish stock and reduce by three quarters. Water and a fish stock cube can be a good alternative.
6. Add the double cream and simmer for 10mins until thickened. Blend and pass through a sieve.
7. Season with salt and pepper.

Kedgeree Ingredients
500ml Kedgeree Sauce
A Soft Poached Egg
400g Smoked Haddock, cooked in Milk and flaked x ½ bunch Parsley, chopped
250g (uncooked weight) Basmati Rice

Kedgeree Method
1. Cook the rice as per packet instructions with 1 level tea spoon of ground turmeric.
2. Warm the sauce and add the rice until you have the correct consistency. Should be similar to a thick rice pudding.
3. Add the smoked haddock and gently warm through. Finish the kedgeree with the chopped parsley, salt and pepper, top with a soft poached egg and serve.



P.S. I have been known to reduce the amount of cream, however, if you are that way disinclined then a second bottle of champagne should provide an equivalent textural balance.
Many thanks Will,
I will report back with how Debbi gets on with this:)
 
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